Way - Truth - Life

“ I am the way and the truth and the life.”   (John 14:6)

 

Way – Truth - Life

 

The sound of three hundred African young adults singing in the beautiful harmonic style that is typical in Zambia rings in my mind: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, that’s what Jesus said! 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, the Truth and the Life, that’s what Jesus said!” Their song sums up the meaning of John 14:6 very well.

 

This statement of Jesus’ is very exclusive; some would call it bigoted. one afternoon while waiting for a plane, I talked with a bishop from a very liberal Christian denomination. We were in a remote outpost within a nation that is 98 percent Buddhist. He purported to believe that “enlightened” Christians should understand that there are many ways to God and that our policy should be dialogue, not conversion. He was in the country trying to quell a group of “radicals” who were evangelizing Buddhists. I was in the country encouraging evangelism because I believe the verse and the song: “That’s what Jesus said!”

 

Jesus further emphasizes the exclusive nature of the statement by adding, “No one comes to the Father except by me.” Think of all the religious systems, the feel-good theories, and the philosophical and psychological schemes that are excluded by that statement. Jesus narrowed the way to God down to just one: Himself. The truth of God and the life of God also are found in that single source. When Jesus is left out of finding God, the way to God, His truth, and His life are left out also.

 

Jesus is not a fork in the road; He is the road. Jesus is not an aspect of truth; He is truth. He is not about life; He is life.

 

That’s what Jesus said!               —John Connor