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Jesus was just hours away from
His cross. Having taken part in the Lord’s Supper, Judas left into the night
from the Upper Room to carry out his act of betrayal (Jn 13:30). With Judas
departure Jesus announced that He was going away, too (Jn 13:33). This created
no small stir among the eleven disciples. Then He comforted them with His
teaching on His return which has reference to the Rapture (Jn 14:3; cf. 1 Cor
15:51-54; 1 Thess 4:13-18).
Jesus reminded them that they
already knew where He was going and the way (Jn 14:4) though they could not
follow Him now, and Jesus questioned Peter’s willingness to follow after Him
now and revealed that he would do the complete opposite by denying Him three
times (Jn 13:37-38). Jesus answered Thomas’ question (Jn 14:5) that He was
going “to the Father” and the only way to the Father was through Him, “through
Me” (Jn 14:6).
This is Jesus sixth “I AM”
statement in John’s Gospel. Jesus is not just another way of salvation but “the
way.” Salvation is exclusively in the Person of Jesus Christ and in Him
alone (Acts 4:12); He is the “narrow gate” (Mt 7:13-14; Lk 13:24); He is the
“door” (Jn 10:7-9). He is the only conduit to the Father because He is the
truth of God (Jn 1:14) and the life of God (Jn 1:4; 3:15; 11:25). Jesus is
being emphatic about the only approach to the Father here in John chapter 14.
Such faith statements like John
14:6 do not sit well with contrary religions of the world. Take the current
situation in Iran with Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani who was charged to recant or
die for his faith in Christ. Recently, under political pressure, the Iranian
regime finally admitted that his arrest was all about religion for offending
the Muslim faith. Yousef’s unwillingness to renounce his belief that Jesus was
the only way to salvation was considered a crime and worthy of death. He has
been imprisoned for his faith since 2009, and his physical well being is still
uncertain, but not his salvation!
In my opinion this passage in
John 14:6 is perhaps the most
controversial passage in the entire Bible because everybody gets what Jesus is
saying here! They just don’t agree with it. It is so restrictive by charging
that all other religions are inferior for advocating a pseudo-faith, including
a Jewish faith in God without Jesus Christ as the true Messiah. A belief that
is willing to die for such a faith statement that Christ is the only way to salvation
brings glory to the Father but to the world it is considered as nothing more
than arrogance, contemptible, dogmatic, self-righteous, and offensive.
This whole matter could be
easily resolved by Yousef simply lightening up on his position and quit being
so dogmatic and abrasive in his belief. A person of genuine faith, however,
cannot do that for it would be tantamount of denying the very belief of what
makes a Christian, a personal belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Deny
that belief and our personal Christianity crumbles. A person of genuine faith
cannot take a position of denying the truth of Scripture to the world but in
his or her heart really believes it; this is hypocrisy.
Yousef, like Esther, was brought to the world’s stage by God for such a time as this (Esther 4:14) to bring glory to Him whether it be by life or death. We see this clarion call in the case of Yousef who realizes there is no dilemma here, no ambiguities, only a substantive truth – Jesus is the only way to salvation.
Yousef, like Esther, was brought to the world’s stage by God for such a time as this (Esther 4:14) to bring glory to Him whether it be by life or death. We see this clarion call in the case of Yousef who realizes there is no dilemma here, no ambiguities, only a substantive truth – Jesus is the only way to salvation.
In America, if we really
believed this passage the way that Yousef does, and we go out and tell our
neighbors, co-workers, and anyone else we come into contact with that we
believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, we will be considered a very narrow
minded “Bible-thumper,” among other negative epithets, and probably avoided in
the future as being “super religious” and kind of “weird.” But this is the
extent of our persecution in America for the most part.
This passage is at the very
core of Christianity. Though the apostles had only experienced three years of
Jesus’ earthly ministry, they would within hours experience the reality of His
death, three days later His physical resurrection, and forty days afterwards
His physical ascension. Though John 14:6 was a pre-resurrection statement by
Christ heard by the eleven, when we read it today, two thousand years later, we
view it from the perspective of a package: His life, death, resurrection, and
ascension lending testament to the validity of His claim as the only way to the
Father.
With all that this entails we can, like Yousef, lay it all on the line for the truth that Christ is the only [the] way, the truth, and the life. This is what makes evangelical Christianity unique among all the religions of the world; we serve a living Savior! To deny the truth of John 14:6 to the world is to deny Jesus' very existence now!
With all that this entails we can, like Yousef, lay it all on the line for the truth that Christ is the only [the] way, the truth, and the life. This is what makes evangelical Christianity unique among all the religions of the world; we serve a living Savior! To deny the truth of John 14:6 to the world is to deny Jesus' very existence now!
"A little while longer and
the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will
live also" (Jn 14:19).
Would we be so willing to take
our love for Christ to the extremities of becoming separated from our family,
imprisoned, and having the possibility of a death sentence looming over our
heads for simply refusing to recant from the teaching of Jn 14:6 (cf. Mt 10:37-39)? Yousef is an
inspiration to all of us and a vivid illustration of the difference between
mere Christianity and meaningful Christianity that glorifies God.
America is considered by many
to be the bastion of the faith, but what if that really wasn’t the case? What
if American styled Christianity was for the most part a veneer, all style and
no substance, a case for mere Christianity? Yousef, by his love for Christ, is
teaching us all something; there is a price for following Christ (2 Tim 3:12),
and it’s worth being separated from family, imprisoned, and knowing this could
result in death that is essentially over a religious concept; but oh, what a blessed
concept it is! Nestled inside its truth is the certain hope that there is more
to this life than living and dying and making it through the day. I am reminded
of that passage by Jesus of the ripple effect of hatred vented toward
believers,
(18) "If the world hates
you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
(19) If you were of the world,
the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose
you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (20) Remember the word
that I said to you, 'A servant [Gk, doulos,
slave] is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also
persecute you…” (Jn 15).
Do we really believe John 14:6?
If so belief in this verse will automatically catapult us into the religious
far right arena known as “fundamentalist” (Bible-thumpers), whether you are a
Baptist or not! It’s living out our belief, not the label we worship under,
that brings offense; offense will come if we possess a meaningful Christianity
that brings glory to God, like Yousef, not an academic lifestyle but an organic
one, living out “the way.” Who would have imagined that God would let
this wonderful truth emerge in a global manner from one of the darkest,
anti-Christian nations of the earth to herald the message - Jesus is the only
way for salvation!
“I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
