The Way, the Truth, & the Life

 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going." Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way [hodos – ordained course], and the truth [aletheia – real thing], and the life [zoe – life without end]; no one comes to the Father but through Me. "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.                   John 14:1-10

Jesus begins this teaching with the guiding point of the entire chapter, that belief (trust) in Jesus is believing in the Father, that they are made from the same cloth! He tells them in Verse 1 to believe in Jesus with the same substance of faith that they believe in God. The faith we place in Jesus as Messiah, as God Himself, is the personification of our faith in the Father. No longer does a believer need the Law of Moses as one’s access to God, but the man Jesus (the mediator of the new covenant) is now the way, the avenue to finding and experiencing God. In 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” Philip’s question to Jesus in verse 8 exposes his lack of understanding that Jesus and His Father were of the same essence (Hebrews 1:3) where Scripture says, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.”

The apostle Paul is a great example of this principle. As Saul of Tarsus, he was one of the premier Pharisees of his day, having trained under Gamaliel and educated "strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today. I persecuted this Way to the death” (Acts 22: 3-4). His pursuit of God was through his intense zeal for the Law of Moses and related man-made laws (Mishna) that Jesus referred to as “the traditions of the elders” (Matthew 15:2). Yet Paul tells the Galatians in Galatians 1:11-17 that the Gospel he heard was not received from man, but it came right from “a revelation of Jesus Christ." Paul recognized that God's calling on his life began in his mother's womb and that the revelation of His Son came to him, not as the result of an academic pursuit. He tells the Galatians that he did not immediately seek out other Christian leaders (verse 16) to confirm or refine his understanding, but that he needed to go away to relearn the Scriptures in light of Jesus as Messiah.  

Thomas admits to Jesus that he and the disciples " do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" They would remain puzzled until His death and resurrection and the advent of the Spirit. They had all the information, but they could not put it together. Jesus's words, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life, are the sixth of Jesus' seven "I am" statements in John’s Gospel is the "Way" because He is the "Truth" and the "Life." As the Father is Truth and Life, Jesus is the embodiment of God, so people can come to the Father. By His words, No one comes to the Father but through Me stresses that salvation, contrary to what many people think, is not obtainable through many ways. Only one Way exists. Jesus is the only access to the Father because He is the only One from the Father

The Way

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.          Hebrews 10:19-22

The new covenant defines the environment in which the believer finds the confidence (boldness) to approach and draw near to God because this covenant is the direct result of the blood of Jesus and His priesthood. This “new and living way" is a relationship realized in the heart, and the sincerity (Greek word alethinos, meaning real or genuine, the absence of lies) of that heart gives the disciple full assurance that he is forgiven and that his evil conscience has been cleansed. In Proverbs 23:26, “Give me your heart, my son, and let your eyes delight in my ways.” This is the sentiment of a sincere heart, that we give it to God, that we are willing to be totally transparent with God. In so doing, His heart becomes our heart. In Psalm 73:28, “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.” God is always interested in man’s heart and wishes man’s search to bring him to God’s heart. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the Father’s heart!

The veil in the Tabernacle and Temple holds deep significance in the believer’s spiritual heritage. In the Old Testament, this sacred curtain served as a physical and symbolic barrier, separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctuary where God’s presence dwelt among His people. Exodus 26:31 provides detailed instructions for this veil: “You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman it.” This elaborate design speaks to the reverence and awe with which the people approached the divine presence. It is a powerful metaphor for the human condition, representing the distance between a holy God and fallen humanity (a great chasm fixed -Luke 16:26).

Exodus 40:5 tells us that the altar of incense was set before the ark of the testimony, with the veil set up as a doorway to the Holy of Holies, accessible only to the High Priest on the Day of Atonement. In verse 33, He erected the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the veil for the gateway of the court. Thus, Moses finished the work. This is significant since the veil represents the flesh of Jesus, to be torn from top to bottom at the moment of His death on the cross (Matthew 27:51). Jesus is the Advocate for every believer, having become the mercy seat for the sins of all humanity (1 John 2:1-2).

So, Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.                   John 10:7-10 

After a shepherd's flock has been separated from the other sheep, he takes them to pasture. Near the pasture is an enclosure for the sheep. The shepherd takes his place in the doorway or entrance, serving as a door or gate. The sheep can go out to the pasture in front of the enclosure, or, if afraid, retreat into the security of the enclosure. The spiritual meaning is that Jesus is the only Gate by which people can enter into God's provision for them.

