THE WAY TO THE FATHER

JOHN 14:4-11

NOVEMBER 5, 1995

 

John 14:6 is one of the best-known verses in Scripture, one that is often quoted and spoken of.  But what does it mean that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life?  It is only in understanding this that we know the way to the Father. 

 

To be politically correct or religiously correct in our day, you are never to insist upon only one way to God.  Being dogmatic about the means of salvation is a quick way to be branded with all sorts of negative names.  May I say to all of us, LET THE BRANDS BE APPLIED!  We believe there is only one way to the Father and that is through the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ.

 

There is not a Baptist way and a Presbyterian way and a Methodist way and a Catholic way and a Pentecostal way to the Father.  There is the Jesus way and that alone!  Many insist that as long as you are sincere about what you believe, you are okay.  But that is not what the Scriptures teach!  The Word of God tells us that the 'way is narrow that leads to life and few there be who find it'.  It is narrow in the sense that it is a singular way, God's way, and God's way alone that we may come to know Him and His saving life.

 

Some people are so caught up in their religious persuasion or their denominational affiliation that they lose sight of what the Scriptures teach.  Our concern this morning is to focus wholly upon the truth of God, realizing that it is only what He has spoken that can show us the way to Himself and consequently, the way to life.

 

Unless we go the way of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can never know the Father.  What is the way to the Father?

 

I.  The Solitary Mediator

 

Jesus told His disciples, "And you know the way where I am going."  Thomas objected to what Christ had stated.  "Lord, we do not know where you are going, how do we know the way?"  In other words, Thomas was stating in question form, 'If we do not even know where you are going, then how in the world can we know the way to follow you?'  

 

Christ had already told the disciples that He was going where they could not immediately go, but they would follow later (13:36).  Now He explains to them that He was going to the Father and that He alone is the way to the Father.

 

Jesus Christ did not come to simply tell us about 'the way' but to be the way to the Father.  As the way to the Father, He has taken on the role of Mediator on behalf of men.  Paul wrote, "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time." (I Tim. 2:5-6)

 

In his Abstract of Principles, James P. Boyce explains clearly what it means for Jesus Christ to be the Mediator:

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is the divinely appointed mediator between God and man.  Having taken upon Himself human nature, yet without sin, He perfectly fulfilled the Law, suffered and died upon the cross for the salvation of sinners.  He was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended to His Father, at whose right hand He ever liveth to make intercession for His people.  He is the only Mediator, the Prophet, Priest and King of the Church, and Sovereign of the Universe.


1.  Necessity of Mediation

 

Why do we need a mediator?  A mediator implies that there is some kind of estrangement, some kind of impasse, some kind of separation at which two parties cannot come together.  We think in our day of mediators in the political and financial world who labor to bring two parties to some kind of agreement.  Most of these mediators are more appropriately, arbitrators, who work to judge the differences between two parties and then settle the dispute by a decision.

 

Jesus Christ is not an arbitrator.  There was no common ground for settling the dispute between the Almighty God and sinful men.  An accord could not be reached by give-and-take on both sides.  That is an impossibility!  There is a gulf between God and man that is caused by Adam's fall in the Garden.  When God created man, He gave him a perfect setting and a nature totally undefiled by sin.  Along with the fact that man was created holy as a perfect moral being, he also had a mind and will by which he could make moral choices.  The severity of Adam's choice to breach the law of God in the Garden caused the judgment of God to pass upon all of Adam's posterity:  "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned....For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive." (Romans 5:12; I Corinthians 15:22)

 

But, we want to follow Christ to the Father!  How can we do that if there is enmity in our relationship to God?  We must have a mediator who can open the way to the Father.

 

2.  Dimensions of Mediation

 

When Jesus said to the disciples in response to Thomas' question about the way, "I am the way," He was stating in succinct fashion the whole of His mediatorial work for us.  How is Jesus the way?

 

Obviously, we must begin with the Incarnation.  For Him to mediate between God and man, Jesus could not be merely a man, for that would mean that He too was affected by Adam's fall and a sinner at enmity with God.  Nor could He be in nature only God, for that would mean that He is separated from sinners, cannot identify with sinners, and certainly cannot stand before the Godhead on behalf of the same sinners who have infinitely offended Him due to their sin.  So how can this need of a Mediator be settled?  Only by God Himself, who alone is perfect, sinless, and utterly holy, becoming a man and perfectly fulfilling all righteousness on behalf of man.  And so, Jesus Christ has two natures, distinct in every way, yet never confusing the two:  the nature of God and the nature of man in One Person.  The 1689 London Baptist Confession expressed it like this:

...In this way it came about that the two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the divine and the human, were inseparably joined together in one Person, without the conversion of the one nature into the other, and without the mixing, as it were, of one nature with the other; in other words, without confusion.  Thus the Son of God is now both true God and true man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.


I am the way, Jesus states with absolute, singular authority.  By Christ being the way, that implies there is no other way to God.  The moment we try to by-pass Jesus Christ to get to God, then we have attempted to mediate our own course to heaven.  Those who try this, Jesus said in John 10:1, are 'thieves and robbers'.

