"This House believes that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life."
These were words spoken by Jesus Himself and were designed to help His listeners understand the reason He was in the world.
It is important first of all to establish the context in which Jesus spoke these words. He had just told His followers that He was going back to heaven and to His Father. He ended by saying, "You know the way to the place I am going." To which Thomas, one of His followers, said, "We don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
In reply Jesus uttered the immortal words, "I am the way, the truth and the life."
It is clear then, from the response of Jesus that He meant that He was the way to heaven. There is no complication regarding the word 'Way' here. It is 'odos', which simply means a path or a road. (I am the path to heaven) I am the Truth (alethia) the absolute truth. There is no greater truth beyond me. In other words, when you know me, there is no other idea or philosophy or teaching that is more important than I am and what I represent. I am also The Life (Zoe). I asked my Greek friend to explain the difference between 'zoe' and 'bios' and he told me that sometimes there is not much difference in the way they are used. However bios usually refers to existence or being alive while zoe refers to a life that is meaningful and fulfilled, and often life here and the life to come. I am the end of what you seek life – eternal and abundant, as opposed to just merely existing for a few years.
For those who are not followers of Jesus this declaration of His can be perceived to be offensive. However, the fact that it might be perceived to be offensive does not prove it to be wrong. Sadly, in order do be politically correct some are prepared to sacrifice this unalterable truth on the altar of compromise, accommodation and religiousness inclusiveness.
Others appear to want to fish by all religious waters, so to speak, and elect to serve several gods or a combination of gods, just to be on the safe side. This is wonderfully illustrated by the pop group Quintessence in one of their songs:
Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga
Draw me deep in the sea of your love
Jesus, Buddha, Moses Gauranga,
Oh maya, oh maya, oh maya.
The Roman Emperor, Septimus, had a similar view. He hedged his bets by having in his private chapel statues of deified emperors, the miracle worker Appolonius, Abraham, Orpheus and Jesus. So, if one didn’t work, one of the others would.
The Christian faith, as I understand it, offers no alternative to Jesus as a means of salvation. Over 2 billion people in the world believe that Jesus is what He claimed to be - that He is God; that His death on the Cross was for the sins of the world – the sins of all people; that He rose from the dead and that He is coming back to this earth as He said He would. Whoever accepts Him as Lord and Saviour, regardless of class, culture, nationality or colour, is granted salvation. "I am the way, the truth and the life," He declared. This is an incredibly exclusive statement. There is no ambiguity in it.
That there is one way to heaven is a matter of great comfort to me, and possibly to many others. Joseph Stowell in his book, "The Trouble with Jesus," commenting on the religious scene in the first century AD says "Interestingly, the exclusivity of Jesus as the only way became an attractive element, given all the broad array of options that all the gods and goddesses provided. Into a world where massive number of deities often left their adherents confused and unsettled, Jesus offered the clarity of being the one and only way." The same clarity is welcomed and needed today.
What makes Jesus uniquely the way to heaven?
1. First, Jesus is the only one of His kind: He is both human and divine. His physical entrance into the world defied human logic and went against what we know to be the principles of science. In the Book of Philippians, written by the Apostle Paul, and by the way a book that was written before the Gospels, we read in Chapter 2: "Christ, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross."
Michael Green in "But Don't All Religions Lead to God?" says that claiming the nature of God is one thing but it is quite another thing to demonstrate it. Green went on to say "They [his followers who knew him] were convinced by his life. It was matchless. Nobody could point to a single wrong in it... For love, honesty, courage, self-sacrifice, sheer godliness – there has never been anyone to touch it. Gradually that had a massive impact on those living closest to Him and made them wonder, "This life has none of the normal failings. Could Jesus be more than man?" So, by his own declaration and the declarations of many who knew Him Jesus is unparalleled in history – fully divine, fully man.
2. Second, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead helped His followers to understand that He was whom He said He was. He had predicted both His death and resurrection. Someone famously referred to Jesus' resurrection from the dead as 'a conjuring trick with bones.' This was not the view of many of His contemporaries, who were present at his crucifixion and who were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Lord. Of all the great teachers and leaders of world religions Jesus is the only one who rose from the dead. His bones are not in His tomb, for as was declared on that glorious Sunday morning, "He is risen."
That Jesus was crucified is a matter of historical record, not only in Christian literature but also in Roman and Jewish sources. That He came back from the dead is supported by the statements of eyewitnesses, who were so sure of what they had seen that they rather died than denied it under Roman torture and persecution. He has conquered death and promises that same victory to those who are saved through Him. No wonder, He declared that He is "THE LIFE."
3. In the next place, Christianity stands alone of all the great religions in declaring that we are not saved by our works. Christianity declares that we cannot save ourselves by good works, though goodness is a virtue for which we must strive. We are saved by the sacrifice of Jesus, for in that sacrifice He paid the price for the salvation of us all.
