John 14:4-11

The Only Way of Salvation

John 14:4-11

Intro

Perhaps you've heard someone say, I'm not religious, I'm spiritual, and then proceed to tell you some strange cocktail of beliefs they have, ending with something like you know there are many ways to God. Atheism is in steep decline, but what is not is expressive individualism, all you need to do is a little research online and you can come up with your own unique spirituality that expresses your unique personality.

Jesus has something to say to those who think that there are many ways up the mountain. Those who think that the "Father's house" is not that hard to find, and that they can plot their own course there if they so choose. It's true their is a course, and we can plot it out, and by now Jesus' disciples should know it. But as is commonly the case, they don't. Jesus says, "you know the way to where I am going?" Which seems like a simple enough statement but is actually Jesus' way of opening up a conversation about the way to the Father, and the possibility of seeing Him now.

Since Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, you cannot come to the Father except through Him.

You (Should) know the way to the Father

Jesus addressed the troubled hearts of His disciples by showing them where he was going and what he was doing while he was away. But confusion remains, especially since Jesus asserts they know the way. This time, Thomas speaks for the group as he claims they do not know where Jesus is going. You can tell by this question that Thomas means we do not know where this place you call your Father's house is? Perhaps Thomas is skeptical about Jesus' identity as the Son of God, and so mistakes Jesus' clear allusion to heaven for some place locatable, perhaps in Palestine somewhere. We know that after the resurrection, Thomas was reluctant to believe unless he saw Jesus himself. He refused to accept the testimony of others, needing to verify, if possible, by touching Jesus himself. Jesus, in His gracious condescension, gives Thomas this (surprisingly).

Without missing a beat, Jesus claims, "I am the way." Thankfully, Thomas's skepticism gives rise to one of the greatest sayings of Jesus. One so deep and so profound, I can hardly scratch the surface of its profundities. But to make a start, let's tease apart these statements, beginning first with I Am, and then considering how Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

I Am the...

This is the sixth of Jesus' formal "I Am" statements. "I am the bread of life," "I am the light of the world," "I am the door," "I am the good shepherd," "I am the resurrection and the life," "I am the way and the truth and the life," the last being, "I am the true vine." These are not merely statements that highlight the divinity of Christ, but showcase His unique relationship with the Father. He is sent by the Father on a mission to save the world from sin. As we will consider in more detail in a moment, he perfectly reveals the hidden Father, representing Him to the world.

These I Am statements serve as markers throughout the gospel of John highlighting unique characteristics of Jesus' person and work—what theologians call Christology. Here in this I Am statement, we see a threefold description of Jesus and His work. Although the immediate context is a discussion of the way to the Father, Jesus' words here are three coordinate ideas, which, however connected they are, remain separate. All of our English translations capture this, but some have suggested it should be read I am the true and living way, which I think robs this of its richness, and can't be supported by the Greek grammar.

More importantly, this I Am statement signifies the whole Christ (Totus Christus). He is, in His person, the way, the truth, and the life. If you are to know the way, and the truth, and have life, you must know Jesus. For these things cannot be had without having Him. This is important lest we make salvation about benefits we receive and not a relationship with a person. As good as justification is, it is not something a christian can possess apart from the person of Jesus. If you do not have Christ, then you have none of His benefits. Which in this case, as Jesus makes abundantly clear, you cannot have access to the Father's house. So let us consider each of these coordinated concepts as they relate to Jesus and His work, and the comfort these give to troubled (Jn. 14:1) disciples.

The Way

However much the disciples misunderstood Jesus' claim to go where they could not follow, at least yet, and all the perplexity over where this might be, Jesus is emphatic He is the only way. As we considered last week, Jesus encouraged the disciples by telling them that although it was troubling for Him to leave them, he was going to His Father's house to prepare a place for them. That is Jesus was going to heaven, and His going there was through a process which secured for them guaranteed access to heaven, which lest we get sidetracked with the location of such a place, is best seen as the place where God dwells, and where we would have unmediated access to Him. Not the fear and trembling of seeing the awesome and terrible glory of God, who had to wrap himself in a cloud, to keep from consuming man in His holiness.

The way Jesus prepared that place for you was through His perfect life and sacrificial death. Jesus is the way to the Father, because Jesus as your covenant head came and did what Adam (and you) couldn't do: obey God perfectly. It was His perfect obedience to the Father's will that qualified him to be the spotless lamb of God, so that he could suffer and die in your place. Jesus lived the life and died the death you never could, so that he could make a way for you back to God.

The Father vindicated the Son's sacrifice by raising Him from the dead, and welcoming Him to heaven at His right hand. But he did not die and rise for himself. He had no need. He did so as your covenant head, your representative. So he has gained access to heaven for all those he died and rose again for. As a great high priest, Jesus carries before His father the names of all those he has made atonement for. So contrary to Arminian theology, Jesus did not make the way possible. He made the way certain. He secured a place for you in heaven that can not be taken away or lost. All those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, have the way of salvation secured for them.

