I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Honorine Kouemo T.
Dec 31, 2024
26 min read

Updated: May 30, 2025

We live in a world dominated by the belief that there are multiple paths to heaven. As the expression goes, “All roads lead to Rome” – suggesting that whatever path a person takes, they will eventually achieve their desired goal – many over the years have argued, given the multiplicity of religious belief systems in the world, that all paths lead to heaven. Moreover, some believe that truth is constructed by social and cultural values. To others, truth is constructed by each person’s preference and opinion. And still many others believe that truth is the product of a collective agreement.

Moreover, many in the world claim that eternal life can be attained through human exertion. All these worldly concepts – the multiplicity of paths to heaven, the subjectivity of truth, and man’s ability to attain life by his own efforts – contrast with the Christian faith, the only religion from God. For the bold declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 14:6, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”, refutes all these human concepts. This “I AM” statement of our Lord is the only of His “I AM” statements that has three distinct attributes attached to it: way, truth and life. I will survey these attributes one at the time.

1. I AM the Way

The Way here refers to the path affording passage from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God. In the beginning, when God created the world, Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Paradise in the presence of the LORD God, enjoying fellowship with the LORD and His blessings. But as a result of the Fall of Adam and Eve, they lost access to God’s presence and severed themselves from communion with Him. They were driven away from God, away from the glory of His Majesty. And we, being born of Adam, have all inherited the sinful nature of Adam. And because of the corruption of our own hearts, a wall has been erected between God and all of us. This wall prevents all men from entering the glorious presence of the Holy One; for all men have become unclean because of sin. As it is written, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Since we are all stained by sin and fall short of the glory of the Lord, the Holy One, none of us is worthy to enter His glorious presence, because we are unholy. For without holiness no one can see the Lord (cf. Hebrews 12:14). Our sin has rendered us unclean and unfit to draw near to God and have fellowship with Him. To repeat the words of Isaiah the prophet, “[our] iniquities have made a separation between [us] and [our] God, And [our] sins have hidden His face from [us] so that He does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).

Until our sins are removed, the wall between our God and us remains. And the truth is that it is impossible for us to tear down this wall by ourselves. For we cannot put an end to our sins nor reverse the effect of the curse that befell us as a result of our sins. As Psalms 49:7-9 tells us, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.”

To approach God, to enter His holy presence requires perfect holiness, a holiness that none of us possesses. For we are all stained by sin; none of us conforms to the standard of moral purity and excellence set by God. Sin has walled up the way so that we cannot enter the glorious presence of the Holy One. And there is against each one of us a sentence of death on account of our lawless deeds. For God the Judge, against Whom we have sinned, has declared us guilty, death being the retribution for our sins. By ourselves we cannot remove the penalty that stands against us; for the price for our sins is too high for us to pay by ourselves. We are unable to satisfy the wrath of God and have our sins forgiven. For “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22b). And the blood that the Lord requires is not that of an animal – “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).

However, what we could not and cannot do, namely to live a perfect life and to pay for our sins, God Himself did. God the Son left His throne on high and entered the realm of mankind in human flesh. Then He lived the perfect life that we cannot live and died for our sins. By His death on the cross, Christ, the God-Man, satisfied the wrath of God on behalf of all those who would ever believe on Him. The Father forgave our sins “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). Through the blood of Christ – the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world – sinners have been granted free access to God’s glorious presence. The wall that once separated us from God, Jesus the God-Man has broken it by offering Himself graciously as a sacrifice for the removal of our sins. Therefore we can enter the holy presence of God, being cleansed by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ, “by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh” (Hebrews 10:20).

Jesus Christ, the God-Man, is the only Mediator between God and men. For He is the only righteous man who has ever lived – God in human flesh. “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22); “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our peace fell upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

Therefore no man can enter the kingdom of God except on the basis of the person and work of His Son Jesus Christ. “For our sake He [the Father] made Him [the Son] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him [the Son] we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Romans 3:25, “God put forward [His only begotten Son] as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins.”

There is no way to expiate our sins and propitiate (appease) the wrath of God other than through faith in the Son of God. He who dishonours the Son cannot get to the Father. For apart from the Son there is no other way to the Father. To reject the Son of God is to deny oneself access to the glorious presence of God and His eternal kingdom. For no one but the Son can take away our sins and make us right with God. For the perfect life which He lived, He did not live for Himself, and the death which He suffered, He did not suffer for Himself, but for all those who would ever put their trust in Him, that they might be justified through His imputed righteousness to them.

