I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life Theological Study

Soteriology

John 14:6~ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. “

When examining a Biblical verse, it is important to understand the historical context in which it’s written. Originally recorded by John, Son of Zebedee, whose main purpose in writing his Gospel can be found in John 20:31, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”, is Jesus’ declaration “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. The passage of John 14:6 is part of an extensive conversation that Jesus had with his disciples during the “Last Supper” on the eve of the Passover Feast. Immediately preceding the statement, we read that Judas has been identified as the betrayer of Jesus and that Peter will deny Jesus three times before sunrise. Jesus has just advised his followers that he will be leaving them soon and He is attempting to comfort them. This one statement which focuses on the four thoughts, “way, truth, life, and coming to the Father”, is in essence a “recipe” for Christianity and completely fulfills the prophesy of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament.

In examining the first word “way”, we find numerous accounts of The Way in the New Testament. The Way was a term used within the Jewish community to identify the “sect” of Jesus- the true Israel- as opposed to the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and the Zealots. We can see an example of this usage by Paul in the text of Acts 24:14, “However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect…” There are also Old Testament accounts such as in Isaiah 35:8 which speaks of the joy of the Redeemed, “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.” Jesus is the Way. He is the only way to Salvation; He is the only way the Father.

Looking at the second word, “truth”, we can obtain a direct definition from the Expository Dictionary, in which the Greek translation means the “truth of God”. We can find many references to the word truth in the Bible. John 14:16-17, 1 John 4:6, and 2 John 2 contain multiple references to the Spirit of Truth and John 15:26 declares “When the Counselor comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me”. In John 14: 9, Jesus says “… Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” And in verse 11, He says “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…”. The Truth is Jesus is the Christ- the Son of God, the personification of God, and part of the Trinity.

Life, the third main word in the verse refers to Eternal Life. This is affirmed in various biblical verses such as John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. There are also several verses such as in John 5:40 and Acts 3:15 where Jesus is referred to as the Author of Life. In John 1:1-5 we can find the Prime Author idea expanded upon with “"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 anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”. I do not believe it was an accident that Jesus was crucified in conjunction with the Passover Festival. Jesus became our sacrificial lamb and shed his blood so that the judgement of death would “pass over” us and allow us to obtain salvation.