The Truth

As rich as that is, it gets even better when Jesus adds I Am the truth. Whereas the other gospels combined only use the word group truth ten times, John uses it 48 times. Truth is a multifaceted concept in John's gospel. In the Old Testament truth most often describes God's covenant faithfulness—God is truth. As the perfect representative of God, albeit in Human flesh, Jesus is truth. Sin is a distortion, it twists and corrupts the truth, hiding in darkness. But Jesus is the light, that shines truth in the darkness.

The concept of truth is not just propositional, it is relational. Knowing the truth is not about getting better information. That's Google's model for enlightenment, and it won't ever work. You can have access to all the world's knowledge as we all do on our phones and be a fool steeped in lies. For truth is mediated through the person of Jesus. As our society moves away from Christendom, you see this with increasing clarity. Moving from Christ, the source of truth, we embrace the lie expressed well by Pontius Pilate. What is truth? That is the lie of relativism, which claims there is no objective truth. Once you have destroyed objective truth, all that you are left with is my truth, as Oprah made so popular. That is a truth that is so insignificant and empty of any meaning that it can never provide a solid basis for you to trust in.

Jesus not only spoke the truth, he embodied the truth; he is the truth. Through our covenant relationship with Him, we have the complete revelation of God. Essentially, Jesus says, if you want to know the truth, you need to know God, and you can only know God, who is truth, through me.

The Life

Jesus' mission to save the world was the offer of eternal life to those who trust in Him for their salvation. As man was cut off from the sacramental tree of life in the garden of Eden because sin, in the restored new creation man would again have everlasting life through Jesus Christ. As Jesus makes clear later in Ch. 17: “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (Jn 17:3). When man sinned he brought death because he lost access to God. The curse of sin is separation from God. So although Adam lived many more years after the fall physically, he died immediately when God sent him away from the heavenly Eden and the fellowship of walking with God.

Jesus restores life to those held under the power of death, by defeating death with his own death. For although he died to sin, he was raised up again by the incorruptibility of His life. Death was a weak enemy to true life.

In essence Jesus offers His disciples the Father. He provides the way, to Him who is truth and life.

The Exclusivity of Christ

No one can go to where Christ is going except through Jesus. C. S. Lewis captures this best in his The Silver Chair. In Chapter 2 Jill has entered a magical world, and as she makes her way down the mountain, she grows very thirsty. But on finding a stream she sees that there is a lion blocking her path.

“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion. “I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill. “Then drink,” said the Lion. “May I—could I—would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill. The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic. “Will you promise not to—do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill. “I make no promise,” said the Lion. Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer. “Do you eat girls?” she said. “I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it. “I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill. “Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion. “Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.” “There is no other stream,” said the Lion. It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion—no one who had seen his stern face could do that—and her mind suddenly made itself up. It was the worst thing she had ever had to do, but she went forward to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted. You didn’t need to drink much of it, for it quenched your thirst at once. Before she tasted it she had been intending to make a dash away from the Lion the moment she had finished. Now, she realized that this would be on the whole the most dangerous thing of all. She got up and stood there with her lips still wet from drinking. (Lewis, The Silver Chair, 20-21)

What a stirring picture of the exclusivity of Christ. You cannot come to the Father except through Christ. He is the only way. As J. C. Ryle commented on this once said,

Let us beware, if we love life, of supposing that mere earnestness will take a man to heaven, though he know nothing of Christ. The idea is a deadly and ruinous error. Sincerity will never wipe away our sins. It is not true that every man will be saved by his own religion, no matter what he believes, so long as he is diligent and sincere. We must not pretend to be wiser than God. Christ has said, and Christ will stand to it, “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, vol. 3 (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1880), 60.)

You cannot have heaven, but through Christ, he is the only way. The world hates such exclusive claims. But we must insist on it for anything less removes Jesus from the place of preeminence.

You (should) have seen the Father

This assertion causes Jesus to launch into a soliloquy on his relationship with the Father. I prefer the footnote in the ESV on v. 7 for it should read If you have come to know me, you will know my father also. It seems Philips' somewhat negative remarks in v. 8 have caused scribes to put a negative gloss on Jesus' comment in v. 7. But that is unnecessary. The disciples at this point are not clear about everything, but aside from Judas, they know Jesus and believe in Him. Their knowledge is like the sun, gradually dawning so that more and more light floods upon them. After His death and resurrection, they will understand much more, and then after Pentecost and the sending of the Spirit, they will know even more, culminating in the writing of the New Testament. But in the dark of that night before His betrayal what is clear is the disciples have still not quite worked out the relationship Jesus has with God, His father.

“Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”” (Jn 14:8). Now, I admit this is a somewhat strange thing to ask for after Jesus has just delivered his mini sermon on being the way, the truth, and the life. But we see from Jesus' response that Philip has severely misunderstood the relationship between Jesus and His Father. Philip wants direct access to the Father; something similar to Moses asking to see God's glory. But the staggering truth that Philip (and the rest of the disciples) miss, is Jesus is the glory of God.

