What did Jesus mean when He said "I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6)?

Until now, in His discourse, He had led His disciples to follow Him (in spirit) on high, through the knowledge which acquaintance with His Person (in which the Father was revealed) gave them of whither He was going, and of the way. He was Himself the way, as we have seen. He was the truth itself, in the revelation (and the perfect revelation) of God and of the soul's relationship to Him; and, indeed, of the real condition and character of all things, by bringing out the perfect light of God in His own Person who revealed Him. He was the life, in which God and the truth could thus be known. Men came by Him; they found the Father revealed in Him; and they possessed in Him that which enabled them to enjoy, and in the reception of which they came in fact to, the Father.

When He tells them however that they knew both where He was going and the way, Thomas objected. At least he does not consider himself conscious of knowing where the Lord was going, and consequently how could he possibly know the way? But the Lord has spoken pure truth. Thomas actually knew, but did not realize how much he knew. The Lord answers first the question as to the way. He Himself was the way, the truth and the life (v. 6). Thomas knew Him, therefore he knew the way. More than that, since they knew Him, they also knew the Father, to whom He was going. To know the Son personally is to know the Father personally, and this is the true character of Christianity, not merely to know facts or rules and regulations as under law; but to know the living God as revealed in His beloved Son.

Christ is the way to the Father: He is the truth as revealing all that the Father is: He is the life, the source of all blessing for all creation, the expression of the same life that is in the Father. Therefore, believers both know and have seen the Father.

Thomas asks as to the way and learns that Jesus spoke of the way to the Father, for the revelation of the Father was the revelation of the Father's house, the way to the Father was the way to the Father's house. Jesus was Himself "the way," for "no man cometh unto the Father but by me." He was also "the truth," for God being revealed they had the truth as to everything, which consists in its relation to Him: and then further He was "the life," the blessed capacity to enjoy the revelation. And he adds, "If ye had known me, ye should have known [conscious knowledge, Rev. text] my Father also: from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him."

We finished, yesterday afternoon, at verse 6 of this chapter, where the Lord says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." All three of these qualities should be well weighed. The first, that is, the Way, is different from the other two; it is, really, Mediatorial, and hangs upon the truth that He is both God and Man. But, besides that, we may say that, His being the Way to the Father hangs on the fact of His being the Truth and the Life. As the Truth, He is the standard, both for God and for man. "Grace and truth came (or subsist) by Jesus Christ." It is closely connected with righteousness, for the truth is what is right. If we speak of time we must have a standard; the sun in the heavens is that by which time is regulated. So, in the moral region, Christ is the blessed Centre of all. Then, too, just as we need the sun for physical life, so we need the Lord Jesus, as the Sustainer of life, morally. "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me," says Paul (Galatians 2:20). As we live and thrive under the sun's rays, so our souls are invigorated, under the beneficent influence of the shining of Christ, from the glory.

He that has the Son has life (1 John 5:12) and he “that confesses the Son has the Father also” (2:23). It is never stated the other way, as though it were reciprocal. “No man comes to the Father but by Me,” said the Son of God. “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.” This excludes all the efforts of man apart from the Son: it shuts out the natural man even at his very best. The 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. Yea, “He is the true God and eternal life.”

But there is more than this in it. I, Jesus, am the Way of access. It is in the knowledge of Me that the renewed soul comes to the Father; the truth of these things with which the soul is conversant in coming to the Father; that is, in My Person; and not only so, but the life in which the soul has vivifying apprehension, the life and power in which it holds communion with these things, with the Father. For it is as one with Him so quickened we stand in this blessed apprehension and relationship.

Truth is the substance of a revealed thing, the reality of what is spoken. "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." He is the Way, and as the Truth and the Life are these things brought into operation so as to bring one in the way. And not only so, but if they had known Him they would have known the Father also, the end they sought for. In thus being the Way and the Truth and the Life, He was the revealer in His Person in unity with the Father, as perfectly leading them to, and revealing, all in fulness.

Further, He is the Truth, the full expression of every one and of every thing as they are. He tells us in His own Person what God is; He shows us the Father, being Himself the Son. But He, not Adam, shows us man. Adam, no doubt, shows us falling or fallen man; Christ alone is man according to God, both morally, as once here below; and in counsel, as now risen and in heaven. Moreover, as He shows us holiness and righteousness, so also He brings out sin in its true colours; as He says Himself, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth Me hateth My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father." Hence He, and He only, brings out His adversary the devil personally, the prince of this world, but the constant enemy of the Son.

Another thing, He was not going to a place with which they were unacquainted: “Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” Thomas gives a flat contradiction to this statement—“Lord, we know not whither Thou goest, and how can we know the way?” But 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. If I wanted to know your house I might get to know it without knowing much about you, but in the things of God it is otherwise. 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. “Where I am,” that is the place.

His answer to Thomas is, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” He wants them to know something of the place, but what He sets before them is the Father, because to know the Father is to know His house. He was the way to the Father, for the Father dwelt in Him; He was the truth of all that could be known of the Father, for in Him the Father was declared; and He was the life, for apart from partaking of His Spirit, there was no life in man for the enjoyment of relationship with the Father. And in this way He was the way, the truth, and the life, as to the place which He was going to make ready for them.

They knew therefore whither He was going; they knew also the way. For they knew in fact more than they realized that they knew. When Thomas, thinking, as it would appear, of a kind of map of the road, which they had not, ventures to object their ignorance of this, the Lord shows him his mistake by assuring him that He Himself was the Way: through Him alone could any come to God. Nor only so; He was also the Truth, — the revelation of God. And since, even so, man was dead and unreceptive of the truth, He was the Life also, which men needed for this reception. The fall treasury for man's need was here then to be found.

"Thomas saith to Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; (and) how know we (or, can we know) the way? Jesus said to him, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life: no one cometh unto the Father but by Me. If ye had known† Me, ye would have known† My Father also; and† from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him†" (verses 5-7). BCpmL, etc., omit καὶ; whilst BCpmD, Lat. MSS., Aeth., etc., read οἴδαμεν, "know we." Text. Rec., with sixteen uncials, perhaps all the cursives and the versions generally, has δυνάμεθα τ. ὁδ. εἰδέναι, "can we know," etc. † ἐγνώκατε … γνώσεσθε, ℵDpm, instead of ἐγνώκειτε … ἐγν ἂν, as in all the other uncials, save that BCpm, etc., give for the last ἂν ἤδειτε. Some of these uncials, etc., omit καὶ before ἀπ [as Blass], and ℵ reads after it γνώσεσθε, not without some support from Latin, BCpm omitting αὐτὸν at the end. [Blass read ἐγνώκατε … γνώσεσθε, but with μὴ before the one, οὐ before the other.]