The Way, the Truth, and the Life

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, except through Me” (John 14:6).

I AM THE WAY

Jesus is the way to eternal life. He is the way to forgiveness of our sins. Jesus is the way for us to be holy and blameless before Him in love. Jesus is the way to peace of mind for us by knowing that this world is not all there is. We all long for a place where peace and safety exist, a place where no one does harm to their neighbor. We long for a place where love is all there is around us. Jesus is the way to all of these things. He wants us to have the desire and determination to follow Him and trust Him. Jesus is the only way; we cannot get there except through Him. He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth; He has the words of eternal life and there is nowhere else to go to find them.

When Jesus says, “I am the way,” that means that He has the map. Anything you do in this world you are going to need the map to get there, and you are going to have to do what it says to get there. Jesus has the map for us and it is His word. When Jesus says to keep His commandments that means that He has the map and we have to read it to see what His commandments say for us to do.

THE TRUTH

Jesus says that He is the truth. This means that everything that He says is the way it is. When He says that “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16), it is the truth. Whoever says anything else is a liar. We need to listen and take seriously what Jesus says because it is and will be just the way He says it will be. Don’t think He doesn’t mean it when He says, “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Adam and Eve did not take seriously what God told them not to do. They followed the reasoning of Satan that God will not do what He says He will do, and they ate from the tree that God told them not to eat from.

We all long for the truth for just about any situation we are involved in. We all want to know what really happened in anything we are interested in. Jesus comes along, knowing that we all have that longing for the truth in us and says to the world, “I am the truth you are longing for. I have what everyone desires.”

THE LIFE

Jesus says He is the life. We hear people say from time to time on vacation at a certain place or at a beautiful resort: “this is the life.” We can sometimes get a taste of what we all long for every once in a while for just a few moments. When Jesus says He is the life, He is saying He has something for us that surpasses all understanding and beyond all comprehension. No matter what you dream about having in this world, that life is not here. There is nothing in this world that can compare with what Jesus has for us if we do what He says. Jesus is the source of all life. Nothing can live without Jesus giving it life.

We all need to strive to follow His word because He is the life. Jesus says that “man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). He is the power and the only power in which everything exists everywhere. Where else can we go when Jesus has the words of eternal life?

Just as we all long for truth, we all long for life. We all want to be free from pain and the sorrow of growing old and dying. We all have a hunger to keep on living, just like we long for food to give us energy to keep us going. Jesus knows that we all long for life. Jesus comes along, knowing this longing that we all have and says, “I am the life. I am and have what the whole world longs for and needs.”

So when Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He is saying that He is and has what the whole world is longing for because He created us and knows us better than anyone else. Jesus longs for us to come to Him and believe in Him and follow Him because He has what we need for the possession of eternal life. Jesus says there is no other way to get there, it is through Him and no one else. Thank God for this indescribable gift!

~From Marc Hyde