The sadness in Jesus' response is less about their faith in Him and more about their inability to understand His persistent teaching that God is a triunity of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that He is the perfect visible revelation of the invisible God. Which is, by the way, not an easy truth to wrap one's head around. That the father is in the son, and the son is in the father and both are one, is not something man can reason His way too. It takes special revelation, and still it is difficult for us to understand. Still, the sadness is understandable, since they had been with Jesus so long, and as we'll see in a moment, they were witnesses to great works which only God could do. Philip was seeking something that was right in front of him. By trying to look beyond that, he ends up missing the significance of his relationship with Jesus.

Here, Jesus is not so much talking about his visage, for we might be over-awed at his form. Wow, this is what God looks like. But Jesus' form was of no account, it was unremarkable, even forgettable, as Is. 53 teaches. So although "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" it is not for His figure but for His word and work, what he said and what he has done. Jesus is the Word of God, who speaks and acts on behalf of the Father and so reveals both God himself and His will for the world perfectly.

Jesus ends this soliloquy with a plea for faith—“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.” (Jn 14:11). As if to say, if you find it hard to believe that the words I speak are the Father words, then look at my works, and believe because of them. Our minds are drawn back to Jesus turning water into wine, and I'm not talking boxed wine, but the best that could be made. Or Jesus evangelizing the Samaritans, healing the ruler's son from a distance, or the man lame for 47 years, walking on water, healing the man born blind, raising Lazarus from the dead. What does Jesus have to do to convince them? Jesus has been going around doing things only God could do, and saying things only God would say (without it being blasphemy), and yet they still don't yet have the eyes to see.

Where does this leave us, we who have not looked on Jesus except with the eyes of faith? Are we able to see the Father through Jesus? In what way does it differ from these disciples? Absolutely we can. For although these disciples formed a unique group of men who witnessed the life and ministry of Jesus, they still did not understand fully that he was the glory of God in the flesh until after he had ascended to heaven. But for all others, the only way to the father is still through Jesus, and we still have the same access to the glory of God through faith in Him. The apostle Paul makes this point in one of my favorite sections in 2 Corinthians. As he gives a defense of His preaching ministry, and the reason some continue to reject the message, he says this:

“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Co 4:6).

Paul is talking about the preaching of the word. For as he said earlier in ch. 3:

“Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Co 3:15–18).

When with the eyes of faith you behold Jesus, you see the glory of God, and the more you see, the more in transforms you. Which is why here at Hope we want to get you in as much contact with the Word of God, and especially the preaching of the word of God. If you have not yet formed the habit of including evening service in your spiritual disciplines, let me encourage you to do so this morning. Don't be like Philip seeking some mystical experience of seeing God, when you have the ordinary means of grace right here for you and you don't avail yourself of them. The preaching of the word, along with the sacraments, prayer, and fellowship with the saints are the means God has given to you so that you may see the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ and believe.

So hear Christ in His word; see, touch, and taste him in the supper; converse with Him in prayer; and radiate His presence by walking in the good works he has prepared beforehand for you to walk in. I have nothing to offer you but Christ, but thanks be to God, he is all you need. For he is “the way, and the truth, and the life." And "no one comes to the Father except through” Him. (Jn 14:6). I'll conclude with this meditation of Thomas à Kempis:

“I am the way, the truth and the life. Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the way that you should follow, the truth that you should believe, the life that you should hope for. I am the inviolable way, the infallible truth, the indestructible life. I am the straightest way, the sovereign truth, the authentic life, bless’d and eternal.” (Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI;Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2012), 823.)

Lord's Supper Meditation

As mysteriously as it was for Philip to see and understand that Jesus and the Father are one, and that by seeing Jesus he was seeing the Father, so to is the mystery of Christ's presence with us here in the meal. Much blood and ink have been spilled over Jesus' words—this is my body. How can Jesus, who is at the father's right hand in heaven, be present with us today and offer tangibly to you His broken body and shed blood as true bread from heaven, and true drink? How could that be, for with the eyes, all we see is a cracker and a thimble of wine? It is certainly not done by magic, or by some incantation, turning these common elements into the real presence of Christ. Rather, Christ is the present in these visible words, just as he is in the preaching of the word—by His Spirit. As Calvin says,

We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us...the Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually unites us to himself. (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 537-538.)

The grace that justifies and renews is not a principle that is infused by the sacraments. Rather, it is nothing less than Christ himself, delivered to us by the Spirit who unites us to Christ through faith. (Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 595.)

So these visible words are not replacements for Christ, nor do they infuse secret grace into you by their use, but the Spirit uses them as signs and seals of your union with Christ in His death. Reminding you always that if you have died with Christ, you will also live with him (Rom. 6:5). For "if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Ro 8:10–11). So come and eat and drink by faith, for Christ has secured a way for you to be reconciled to the father, and you see here God's glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth, and the only source of true, eternal life. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Charge

Since Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, you cannot come to the Father except through Him.