Jesus is the Way
John 14:6 – “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Twice, previously, we have looked at Jesus being the Truth. Now, we want to look at Jesus being the Way. Before we do, it is good to examine the first two words of this phrase, where Jesus says, “I Am.” The first time this particular phrase is mentioned, when it comes to God, is when Moses was at the burning bush and in the midst of his conversation with God, God told him to say that ‘I Am’ had sent him. This was a phrase to emphasize Him being God, specifically emphasizing the eternal existence of God. Now, Jesus uses it seven times in the Gospels to emphasize the same truth. He is God. He has existed eternally. The Jews would have understood the Greek word He was using here.
As one commentator said, “In the Greek language, “I am” is a very intense way of referring to oneself. It would be comparable to saying, “I myself, and only I, am…These words reflect the very name of God in Hebrew, Yahweh, which means “to be” or “the self-existing one.” It is the name of power and authority, and Jesus claimed it as His own.” So, when Jesus says He, the I Am, is the way, we can understand Him to be saying that He is the only way, and there is no other.
In that same verse, verse 6 of John 14, Jesus goes on to say that no one can come to the Father except through Him. No one can get to God except through Him. He is the way to be reconciled to God the Father. There is no other path to get to Heaven where the Father is, except the path provided by Jesus Himself. There is no other way to have eternal life except through Jesus, who purchased that life through His death and resurrection. Peter, in Acts 4:12, brings this same truth out when he says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Jesus is exclusively the way to salvation, to eternal life, and to Heaven where the Father is.
Let me finish here with a quote from C.N. Willborn, who said, concerning this verse, “Jesus explicitly identifies Himself as ‘the way.’ He is the only path to the Father, and through Him alone can one find eternal life. This verse emphasizes that salvation is not found through human efforts, good works, or religious observances, but through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”