 

There are numerous dimensions to this truth of Christ, I am the way, which we need to see.  It refers to the offices of Jesus Christ on our behalf, which can best be summed up as Prophet, Priest, and King.

 

As Prophet, He proclaims to our darkened understanding the truth of God, revealing the living God to us.  "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him" (John 1:18).  Literally, the word 'explained' means 'exegeted Him'.  As the Prophet He 'exegetes and expounds' the living God to sinful humanity.  By both the words He spoke and the revelation of His divine life, He has explained God to us. (cf. Heb. 1:1-2)

 

As Priest, He stands before God the Father on our behalf to mediate the way to God.  All of the Old Testament high priests pre-figured in shadowy fashion the priestly work of Jesus Christ for us.  The high priest was the sole representative of the people before the eternal God.  He carefully entered the Holy of Holies with blood to be applied on the mercy seat to propitiate (satisfy God's demands) for the sins of the people.  Christ Himself has fulfilled this priestly, mediatorial role by acting as our Great High Priest and as the atoning sacrifice acceptable to God for our transgressions.  So, He is both High Priest and the sacrifice offered by the High Priest.  "And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach" (Colossians 1:21-22).  "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Heb. 2:17).

 

In 1833, a group of Baptists meeting in New Hampshire (The New Hampshire Baptist Confession) expressed this truth like this:

We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace, through the mediatorial offices of the Son of God; who by the appointment of the Father, freely took upon him our nature, yet without sin; honored the divine law by his personal obedience, and by his death made a full atonement for our sins; that having risen from the dead, he is now enthroned in heaven; and uniting in his wonderful person the tenderest sympathies with divine perfections, he is every way qualified to be a suitable, a compassionate, and an all-sufficient Saviour.


As our King, Jesus Christ redeems us by the sacrifice of His own blood and rescues us by His triumphal death and resurrection from all the enslaving power of sin, death, and Satan.  We cannot rescue ourselves nor redeem ourselves.  We are in eternal bondage to our sin.  Death holds us in its iron-like grip.  Satan rules over us as part of his dark kingdom.  But King Jesus delivers us by His mediatorial work and brings us under His rule as part of His kingdom!  "For He has delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13-14).

 

As Prophet, Priest, and King, Jesus Christ declares, "I am the way...to the Father."  Do you know Him as your own Prophet, Priest, and King?

 

3.  Effect of Mediation

 

What does the mediation of Christ do for us as sinners?  Notice the text of verse 6:  "I am the way...and no one comes to the Father, but through Me."  The effect of mediation is to get us to the Father.  Now what does that imply?

 

First, to get to the Father, the enmity between us and God must be removed.  That, Christ has accomplished through the sacrifice of His own life on our behalf.  The guilt and condemnation we are under due to the sentence of God's wrath upon us has been judicially satisfied through the justifying work of Christ.  "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).  "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).  Our standing with God is now one of righteousness; not our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.  "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).

 

Second, not only has our guilt been removed and Christ's righteousness applied to our account, but because of this, we are now in an eternal relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He has reconciled us to God as those who were once enemies, but now we are brought as new creatures, with new natures, into a holy relationship with the living God.  "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation" (II Corinthians 5:18-19).

 

Though we can go on and name more and more effects of Christ's mediatorial office, let me just mention one more.  He has adopted us into His family! 

 

But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God (Galatians 4:4-7).

 

How does all of this take place?  I remind you that it is through the justifying work of Christ alone in His mediatorial office that we are saved.  As Thomas Brooks so beautifully put it (Works of Thomas Brooks, vol. 1, 245)

Well! friends, remember this, that all the tears in the world cannot wipe off meritoriously one sin, nor all the grace and holiness that is in angels and men buy out the pardon of the least transgression.  All remission is only by the blood of Christ....he [Christ] will be all in all in the business of justification, or he will be nothing at all.


Do you know Him as the Solitary Mediator between you and the Father, even between you and eternal life? Unless you have trusted Christ alone as the only way to the Father, you are still in your sin and in need of a Savior!

 

II.  The Unique Revelator

 

Jesus went on in speaking to the disciples and declared, "I am...the truth."  We generally think of truth as something that is propositional; and that is true.  Jesus said of God's Word, "Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17).  But here the word truth also implies a Person, which in turn leads to a relationship.

 

1.  Truth in Propositions

 

If I stood before you and declared, "The moon is made of green cheese and is inhabited by giant mice who eat the green cheese," you would look at me as if I was strange.  Why?  Because I would not be speaking truth, but instead a lie or a strange fantasy.  If something is not true, then it cannot be verified and it cannot stand up to the test of scrutiny.  In order for anything to be proven as true, it must be verified according to some principles or laws that are themselves proven and unchangeable.  For instance, if we discussed some mathematical problems and I said, "Four plus four equals nine," then you would tell me I am wrong.  But what if I said, "No, four plus four does equal nine because that is what I want to believe and you cannot convince me otherwise."  If I tenaciously hold to my argument, will four plus four equal nine?  Absolutely not!  It cannot because of established principles and laws known to all the universe.

