Just Thinking.........Again

In the first four verses of John 14 we see the wrap up of the farewell discourse.  Jesus had just finished telling His followers that He was going away and He would prepare a place for them and then come back.  Jesus said they couldn't go with Him but they knew where he was going and they also knew the way

John 14:5
⁵ Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?"

Doubting Thomas doesn't have a clue what Jesus is talking about.  Neither did any of the other disciples but Thomas wasn't afraid to say so.  He didn't remember anyone saying anything about going anywhere.  He wasn't thinking in the Spirit but in the flesh - just like we do.  He thought Jesus was talking about going on a trip to another land.

John 14:6
⁶ Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Jesus spoke plainly to Thomas saying He was the way, the truth and the life.  Thomas still had to be standing there with a blank look on his face.  However, all these things that Jesus spoke would make sense later when the death and resurrection was complete.  Only then would it make sense.

The way speaks of a very exclusive means of getting to heaven.  There is one way, Jesus Christ.  If there were any other way, Jesus died in vain.  Many preach and teach that we all worship the same God - that belief sounds easy and the like a wide path.  That way is a lie from the devil.  Why would God send His son to die a brutal death to pay for your and my sins if there were another way?  Narrow is the path, yet wide enough for all to enter.

As the truth, He is the reality of all of God's promises.  Truth is where the word and the deed become one.  If you really believe in a certain truth, it will be reinforced by a deed.  The truth that a parachute will save you from a plane crash will result in the deed of putting it on and trusting in it.  Do you believe in the truth of Jesus Christ?  If so, that truth will become deed in your life.  The truth of Christ will change you from the inside out.  Trusting in the truth will lead to repentance and obedience.

The life is a new life after we've died to our selves.  We come to salvation by grace alone.  We trust that Jesus is who He said He was and did what the bible said He did.  In that we have faith that our sins are forgiven because He paid for them on the cross.  The life Jesus speaks of begins when you are born again (read John 3 - you must be born again).  This new life is a full life leading to an everlasting life in heaven.  Jesus is the only way to the father. 

John 14:7

"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."

Jesus explains to Thomas that He is missing out on knowing the Father by not rightly knowing Him.  Many know of God and know of Jesus but they don't really know Him.  You can't know the Father without knowing the Son.

John 14:8-14   
⁸ Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."

Thomas just wants Jesus to show Him the Father, and that little thing would be sufficient for him to believe.  There never seems to be enough proof, enough miracles or enough evidence to convince someone who refuses to believe, they will find fault in all the evidence.  The way is blocked by worldly reason and the logic of the flesh, the truth is clouded by the world and life is a flimsy existence balanced on a thread.

However, to those whose eyes are open, they will see the Father in all things.  Design doesn't happen by chance.  Big bangs don't bang without cause.  There are no coincidences in a world ruled by a sovereign God.  All of life and all of nature is evidence to an incredibly holy God.  

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  

Just Thinking

Doug