No Other

Jesus famously said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). And since we as Christians want to listen to Jesus when He speaks, we should now, right? Well, we do, surely, but I've rarely examined this all the way through and I wonder if we're missing something. Let's look.

Jesus was with the disciples for the Last Supper, giving them His last speech. He told them He was leaving, and told them, "You know the way to where I am going" (John 14:4). Thomas said, "Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?" (John 14:5). Jesus did not clarify where He was going, but He did tell them the way. "I am the way ..." "I am," He said, which surely rang in the ears of the Hebrew disciples. It was the same name God used when He gave Moses His name (Exo 3:14). That is, "the way, the truth, and the life" is a person -- Christ. He is the way (Isa 35:8). Christ, as the Son of God, the sacrifice for sin, embodies the way to the Father. There is no other. He is the truth. Truth, then, has a name. In His High Priestly prayer He said, "Your word is truth" (John 17:17), which is convenient because John began his gospel with "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). So Jesus is the word of God; our Bible is only a written version, a portion of it. Christ contains it all. Absolute truth is a person. Nothing about Christ is false. In fact, He opposes all that is false. And, He said, "I am the life." Paul repeatedly reminded us that when we placed our faith in Christ, we died with Him and were made alive with Him (e.g., Rom 6:4-11). He is the life. We are alive by His righteousness attributed to us (2 Cor 5:21). It is the Spirit of Christ that gives us life (Rom 8:9). Because He lives, we live (John 14:19).

Notice, also, the sequence. I don't think it was accidental. He is the way that leads to the truth that provides life. Step by step. He is all of that. So, yes, no one can get to the Father apart from Him. In order to have life, we need to know the Father (John 17:3), and the only way we can know the Father is to see Christ (John 14:7). A complete package. A completed work. Like everything else, "all things have been created through Him and for Him" (Col 1:16). Including your salvation.