There is no other way for sinners to be justified before God and granted access to His presence. Thus the Son declares, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). All other paths that claim to lead to heaven are forgeries. Although they claim to lead to life, their destination is death. For those who walk those so-called paths to heaven continue to live in sin – and as it is written “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Because they do not trust in the person and work of Christ, their guilt remains; the wall that separates them from God remains unbroken. Therefore they have no access to God. For it is only through faith in Christ the Lord that one can have peace with God and enter His presence; for Christ offered Himself as a propitiation for sin so that the wall of hostility between God and men might be broken and that anyone who turns to Him in repentance and faith might be given access to the kingdom of God. Through faith sinners are united with Christ and clothed with Christ’s own righteousness. They enter the kingdom of God because of that righteousness which is alien to them, i.e., Christ’s own righteousness.

So Christ the Lord is the One who bridges the chasm between God and men and transfers them from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of God; He it is who rescues us from the world and takes us to the Father. Jesus is the Way that affords for us passage from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God. And in Him alone we also attain the knowledge of the truth; for He is the Truth.

2. I AM the Truth

Truth is that which accords with the very nature of God, His character, His will, His ways and His transcendent beauty and majestic splendor, as revealed to us in the pages of the Scriptures. It is impossible for God to say or tolerate anything untruthful. Numbers 23:19 reads, “God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?” Because God is holy, every word that proceeds from His mouth is true. Proverbs 30:5a tells us, “Every word of God proves true”.

God is truthful, so His Word is the Truth. The Word of the Lord is the Truth. Therefore all truth claims that are inconsistent with the Word of the Lord are fallacies. For they violate the standard of truth which is God’s own Word. Proverbs 30:6 reads, “Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you and you be found a liar.” Truth is defined in terms of what is right in God’s sight rather than in man’s eyes. Truth cannot be defined outside of God. Truth is rooted in God’s essential (inherent) truthfulness. Psalms 19:7 reads, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.” Psalms 119:160a reads, “The sum of Your word is truth.”

While “Your word” in this verse refers to the inspired and written Word of God, that is, the entire Bible – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 reads, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” – the term “Word” is often used in Scripture in reference to the second person of the Godhead, the Word who was in the beginning with God and was God (cf. John 1:1). John 1:2-3 tells us, “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” V.14 reads, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

However, the written Word of God and the incarnate Word of God are inseparable. For the incarnate Word is the Author of the written Word, for He is God. And the incarnate Word is none other than Jesus Christ the Son of God. He whose name is “Faithful and True”, He it is who breathed out the entire Holy Scripture, which is the Truth.

Jesus is the Truth because He is the incarnate Word of God, the Holy One, the visible image of the invisible God. “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9). Christ, the incarnate Word, is the full embodiment of truth. As the incarnate Word of God, Jesus is not only the normative standard of Truth, but He is also the sole Source of Truth.

Jesus is the Sole Source of Truth

There is no other source of truth beside Jesus; for He is the Truth, the Word of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). V.14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Eternal Son of God clothed Himself in humanity and entered the world and revealed to us the nature, the will, the ways and the glory of God. He has also made known to us all that we ought to know for our salvation and service to God.

God’s full revelation came through His Son. For the Son is the exact imprint of the Father, and He “bears witness to what He has seen and heard” (John 3:32a); He “utters the words of God, for He gives the Spirit without measure” (v.34). At Horeb the LORD said to Moses concerning Israel, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And whoever will not listen to My words that He shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19). Hebrews 1:1-2 tells us, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, Whom He appointed the heir of all things, through Whom also He created the world.”

As the full embodiment of truth, the incarnate Word of God, Jesus is the Source of truth. Therefore it is written, “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Moreover, the Law and the Prophets bear witness about Him (cf. John 5:39; Luke 24:44). Moses Himself told Israel in the wilderness, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is to Him you shall listen” (Deuteronomy 18:15). For as the only Source of truth, Jesus alone grants knowledge of the truth to the sons of men and turns them away from their folly. All sons of men are corrupt in nature and the truth is not in them. “For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue” (Psalms 5:9).

By nature we hate the God of truth with total hatred; we shun the Light of truth and incline our hearts toward human ideologies and destructive fallacies. We are all by nature purveyors of lies and deception. For it is in our nature to devise falsehood in order to indulge freely in the sinful passions and evil desires of our hearts.

