Jesus says to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless by me.
Commentaar bij dit vers
The Setting
In the upper room, after the Lord told His own that He was going to the Father's house to prepare a place, Thomas protested that they neither knew the destination nor the way. The Lord's answer in John 14:6 lifts the question off the level of geography and onto the level of His own Person: He Himself is the way, the goal is the Father, and entrance is exclusive.
A Person, Not a Plan
The disciples had been thinking about a place; Christ turns them to a Person. They knew the Father's house because they knew Him.
James BoydBut Thomas was greatly mistaken, for they knew where He was going, by knowing Himself. In Him they had learned everything that gave character to the place... We know divine things by knowing divine Persons. The way to become acquainted with the place is to become acquainted with the Person who is in the place.
The Way — A Lost Road Found Again
The very form of the saying tells us man had wandered off; the Lord does not point to a road, He is the road.
Magazines"I am the way, the truth, and the life." There is no other way to God. The fact of Christ saying He is the way, declares that man has lost the way. What man wanted was a way back to God, to the Father; and Christ says, "I am that way."
And it is a way opened by His blood:
MagazinesNo way but through Him — through His blood — the new and living way now made open for us into the holiest of all, even the presence of God.
The Truth — The Full Showing of What Is Real
Christ alone has expressed reality as it truly is, of God and of man.
William KellyThe truth is the full bringing out of what a person or thing is. It is the expression of objects in their reality... wherever the thing is set out as it really is, there you have the truth. Christ is the only one who has ever done it objectively... When you have Christ, you have the truth, and not otherwise.
So if Christ is unknown, every other judgment goes wrong:
MagazinesAnd He is "the truth" as to everything, the truth in relation to God, in relation to man, in relation to time, in relation to eternity; and if you do not know Christ, you do not know the truth about anything. Your judgment of things in this world is a false judgment if Christ is unknown to you.
The Life — and All Three Together
Christ is not one third of what is needed; He is the entire supply.
H J VineThe Son is the Way, not simply a way! The Son is the Truth, not simply a portion of it! The Son is the Life, not simply a partial manifestation of it.
William KellyOne cannot have Him as the Way and the Truth without having Him as the Life also, for indeed He is the Resurrection and the Life... The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord; and as the way in Christ is a path of love and liberty and holiness, so the end also is life everlasting.
"No Man Cometh Unto the Father But By Me" — Wide and Exclusive
The verse closes every other door and opens this one to all.
William KellyThere is the surest guarantee, the amplest and the highest good, but it is absolutely exclusive. By none but the Son can one come to the Father; by Him can come any, the proudest Jew, the most debased Gentile... and be it observed that it is not to God only in sovereign grace above sin, saving the most guilty and wretched, but to the Father as such.
H J VineThis excludes all the efforts of man apart from the Son: it shuts out the natural man even at his very best.
Knowing the Father Through the Son
The verse is also the answer to where the knowledge of God as Father is found.
F. A. HughesThus for the knowledge of the Father, and for the way to Him, we are dependent absolutely upon the Person of the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and there is no other way to God as Father.
Summary
- Person, not place. The disciples wanted to know the road to the Father's house; the Lord answers by giving them Himself, because divine things are known by knowing divine Persons.
- Lost and recovered. That Christ must say "I am the way" admits man has lost it; the way home is opened only through His blood as the new and living way.
- Truth defined. Truth is the full setting forth of any reality as it truly is; Christ alone has done this — without Him every judgment about God, man, time and eternity is false.
- One indivisible Christ. He is THE way, THE truth, THE life — not a portion of any of them; you cannot take Him as one without receiving Him as all three.
- Exclusive yet open. The verse shuts out all human effort at its best, and at the same time opens the Father — not just God in sovereign grace — to the proudest Jew and most debased Gentile through the Son alone.