A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness [qodes – something consecrated and set apart]. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up on it; these will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk there, And the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. they will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.  Isaiah 35:8-10

In the Kingdom Age, righteous pilgrims will once again travel to Jerusalem. They will go on a highway known as the Highway of Holiness, for it will lead to God's city, where His ways will be followed. It will not be traveled by the unclean or wicked fools. No ferocious animals will hinder the travel of the redeemed on that Highway. God's people will once again be involved in certain aspects of Old Testament formal worship. This Highway represents a superior manner of life for all believers in Jesus, both in the Church Age and the Kingdom Age. In the new covenant, the believer can overcome his human weaknesses when he decides to walk in the way of his Lord, on the Highway of Holiness, consecrating his life to walking to please Him. 

The Truth

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized [ginomai – came into existence] through Jesus Christ.                          John 1:17

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him, who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.                  1 John 5:20

Lovingkindness [hesed – God’s love expressed in His kindness, mercy] and truth [emet – truth, right, faithful] have met together; righteousness [sedeq – right relation to an ethical standard] and peace [shalom – tranquility or wholeness] have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. Indeed, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce. Righteousness will go before Him and will make His footsteps into a way.           Psalm 85:10-13

Grace and truth came into existence through Jesus Christ. Grace could not issue from the midst of the Law as a proclamation of moral duty because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight (Romans 3:20). But the Law was not given only to condemn. According to Hebrews 10:1, it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, a shadow of the Gospel and His grace, while the "truth" or reality of them came by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the personification of this Gospel, and those who draw near to God will experience eternal life; there is no substitute. In this relationship, we are given understanding to know Him in this life.

The Psalm 85 passage above presents a picture of what took place at Calvary from a spiritual perspective. The Septuagint translates emet most often as aletheia (truth or reality) or as a form derived from this basic root. Surely there is a glimpse here of the person and work of Jesus Christ, for only in Him can lovingkindness and truth become friends. When the old covenant believer faces the reality of his failures, his only solution is God's kindness (mercy). The righteousness of God and His peace have entered into a dear relationship with each other, creating the opportunity for a right relationship with God and His peace to be realized through the believer's willingness to trust in the person and work of Jesus. Truth springing forth from the earth is symbolic of His humanity, while righteousness looking down from heaven speaks of His deity, thus the hypostatic union. Righteousness will go before Jesus’s appearance as John the Baptist and his message of repentance. The baptism of Jesus laid the groundwork for those who would be His followers. A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God (Isaiah 40:3).

The Life

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world."                    John 11:25-27

Most Jews of Jesus’s day believed in a bodily resurrection, but it was unclear what it looked like since there were few Scriptures to define it. In fact, Isaiah was one of the first to give any real definition in Isaiah 26:19: “Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits." So many Old Testament references deal with Sheol, most often signifying the grave. Sheol has been wrongly translated as “hell”. According to William Barclay, “After death came the land of silence and of forgetfulness, where the shades of men were separated alike from men and from God." Both Old Testament and New Testament Jews live their religious lives without a clear sense of the hereafter and any potential rewards, but only life with God as His people. Jesus taught that the new covenant believer has an eternal future with Him if he will only believe, and that death does not end with the grave (2 Corinthians 5:8). This eternal life is more than a continuation of the present life; it speaks of a higher quality. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:4-5).

"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.                         John 5:25-29

Jesus's dynamic power can call a person out of the grave, everyone from their tombs, or anyone in spiritual death to eternal life. Jesus recognizes two central prerogatives of God: life and judgment. Jesus has both because the Father has given Him both, eternal and temporal. In Himself, Christ, the Logos, has life as an eternal gift of the Father, but in the Incarnation, authority to judge was also delegated to Jesus. As the Son of Man, authority is given to Him. Jesus said His hearers should not be amazed at His claim that right now those who believe pass from death into life, because in the future there will be a universal physical resurrection at His command. Daniel clearly teaches this universal resurrection in Daniel 12:1-4. Other passages show that the resurrection to life, "the first resurrection," will occur in stages and that the resurrection of those who will be condemned will occur at the end of the Millennium.

Therefore

Anyone who goes too far and does not abide [meno – continue, remain] in the teaching [doctrine] of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.                      2 John 9-11

These words suggest strongly that the apostle was thinking here of defection from the truth by those who had once held to it. The word abide has the sense of continue or remain, a life received from God based on faith, and remains by abiding in the doctrines He taught. The New Testament writers were realists about the possibility that true Christians falling prey to heresy and warned against it. They were cautioned not to overstep the boundaries of sound doctrine, but to remain where they were, to continue in the teachings of Christ. To deviate from the truth is to leave God behind. This does not suggest loss of salvation. Instead, it points to a doctrinal deviation accompanied by disobedience. In contrast with those who defect from the truth, whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. The truths of God's words define life in the Kingdom, and the quality of that life this side of heaven depends on the believer abiding in the truth and finding completeness in his life.