“I am the way, the truth, and the life;
no
one goes to the Father except by me”
(Jesus says about Himself, John 14:6, TEV)
These words of Jesus prove
to be a problem whenever Christians talk with non-Christians, particularly today
when it is considered right to be tolerant of the views of others. The problem
is this: if Jesus is right that no-one can come to God except through Him, then
the common, ‘tolerant’ belief that
there are many routes to God (as many of my liberal friends think it is so), of
which Jesus is just one of them, looks very shaky.
Of course, we could say
Jesus did not really mean what He said; or we could conveniently forget that He
said it. Some Bible scholars, which is not necessary Christians, offers us a
let-out by suggesting that these are words the Gospel writer put on the lips of
Jesus, rather than actual words spoken by Jesus. But, as historically and
evidentially proofs, there is rather more integrity about the New Testament than that. In any case, we
must very careful not to dismiss this or any other saying of Jesus simply
because it is difficult to accommodate into our thinking and reasoning.
The alternative is not
easy. It means accepting the words of Jesus and standing by them. We then risk
being accused of intolerance and arrogance: because here, Jesus is provocatively claiming to enjoy some kind of
exclusive access to God and relationship with God. It is so exclusive, in
fact, that if anyone else wants to come to God, they can do so ONLY through Jesus – that is, anyone
who wants to get to know God needs to get involved with Jesus. Jesus says, “I am the way, the
truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me”
Do you know the Way to God?
Do you know Jesus of the Bible?
THINK BIG.
START SMALL. GO DEEP.
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