 

When we come to the truth of Scripture, or propositional truth of Scripture, how do we know that it is true?  Because Scripture is the Word of God, who is Himself 'faithful and true', 'Who cannot lie' since that is an impossibility for God to do, so He therefore speaks only truth.  The reason Scripture is true is because of the One who has given it to us.  "All Scripture is inspired by God," or "God-breathed," writes the Apostle Paul in II Timothy 3:16.  Because of Who God Himself is, what He has spoken must of necessity be true. 

 

Now when Jesus declared, "I am the truth," we understand that only by way of propositional truth, that is, the written Word of God.  All we know about Christ comes from the revelation of God's Word.  If our knowledge of Christ is via our imaginations, then we do not have an objective foundation on which to rest our faith.  There must be one standard, one solid foundation on which our faith rests.  And that solitary standard is the Word of God, which is wholly true in every part and in every way.

 

In John 18:37-38, we find our Lord being questioned by Pilate after the Jews had delivered Him up to Pilate.

Pilate therefore said to Him, "So You are a king?"  Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king.  For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.  Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."  Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?"


Jesus Christ embodies truth as He verifies the prophecies of the Old Testament and fulfills all of the Law.  Jesus told the Pharisees and religious leaders, "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me" (John 5:39).

 

Jesus Christ reveals truth as He speaks the words of life.  "Lord," said Simon Peter, "to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).

 

2.  Truth in Person

 

But truth is also a Person in this instance.  This is one reason why our Lord is called, "The Word," for He Himself is the truth in Person.  Notice how our text in vv. 7-11 shows how Jesus is the verity of God revealing the Father.  John says a similar statement in 1:17-18, "For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.  No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him."

 

He is the truth that reveals the Father.  He is the 'image of the invisible God' (Col. 1:15); 'the radiance of His [the Father's] glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power' (Heb. 1:3).  He is the Word, who is God, who shows us the Father, who displays the infinite character of God, who shows forth the utter holiness of God, who has in Him all the attributes of deity in bodily form.

 

John, in the Revelation (19:11ff.), speaks of Christ as the Truth:

And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself.  And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God.  And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.  And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.  And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."


3.  Truth in Relationship

 

Because Christ has spoken truth propositionally, we must answer to it.  Because He is Himself the Truth, then we must one day reckon with His sure judgments.  Truth is not to be something that we admire from a distance or flee from, but embrace in relationship.  That is the whole thrust of this text.  Jesus was speaking to the disciples of a relationship they were to enter into through Him, who is the Way and the Truth.

 

Sometimes it is easier to see what something means by contrasting it with something vastly different.  Our Lord does this earlier in John's Gospel (8:44-47):

"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.  "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.  "Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?  "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."


Notice how the devil has no truth in him and is the father of lies, always speaking that which is of his nature as a liar.  The thing Jesus tells the Pharisees is that they are 'of their father the devil', which shows that they have no relationship to the Truth but only to lies.  They were in relationship with the father of lies.  But by contrast, as believers, when we enter into a faith relationship with Christ, we are now 'of the truth' and 'of God' because in our inner man we 'hear the words of God' and believe them.

 

Has Jesus become the Truth to you?  Has your life been consumed by the living Truth of the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ?  That is a true relationship with the Truth.  When you hear His voice speaking to you in saving power, then you become one who is 'of the truth' (John 18:37).

 

III.  The Life-Giving Animator

 

Our Lord also said of Himself, "I am the life."  He is the Life who gives life to those who believe in Him. 

 

1.  Source of Life

 

We must recognize that Jesus is the source of life.  All things owe their existence to Him.  "All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:3-4).

 

We typically think of life as the ability to breathe, think, move, etc.  While all those things are true of life, in Christ as the Source of Life, there is so much more.  He gives us minds to think and know His glorious truth.  He gives us emotions to feel and exhilarates us with the magnificence of His joy.  He gives us bodies to move and to carry the good news of the Savior to all the world.  He gives us tongues to speak and to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.  He gives us souls that live on and in relationship to Him, these souls live on in the eternal glories of heaven.  He gives us bodies that are corruptible and one day through His resurrection power, these bodies shall cast off their corruption and put on the incorruptible.

 

This is life and it comes only from our Lord.

 

2.  Author of Life

 

"I am the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me."  That statement needs little explanation for those who have heard the gospel over and over.  Jesus Christ alone can give you eternal life.  He is the author of eternal life.  John said, "He who has the Son has the life; but he who does not have the Son does not have life" (I John 5:12).  "I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly" (John 10:10b).  "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36).

 

The way to the Father is the way of life.  And the only way to have life is in and through Jesus Christ.  Do you believe this?  If so, have you trusted Jesus Christ in His mediatorial work on your behalf to save you and bring you to the Father?

 

Conclusion

Jesus said, "I am the way."  Have you come the way of Jesus Christ?

Jesus said, "I am the truth."  Have you embraced the truth of Christ in a living relationship?

Jesus said, "I am the life."  Do you have His life radiating through your whole being?


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