Adherence to man-made religions and human ideologies is the inevitable decline that issues from our shunning of the Truth. Men chase after the world’s folly and trample underfoot the Wisdom of God. Because of the alteration of our faculties, we essentially love falsehood and despise the Truth. The absence of truth in us creates a lack of spiritual discernment that causes us to give ourselves freely to all kinds of lies and deceptions. We subvert the truth and endorse all sorts of lies. For sin has corrupted our nature and altered our ability to discern truth from error.

Christ the Son of God came into the world so that we might know the truth. “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice”, declares the Lord Jesus in John 18:37. As the only Source of truth, Christ gives us understanding and puts an end to our spiritual enslavement to falsehood. 1 John 5:20 reads, “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. He is the true God and eternal life.”

Christ the Lord is the embodiment of truth and the only Source of truth. For truth dwells with Him and He it is who gives knowledge and understanding to man. He gives man knowledge of the truth and enables him to no longer walk in the futility of his mind. For sin has altered every faculty of man and rendered him treacherous. He is foolish in his understanding and hostile in mind. But in Christ man receives the knowledge of the truth: truth about God, about man, about sin, righteousness and judgment, truth about other spiritual realities. And by that knowledge of the truth man is set free.

The Truth that Sets Man Free

No human being is born free; rather, all are slaves from the womb. For we are all conceived in sin, and from the cradle to the grave we live in sin. As the LORD Himself declares in Genesis 8:21, “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Because we all inherited Adam’s sin nature, we all practice sinning from a young age. Therefore we are not free but slaves to sin. For “Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin”, says the Lord in John 8:34.

From a young age, evil rules in our hearts and we present the members of our bodies to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. Sin entices us with its pleasures and the flesh exerts its destructive power on us to make us obey its evil desires and passions. Moreover, we are slaves to the evil world system which “takes [us] captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Through its man-made religions, human traditions and ideologies, which stand in opposition to the Word of God, the world deludes men and maintains them in darkness. Although these things seem to promote virtue and wisdom, their aim is to keep men in thrall (bondage) to the present evil age. They hold people captive in darkness, and these continue to walk in the futility of their minds, indulging in the lusts and passions of their flesh.

Besides sin, the flesh, and the world, Satan also holds the sons of men captive, that they may do his will. And no man can undo his own bonds to free his soul from the grip of these captors. The only One who can set us free from them is the Word of truth, Christ the Lord. Freedom is found nowhere but in Christ alone. He is the Truth that sets sinners free, the Word of truth by which we are graciously brought forth – from death to life. James 1:18 reads, “Of His own will [the Father] brought us forth by the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”

The Son of God is the Truth that sets us free from sin and death, from the sway (the controlling influence) of the present evil age. Psalms 107:17-20 reads, “Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He sent out His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.”

“The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down” (Psalms 146:7c-8b). By His Spirit, Christ the Lord delivers us from falsehood. He puts His law within us and writes it on our hearts (cf. Jeremiah 31:33) and causes us to obey His voice. This reality was clearly expressed by the LORD Himself when He announced to Israel by the mouth of Ezekiel, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules” (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

By the indwelling Spirit of Christ who circumcises our hearts and implants the Word of God in us, we receive “the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10). In other words, by the gracious and powerful working of the Spirit of Christ in our hearts, we receive knowledge and insight and are made obedient to God, doers of His will. In our natural state, we are darkened in our understanding, unable and unwilling to obey the will of God. But the Spirit of Christ shines the light of truth in us and enables us to pursue that which is pleasing to God; for He Himself writes His Word on the tablet of our heart and causes us to obey His rules and to turn away from falsehood.

During His earthly ministry, the Lord “Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). In other words, he who practices the teaching of Christ, he who holds fast to His word, is a follower of Christ, His pupil; he is brought to the knowledge of the truth by Christ and rescued by Him from the hands of the captors, namely, sin, the flesh, the world and Satan, and from their lies and schemes.

Christ the Truth is from above and is above all (cf. John 3:31). Therefore neither sin, nor the flesh, nor the evil world system, nor the devil can resist Him. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). For where the Truth abides, falsehood is put away. By His Spirit, Christ the Word of truth enables us to put away falsehood and to attain the knowledge of the truth, the knowledge of God and of His ways. The Spirit of Christ shines in us the light of the truth, pours into our hearts the love of God and delivers us from the destructive power of falsehood. The Word that is implanted in our hearts, the Truth that takes residence in us, not only grants us deliverance, He also sanctifies us.

