Mission Venture Ministries

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6)

What a powerful and awe-inspiring statement!

When Jesus calls Himself “the way,” He is saying the He, and He alone is the way, the road, or path to the Father. In John 14:6, Jesus emphatically used the pronoun “I” meaning, “I, and none besides Me.”

Jesus is the only way that we can approach the Father. Recall that in Isaiah 43:11 God said: I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from Me there is no savior.

We need to think of Jesus not only as a way but as a bridge. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Between us and God lies a great chasm we cannot cross on our own. No matter how hard we try in our own strength, we cannot close the distance.

There’s only one way to cross this wide chasm – the cross in form of a bridge. That’s what Jesus is for us. He stands in the gap, providing safe passage across the void and into the arms of our heavenly Father. The Father bridged the gap through the atoning death of His only Son, Jesus Christ.

Sin is serious, and its power to separate us from God is real. But there is hope in Jesus, the One who overcame sin on the cross. Jesus is the bridge spanning a chasm between us and God that we could never cross on our own since the Lord Jesus is the only way to everlasting life. All who believe in Him have that life and will never perish.

Few verses are cited as often as this Scripture. Jesus is preparing His disciples with reassurance, in advance of His arrest and death (John 14:1–4). These words also broadly encourage believers to maintain faith in the face of hardship. Confidence comes to Christians, in part, from knowledge that Jesus is preparing to take us to be with Him.

There is no possibility of translating this comment as Jesus being “one way,” or “a truth,” or just “life;” since both Greek and English refer to “the” way, “the” truth, and “the” life. John doubles down on the idea, in fact, by emphasizing that nobody comes to God “except through [Christ].” Rarely does anyone object to the idea that those who believe in Christ will be saved. What offends many is the suggestion that only those who believe in Christ find salvation. Yet that is the clear teaching of Scripture (Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:5–6).

This is the sixth of seven moments in John’s gospel where Jesus invokes the “I Am” terminology. This echoes God’s self-identification to Moses (Exodus 3:14). The seventh, and last, “I Am” statement will come later in this same discourse (John 15:1).

In conclusion, please spend some time meditating on Jesus, since He is the only “way” to heaven. Without God’s help, we are powerless to bridge the gap ourselves. Heaven would forever remain out of reach, beyond a great divide. When we understand this truth, we begin to appreciate the true power of the cross. This knowledge comes through a single, exclusive means: belief in Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

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