– When Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He is
preaching the Gospel. He is covering every single thing that would be
important to a 1st century Jew, and anyone else for that matter.
God’s way was continually brought up in the OT‚Äìit was the entire way
of life for the people. Sometimes the Law is also called the Way.
“And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to
fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to
serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am
giving you today for your own good?”
(Deut 10:12-13 NIV)
– He also covers the Jews and the Greeks in this statement. The
highest pursuit for a Jew was God’s way, and the Greek’s were
lovers of truth (or so they said and wanted as their reputation).
Basically Jesus is addressing these guys, and can tell they are
getting a little uneasy, and wants to reassure them that they
know everything they need to know by knowing Jesus. There are no
surprises or tricks ahead of them.
– The Father really wants us to be connected to Jesus as the source
of all hope and life. By sending us a MAN to take us into God’s
presence, all kinds of vain deeds and religious duties are blown
away. So many religions are full of activities and actions that
breed people with disconnected hearts. Hearts that are along for
the ride while the flesh does a bunch of spiritual things, while
the spirit of a man covets, lusts, lies, gossips, and is full of
ambition.
When a person does something because of Jesus, it is easy to
explain, “This is what Jesus wants me to do.” But when someone
does something because their religion calls for it, you can find
that it is very difficult to stand by. “We don’t eat meat on
Friday because it’s a fast. Well, we eat fish, because fish isn’t
meat.”
– The Father knew from the beginning that we couldn’t follow rules,
and that it would be impossible to work our way up into His
presence, so He did it for us. That is why Jesus Himself crossed
over from being a direction-giver to being the directions
Himself. We can’t do it without Him, and to think anything
otherwise is to veer from the Way, the Truth, and Life.