The Truth that Sanctifies

To sanctify means to consecrate, to set apart for sacred use, to make holy to the Lord. When the Bible talks about the sanctification of God’s people, it either refers to their separation from the world to God – the people of God ought not to be “unequally yoked with unbelievers” (cf. Isaiah 52:11; 2 Corinthians 6:17); or to their separation from sin to God, that is, their turning away from evil, the purification of their hearts from evil.

Our sanctification, like our freedom from darkness, is owed entirely to Christ the Truth. For not only does Christ the Word of truth set us free from the captors, but He it is who also sets us apart from the world to God and purifies our hearts from the evil of sin. He chooses us from the world and sets us apart from the world and progressively and powerfully works in us to make us holy like Him. By the powerful work of the Spirit of Christ in us who are born of Him, we move from one level of holiness to the next.

The Lord sanctifies those whom He sets free. In His High Priestly prayer on behalf of His disciples, the Lord Jesus asked the Father in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” And in v. 19 the Lord says, “For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” Though tempted in every way by the devil, the Son of God did not give in to Satan’s lies but kept Himself pure. He did not defile Himself but separated Himself from sin. Being Himself born under the law, Christ kept all the law for the sake of His disciples, that they might be purified in Him. “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). For this was the will of the Father, that the Son should lay down His life for us (cf. Isaiah 53:10). “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). “For by a single offering [Christ] has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (v.14).

Only through our union with Christ and the power of His Spirit can sin be killed from our hearts. In our natural state, we are deprived of truth and polluted by sin. But through our union with Christ, the light of the truth shines in us. For the Spirit of Christ fills the redeemed of God with the knowledge of the truth and guides them into all truth (cf. John 16:13) and empowers them to walk in truth. He pours into their hearts the love of God and the things of God; He enables them to speak the truth to their neighbor, to share the truth in love, and to worship God in spirit and truth. Those who do not have the Spirit of Christ do not and cannot practice the truth but falsehood, because the truth is not in them. And they continually walk in sin. But “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9). As the Scripture says, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). He who is in Christ has been born again and his inner self is being renewed day by day by the Spirit of Christ who gradually kills sin from his heart.

The Spirit of Christ dwells in us who are born of Christ and produces in us the will and the ability to work for His good pleasure (cf. Philippians 2:13). In other words, the indwelling Holy Spirit puts in our hearts the desire to do the will of God and empowers us for all good works. “For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

The Son of God did not lay down His life for us simply to make us escape hell, but primarily to make us holy to the Lord. That is, to separate us from the world and from sin, that we may walk in newness of life, in holiness, bearing good fruit for the glory of His great name. God’s will for His children is their sanctification (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:3). And like salvation, which is sovereignly wrought by the Lord – children of God are “born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13), sanctification is a sovereign work of the Lord. “I am the LORD who sanctifies you”, declares the LORD in Leviticus 20:8b. No human exertion can deliver us from the grip of sin. By ourselves we cannot stop the indulgence of our flesh nor separate ourselves from the corruption that is in the world or guard our hearts from the blinding influence of the evil one. Only the Lord our God can (cf. Matthew 6:13).

Christ the Lord, the Word of truth, is the One who sets us free and He alone sanctifies us. Christ is our salvation and our sanctification. For He alone can separate us from sin and from the world. His Spirit cleanses those born of Him from every defilement of body and spirit. “His divine power has granted to us [who are born of Him] all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:28-31, “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Paul also writes in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Everything pertaining to our salvation is sovereignly and graciously accomplished by Christ the Word of truth; for He is the Author of life.

3. I AM the Life

As the Eternal Word, the second person of the Godhead, Jesus has life in Himself; He is the self-existent God. Moreover, Jesus is the Source of life; “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Romans 11:36a). He “made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and [He preserves] all of them; and the host of heaven worships [Him]” (Nehemiah 9:6). In the beginning, “the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7). John 1:1-4 reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

