Christ Jesus, the Way, the Truth, the Life.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6. THE whole system of human redemption is set forth in the above scripture, and volumes could be written in explication thereof without exhausting it. No one comes unto the Father but by Christ. THE words take for granted man's lost condition. He is fallen, separate from God. By sin he has defaced God's image originally stamped on his character, and has erected the throne of self in the heart. The only means by which he may become united to God, the only way by which he may become acquainted with God, is through Christ. “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” Matt. 11:27. But Christ came to reveal the Father. John 14:1, 10. The only way, then, to become acquainted with God, whom to know is life, is through his Son Jesus Christ. The Way.—Christ is the way to God. The true way is the way of God's commandments (Ps. 119:32, 33), the way of peace (Ps. 119:165), which is the way of righteousness (Ps. 119:172). But all mankind have transgressed the way of the Lord, have perverted their own ways, and therefore “the way of peace have they not known,” for “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” Rom. 3:17, 18. And this is the case with all men of themselves, for “all have sinned” and, at the very best, “come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:19, 23. Christ is the way back to holiness, the only way by which man may be reconciled to God. He is the ladder seen in Jacob's dream with one end reaching to heaven and the other resting on the earth. He came down to the very lowest depths of sin; death;—and in his righteous character, developed in perfect obedience to God's perfectly holy law, as well as by his birthright, he lays hold upon the throne of heaven, and thus bridges the chasm which sin has made. To him who yields himself to God, and that is what faith is, his sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, the righteousness of God in Christ is placed upon him, and he is accepted in the beloved. See Rom. 3:21-26. The sinner becomes complete in Christ (Col. 2:9, 10), a saint in Christ's holiness (1 Cor. 6:11), a child of God (John 1:13; 1 John 3:1). He is accepted just as though he had never sinned.
The Truth.—Christ as the way is gladly accepted by many, but Christ as the truth by few. God's “word is truth.” It is by obeying the truth of that word—through faith, always of course—that we are purified (1 Peter 1:22); it is God's word by which we are sanctified, that is separated from the world and set apart to his service (John 17:17). In fact, it is through that same word of truth that we are begotten (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23), that we grow (1 Peter 2:2), that we are built up unto eternal life (Acts 20:32). How important, then, is this word, and yet how few are willing to accept it! How many there are who are more willing to accept of human perversions of God's word, of human traditions, of human opinions and practices contrary to the truth of the Bible, rather than by simple faith to receive the word! And yet he who truly receives Christ receives the word, for Christ is the Incarnate Word. That word is among men's words just what Christ is among men, both human and divine, reaching man in the lowest depths and lifting him to heaven by divine power. Christ is the Word (John 1:1-3), for all the word of God came through him. It was he who commissioned his evangelists and apostles; it was his Spirit which spoke through the prophets. 1 Peter 1:10, 11. And, therefore, to reject that word is to reject Christ Jesus. We cannot accept him as the way and reject him as the truth. It is by the truth that he builds our character (Acts 20:32; Matt. 7:24, 25), and by which he keeps us to the end (Ps. 17:4; 91:4; 2 Thess. 2:12, 13). Then receive Christ Jesus, not alone as the blessed way back to God, but as the truth in all its fullness, which will keep us there.
The Life.—Fewer still accept Christ as the life, the only life of the world. They accept of the way nominally, because they desire to be saved at least from the consequences of sin. They professedly embrace his truth for the same reason and yet pervert it by making its standard of interpretation human opinion. But to say that Christ is our life is to admit that we do not have life ourselves; and poor humanity does not wish to reject the lie told by the old deceiver to our first parents, “Ye shall not surely die.” And yet men do die, and the only proof we have that they do not is that reiterated lie of the ages. But the Truth declares, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” He also declares that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” He tells the unyielding sinners, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” John 5:40. And yet to know him is not mere life as we now possess it, as the sinner possesses it; but “this is life eternal, that we might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:3. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. . . . And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” See 1 John 5:10-13. And he who lets Christ live his life in him, will at Christ's coming be given immortality, but not till then. See 1 Cor. 15:51, 54. But it all comes through Christ. The life is the accompaniment of the righteousness he gives (Rom. 8:10), and both righteousness and life come by faith in the word of truth. Why not take Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, the Life, as a whole Saviour?