The Christian understanding is that God created man perfect but gave him the freedom of choice. In exercising that freedom man disobeyed God and thus severed the close and life-maintaining relationship with Him. The consequence of that disobedience was separation from God and eternal death. God demonstrated His love and His supreme sense of responsibility in sending His Son to pay the penalty for our disobedience. We could not and cannot save ourselves. Man is saved by accepting the merits of Christ's sacrifice.
There is a Buddhist story that tells of a boy who left home and spent all he had in careless living. This eventually led to his falling upon hard times. (Sounds familiar?) He eventually returned home and was ordered by his father to work off the penalty for his misdeeds. Jesus tells a similar story but the ending is different. The boy on returning home was met by his father, who kissed him, covered up his filthy clothes, showered him with love and made a feast to celebrate his return. This second Father represents our heavenly Father.
4. Then, we cannot ignore the teaching of Jesus. Those who heard Him realised that here was someone special. He was not reliant on the ideas of others to teach. His teaching came from His own being. "He spoke as one having authority," some said. Others said, "Never has one spoken as he did." "Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you." The Sermon on the Mount, from which these two phrases have been extracted, stands as the most authoritative body of teaching there is as to how we should relate to each other and what life's priorities ought to be.
Patrick Reardon in a sermon he delivered last month says: "The teaching of Jesus was inseparable from His person. In the Gospel we do not find our Lord appealing to universally available religious truths, truths that could stand on their own, truths accessible to man's mind apart from His teaching of them, truths that could outlive the person who spoke them. It is essential to grasp this fact, because it indicates an essential difference between Jesus and other 'religious founders.'"
5. Next, we cannot ignore the fact that Jesus' birth and mission were predicted centuries before He was born. Ancient Jewish literature was replete with predictions of the one who was to come as God with us. Even the very place of His birth was predicted. He was to be born of the line of King David and of a virgin, in Bethlehem. He was to be the Messiah, the Saviour; He would suffer for the sins of the world. He would be rejected by His own people. Jesus fulfilled all the predictions that were made regarding the One who would come as the Messiah. There are no other examples of such predictions made centuries beforehand that have been fulfilled by a historical person.
I have often heard the phrase, "It doesn't matter which religion we belong to, for all religions lead to God and that all that is required of us is to be sincere in our religious beliefs and practice." This is a nice inclusive and benign statement but our salvation is too important to leave to politically correctness. If all religions led to God and could provide their followers with eternal life, God would not have needed to make the ultimate sacrifice of sending His Son to be our Saviour. The fact that God sent Jesus to make a path for humanity to be reconciled to Him demonstrates that this is the way that He has provided for our salvation.
Sincerity is an admirable quality but it is not enough. We can be sincerely wrong. Many tyrants and dictators were sincere in their actions but that did not constitute rightness. I may sincerely believe that I am more handsome than Mohammed Ali in his prime, but such a notion when tested will prove to be wrong. We may sincerely believe that Great Britain is still the greatest military power in the world but the facts prove otherwise. More than sincerity is needed. Truth is needed. No wonder Jesus said, "I am the Truth."
Having established that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, there are two questions that must be addressed: The first is, is there any merit in any religion, apart from the religion of Jesus – Christianity? Michael Green’s words are a fitting answer: "Almost all religions believe in a superior being... Almost all religions believe in basic morality... All religions lift people's eyes from their own self concerns to some greater ideal." All of this is commendable but it does not lead to heaven.
The second question is even more important: If Jesus is indeed the Way, Truth and Life, does it follow that only those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved – Christians, in other words? (A TRICK QUESTION, if ever there was one!)
While it is true that Jesus is the way to salvation and eternal life, the Bible does not declare that only Christians will have eternal life. What is clear, however, is that all who are given eternal life receive it on the basis of what Jesus has done. This is true of people who lived before and after the Cross. Salvation is in Christ alone. The Bible in Acts 17:30 says that God is willing to forgive us of our past ignorance but now He commands all to turn to Him, that is through Christ. It is comforting that we are not the judge of the world. God is and He will do what is right and just.
C S Lewis says that there is one mistake we must not make about Jesus and that is to say, "I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God." He went on to say, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic... or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He didn’t intend to."
Jesus' claim to be the Way, the Truth and the Life is among the many claims that mark Him as different from Confucius, Zoroaster, Buddha or Mohammed. They had too much regard for their credibility to make such claims. C S Lewis was right: To make such claims Jesus had to have been mad or bad - or God. No one, apparently, is suggesting that He was mad or bad. As we have seen, the compromise status 'simply a great teacher' is not tenable because of his claims. That leaves us with:
Jesus - THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE.
Photo: Pastor Don McFarlane with Fred Kuchlin, the new President of the Durham Debating Society. Photo credit. Peter Jeynes.