Christ is the Way

(John 14:6 KJV) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Above is a verse which we have probably heard quoted hundreds of times. Unfortunately, whenever we have a popular verse we tend to view it as common and consider ourselves to understand it fully. When we look at our verse today, one of the major points that it teaches is that Christianity is an exclusive faith. Christianity is not an “everyone goes to heaven” religion. Jesus is pointing out that outside of Him, there is no way to get to heaven, there is no truth, and there is no life. Have you ever looked at it in that way? Jesus also reveals something very clannish in this verse, that no one will ever approach the Father except through Him. This is because the blood of Christ washes away all the sin in the redeemed and only then is a person qualified to come into the presence of the Father. This is what the whole sacrificial system pointed to in the Old Testament. The High Priest, Aaron, represented Christ who intercedes to the Father for us. Aaron interceded only for the nation of Israel. Christ only intercedes for those that are His. (John 17:9 KJV) I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. It is this type of verse which is neglected by the “universal salvationists” inside the church. Christ is not praying for those He did not redeem but only for those He did.

This is why this verse reveals that Christ is the way, not a way. If Christ is only praying for His own, then He is the way and not a way. Outside of Christ, there is no salvation so there can be no secondary way for a person to go to Heaven. Everybody sings the praises of Mother Teresa that she was such a good Christian, but she is now awaiting the judgment for her sins because she put her faith in a vile religious system, she did not seek “the way” but one of her own choosing. Then the Lord Jesus tells us that He is the truth. Since this verse uses direct articles, namely “the,” this means that there is no truth outside the Lord Jesus Christ. Religion is a mixture of some truth, superstition, and lies. Lies, because Satan is the author of all false religion. No religion can ever bring anyone to truth, only the Grace of God, when applied to the heart of His Elect brings forth truth, that is because the Holy Spirit is our personal guide into all truth. (John 16:13 KJV) Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.

Then the Lord Jesus goes on to say that He is “the” life. Now every human being on earth has life, so what is the Lord Jesus referring to? He is referring to eternal life. This is a serious statement because many people in religion think they are on the way to eternal life. Many of these same people reject the Lord Jesus Christ yet expect to be in Heaven with Him. Believe me, if you don’t want Him here, you won’t have Him there! The Lord Jesus is the only way to have eternal life. You cannot go around Him nor can you avoid Him, because you are eventually going to meet up with Him at the Judgment Seat. Then the Lord Jesus makes one of the most outstanding statements in the Bible. “…no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” You mean all those people who are faithfully working in religions are all lost? Faithfully working for who? For God? For them is more like it. If God’s salvation plan is rejected by anyone, there is no salvation beyond it. Many religions think they can get to the Father without going through the Son and the Bible teaches that is not possible. Many liberal, useless churches also tend to pooh-pooh God’s salvation plan and throw their energy into good works as their alternative to the cross.

(Luke 10:16 KJV) He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. Many Christians place the Jews in high esteem and have created some type of salvation plan to please and appease them. However, this verse teaches that if you hate Christ, then you hate God. Try to preach Christ in Israel today and you will be arrested and maybe stoned. This verse also applies to the unsaved Jews that if they hate and despise Christians or Christ, then they are hating the Father which means they have no salvation and there is no future golden age where they will all be saved. Only those Jews whom God has predestined for salvation will become saved, the rest that remain unsaved will suffer the same penalty as all the other unbelievers. (Acts 10:34 KJV) Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

When we look at John 14:6, it is much more than just a quaint verse for some unsaved religious huckster to place on a placemat and sell it in Religious Babylonian bookstores. It is a verse of condemnation to the entire unsaved world that salvation is only found in Christ. True Christianity is absolutely exclusive as we have seen in today’s verse.  (3/7/03)