One can argue that the most significant claim that Christ made regarding His divinity was not divinity itself, but divine exclusivity. That is to say that there are no other gods but the God of the Bible, the God who reviled His name to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM” and instructed Moses to tell the people of Israel that “I AM” had sent him to them (Exodus 3:14); and that the only way to have a relationship with the only true God is through the man Jesus Christ. Jesus highlighted this truth when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” in John 14:6. This statement was made in response to a question from one of the disciples, Thomas, during a conversation that took place as Jesus and the disciples shared a meal and talked in the last several days before His crucifixion, this conversation has come to be known as the Upper Room Discourse.[1]
This discourse took place in the time leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, near the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus had spent the past three years teaching and walking with the disciples and now He was having an intimate conversation over a shared meal with these twelve men whom He had poured His life into. It is significant in itself that the conversation took place over a shared meal or banquet. In the first century a banquet was an elaborate meal which was prominent in sealing friendships, celebrating victories, and for other joyous occasions.[2] While this banquet was no doubt linked to the observance of the Passover, it also was a time for Jesus and the disciples to seal their friendship and celebrate the coming victory over sin and death, whether the disciples recognized it or not.
The conversation in which Thomas asked his question of the Lord was immediately proceeded by Jesus’ washing of the disciples feet. This event, Jesus’ washing of the disciples feet, is important in its own right. The work of footwashing was regarded as so lowly a task that it could not be required of a Hebrew slave.[3] Yet here we have the Son of God washing the feet of His students. Through this act Jesus teaches that if one wants to lead, he must first serve. No doubt this was an important lesson for the disciples to understand before they could truly understand the significance of Jesus’ greatest act of service, His atoning sacrifice on the cross.
It is in the context of the discussion of these coming events that we find Thomas asking his question. In the upper room on the eve of the crucifixion, Jesus spoke of His imminent departure, finishing with “and where I am going you know the way” (John 14:4).[4] Jesus’ statement that the disciples knew the way triggered a question in the mind of Thomas. Even though the Lord had assured the disciples that they knew the way Thomas responded, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (John14:5). Thomas’ question elicited an interesting response from the Lord. Jesus did not rebuke Thomas for his doubt, but patiently explained the truth; that Thomas indeed knew the way, because he knew Jesus. Jesus responded that a life given in belief and faith in Him would pave the way to eternal fellowship with Him.[5] One must not miss the significance of the statement that Jesus is the way. Jesus did not come to earth wrapped in baby’s flesh to show us a new or better way to the Father. He came, as God incarnate, to be the way. It is the difference between trying to find your way to a particular destination by the use of a map provided by someone who knows the way and taking them along for the ride. Jesus, as the way to the Father, is the ever-present help (Psalm 46:1) in one’s spiritual journey back to the Heavenly Father.
It is also important to understand that Jesus is not a way or a truth or a life, but the one and only way, truth, and life. It is here that Jesus teaches the doctrine that has put Christianity at odds with culture for two-thousand years; the fact that the only way to the Father is through Jesus. Jesus was the perfect revelation of the means for reconciliation with God, because He was God incarnate. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, without ceasing to be what He is, God the Son, took into union with Himself what He before did not possess, a human nature.[6]
In addition to being the way to God Jesus also claimed to be “the truth” (John 16:6). Being fully God and fully man Jesus was not only able to say that He knew and spoke the truth, but that He was the truth. This claim reminds us first of all of Jesus’ utter reliability.[7] Jesus was not only conveying the true teaching of God, but was God and His truth lived out in human flesh. Many religions are led by people who claim to possess the teachings of a Supreme Being or creator, but Jesus was the Supreme Being. Because of this unique relationship with God the Father, God the Son also possesses the same attributes, specifically God’s veracity, or truthfulness. God’s truthfulness means that he is the true God, and that all His knowledge and words are both true and the final standard of truth.[8] In other words, not only is all that Jesus said true, but He is the ultimate measure of what truth is. Everything that is not in line with Jesus is not true.
The last claim that Jesus made in this profound statement is that He is “the life”. Here Jesus is closely associating life very closely with Himself.[9] Jesus is not saying that He can give life, but that He is the source of life (John 1:3). This is in contrast to all of the legalistic rules that permeated Jewish culture in Jesus’ time, which brought death (2 Corinthians 3:6). A person has access to the God’s gift of a fulfilling and abundant life through a real and personal relationship with Jesus (John 10:10).
After making the statement, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life), Jesus goes on to say, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” This thought better illustrates the fact that Jesus is not only a way, but the only way to the Father and builds the case for the exclusivity of Christianity. This was a bold statement for a first century Jew, there is no mention of Abraham or Moses, who were the agents of the precious dispensations. Here Jesus teaches that one cannot come to the Father based on their righteousness through works nor on their family line, but can only come through Him.
It is interesting to note that after Jesus taught on the fundamental element of Christian doctrine, one’s relationship with the God the Father thorough and only through God the Son, he build on this foundation as we see the conversation turn to matters of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in verses 8 through 21. The mystery of the Trinity is one of the most difficult of all doctrines to understand.[10] Here we find Jesus teaching on His relationship with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus reminds the disciples that He is the perfect revelation of God the Father and that He carries out the Fathers work. Jesus also go on to explain His work in the sending of God the Spirit to guide those who have trusted in Him as the way, the truth, and the life; those who have come to the Father through Him.
Jesus used this intimate setting, a private banquet with His closest followers, to solidify the teachings that He had been instilling in them all along; the fact that in Him was the only way for mankind to be reconciled to God the Father. Since a right relationship with God is the heart of all religion, reconciliation that makes access, welcome, and fellowship possible for all may be held as the central concept of Christianity.[11] Jesus also explained how a relationship with Him would lead to an understanding of the Father and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. In this one statement, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, Jesus identifies Himself with Jehovah of the Old Testament and underscores the point that He is the only Savior.
[1] Elmer Towns, The Gospel of John: Believe and Live (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002), 139.
[2] Chad Owen Brand, Charles W. Draper, and Archie W. England, “Banquet” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 166.
[3] Brand, Draper, and England, “Footwashing”, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 592.
[4] Leon Morris, Jesus Is the Christ: Studies in the Theology of John (Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), 118.
[5] David S. Dockery, Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, Tenn: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 624.
[6] R. L. Reymond, “Incarnation,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Reference Library) 2nd ed., ed. Walter Elwell (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2001), 601.
[7] Morris, Jesus Is the Christ: Studies in the Theology of John, 119.
[8] Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 195.
[9] Morris, Jesus Is the Christ: Studies in the Theology of John, 119.
[10] Towns, The Gospel of John: Believe and Live, 142.
[11] R. E. O. White, “Reconciliation,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Reference Library) 2nd ed., ed. Walter Elwell (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2001), 992.
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