I love what our Lord Jesus Christ says in John 14. This is a verse that many believers have memorized, and it is actually a full description of our Christian life.
John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him,
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but
through Me.
The Way
The Greek word used is the word HODOS. This refers to entrance into the plan of God. The word is used as an entrance into a systematic course of action. There is NO OTHER WAY into the plan of God; only belief in Jesus Christ saves you. Just to mention some of my little pet peeves, we don’t all worship the same God! There are not “many different paths to God!” The Bible could not be any clearer about this point, both in our main verse and also here:
Acts
12 "And there is
salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been
given among men by which we must be saved."
Everyone enters into the plan of God at exactly the same place: belief in our Lord Jesus Christ, and His work on the cross. This also means we all have the same opportunity to grow and glorify God.
HODOS, the way, is used for entrance into the plan of God, a plan in which everything is provided and characterized by one word – grace. Everything depends on who and what God is.
The Truth
The second principle our Lord mentions in John 14:6 is the truth. This is what follows your entrance into the plan of God. The Greek word ALETHEIA means truth, or integrity of character. It means that which is faithful and certain, referring to principles from the Word of God. The object of salvation is to bring us to a knowledge of the truth – that is God’s will for our lives:
1
Timothy 2:3-4
3 This is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4
who desires all men to be saved (that’s
WAY) and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
This truth that God wants us to come to the knowledge of is simply a knowledge of who and what God is. We’ve looked at the principle of truth before, but one of my favorite passages is this one:
John 8:31-32
31 So Jesus was
saying to those Jews who had believed Him, (they had already entered through the WAY) "If you continue in My word, then you are
truly disciples of Mine;
32 and you will know
the truth, and the truth will make you free."
Notice that you have to continue in the Word of God to get the truth, and then you get the results of knowing the truth – real freedom.
Jesus addresses this same issue in our main passage. He says, “I am the way (entrance), the truth, and the life.” There is only one entrance, and then only one way to get to the life – and that is through learning the truth.
Next time we’ll look a little bit more at the truth, and then take a look at the unbelievable life that Jesus Christ was talking about.