While v.1-2 asserts the deity of Christ and His eternality, and v.3 presents Christ the Eternal Word as the Creator of all things, v.4 highlights two unique qualities that are shared among the Godhead, namely, life and light. The first clause of this verse – “In Him was life” – refers to Christ the Word as the Source of life. The Son has life in Himself and is the Giver of life. For physical and temporal life, as well as spiritual and eternal life, comes from the Son, the Word of truth. Christ the Word is the one who created all things, and He it is who imparts spiritual and eternal life as a gift to every repentant sinner. The second clause – “and the life was the light of men” – refers to the spiritual enlightenment that those to whom Christ imparts spiritual life receive. For in our natural condition, we are dead in our trespasses and sins and held captive by darkness. But when Christ raises us from the dead, He transfers us from darkness to light, from falsehood to truth, from an old life of sin to a new life of holiness. Put simply, the life that the Son of God gives to dead sinners puts an end to their spiritual darkness. Which is to say, no one can be spiritually enlightened unless he has been born of Christ, made alive by Him. Unless Christ the Source of life imparts life to our dead souls, we cannot see the light. For spiritual enlightenment issues from a new life in Christ; freedom from the grip of darkness is attained through the life imparted to our souls by the Spirit of Christ.

So not only is Jesus the Creator God who spoke all things into existence in six days, but He is also the Author of the new creation, of life in the Spirit, which is also known as spiritual and eternal life. “For with [Him] is the fountain of life; in [His] light do we see light” (Psalms 36:9). The Lord Himself said to the Jews in John 5:39-40, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life.”

Jesus is eternal life. “He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). All sons of men from conception are dead in their trespasses and sins. And what they all deserve is death. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Under the Law, we are held captive by death because we are transgressors of the Law. But Christ the Lord freely and graciously gives us life and sets us free from the curse of the Law. He delivers us from the grip of death and brings us to life. According to His sovereign will, the Lord fearfully and wonderfully fashioned us in the womb and breathed into our nostrils the breath of life. In the like manner He grants us spiritual and eternal life according to the counsel of His wisdom.

Just as in the beginning “All things were made through [the Son of God], and without Him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3), without the Son of God no one can become part of the new creation. No one can pass from spiritual deadness to spiritual and everlasting life apart from the Son. The Son Himself declares in John 3:13-16, “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” And in John 5:24 He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

Life in perfect peace and communion with God in this present life and and in the life to come is given us by the Son. 1 John 5:12, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Everlasting life in perfect holiness in the glorious presence of the LORD is attained only through His Son Jesus Christ, the Fountain of life. For the Father has “given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom [the Father has] given Him” (John 17:2). Christ it is who gives spiritual life to dead sinners and grants them access to the kingdom of God. “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death”, says the Lord in John 8:51.

We are people cut off from God, entangled in the dark shadow of error, and held captive by death because of our moral corruption. Although the Lord has the right to cast all of us to hell – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and none of us deserves to see the light – “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a) – yet He has not cut us off from Himself forever, nor has He given us over to our folly, or abandoned us to our last enemy, namely Death.

The Lord’s revelation of Himself in John 14:6 as the Way, the Truth and the Life is a strong foundation of the Christian joy, a beacon of hope for sinful humanity. Although this statement is offensive to our pluralistic culture, it depicts the transcendent beauty of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ and underscores the infinite depth of His love for sinful humanity. For the Infinite One, the great God of the universe, the Creator of all things, the King of heaven and earth, He who is worshipped by angels, left His throne on high and clothed Himself in humanity. He then entered the dark realm of mankind and took upon Himself the sins of the rebellious sons and daughters of Adam and, by His death on the cross, has made a way for them, that they may enter His holy presence, from which they were cut off because of their rebelliousness. Paul writes in Romans 8:2-4, “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

The Lord our God has not abandoned us in darkness. According to the riches of His grace, He has afforded for us a crimson stream of blood drawn from His own veins – the waves of which reach the throne of God – wherein we have been plunged and purified from our guilty stains. By the blood of our Savior King we can now enter life and behold the face of our great God. What grace! What a condescension! For He who knew no sin “was cut off out of the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8), that we might enter life and dwell in the glorious presence of God forever.

Sin has defiled us and created a wall between our God and us. But the Father sent His Son into the world and He willingly and graciously made for us an access to the Father, “by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh” (Hebrews 10:20). We are by nature caught in the tentacles of error, but Christ the Truth came to set us free and make us holy to the Lord God. Moreover, we are held captive by death, but the Lord of life came to raise us from the dead, to a new life of holiness. He has come to crown us with life everlasting. Great therefore is our boast, our hope, our joy and our confidence in Christ Jesus, the Eternal Son of God, the LORD our righteousness! For He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and there is no other. Apart from Him there is no way, no truth and no life. To our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – the God of all grace – to Him be glory, praise, honour and thanks forever and ever! Amen.