The way to God

(John 14:6)

The passage at the head of this article reads: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless by me". The statement was made by Christ in answer to a question from Thomas as to where Christ was going and how we could know the way. The answer tells us that Christ was going to the Father and that He was the way. The statement runs somewhat parallel with the statement of Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians: "For through him (i.e. Christ) we have both access by one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18). Hebrews is very similar and gives us detail, so that we have: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the [holy of] holies by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, and [having] a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience, and washed as to our body with pure water" (Hebrews 10: 19-22).

It will be noted that Christ speaks to his disciples of Himself being not only the way, but also the truth and the life. The point almost certainly is that Christ is the way, that of truth and that of life. He is the way of truth in contrast to every false way and the way of life in contrast to mere formal ways of approaching God. The Father is to be worshipped in spirit and truth (John 4:23). In spirit would be in contrast to material ways of worshipping God (e.g. the Jewish system) and in truth in contrast to false ways of worshipping him (e.g. the Samaritan system).

The statement in Hebrews is similar. The way is a new and living way: new in contrast to the old way and living in contrast to dead formality. The difference between John and Hebrews is that John is white and black: truth in contrast to falsehood; Hebrews is the new in contrast to the old. The system organised under Moses was of God and cannot therefore be classed as false as the heathen religions were. Hebrews speaks of what is better. The law was good (Romans 7:12) but now we have what is better.

Other Scriptures would confirm the thought that the Christian way is the way of truth (2 Peter 2:2) and the way of life (Matthew 7:14).

The thought that in Scripture the nouns after the first one have an adjectival sense is found among the hints and helps in Young's analytical concordance. The relevant wording is: "When two nouns are coupled by a conjunction, the SECOND is frequently equal to an ADJECTIVE, e.g.- Jer. 29:11; Luke 21:15, John 3:5; 14:6; Acts 1:25; 23:6; Col. 2:8; 2 Tim. 1:10; 2 Peter 1:3". (See Appendix 1) It will be noted that the sentence we have been considering is included in Young's list. The way to read Christ's statement as proposed above and by Young makes it clear why Christ introduced the words truth and life into his answer. To read the passage as if it meant that Christ is truth and life in addition to being the way is to make him add apparently irrelevant conceptions to his answer.

However, it is not in itself wrong to say that Christ is the Truth and the Life. We are told in Ephesians 4:21 that the "truth is in Jesus" and in John 11:25 we have: "I am the resurrection and the life" meaning very likely that He is the raiser and lifegiver.

January 2001