John 14:6 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is the third great remedy for their limitations, their deficiencies: they needed to understand his work. ‘Thomas, Peter, all of you, all your life you have thought that the way is the sacrifices in the Temple. You have brought your sacrifices, at least annually, maybe three times a year to the Temple in Jerusalem. And the sacrifices have been offered up, the symbols of forgiveness, and you have in your heart, so to speak, laid your sin on the offering, and your sin has been taken away. But you know that was not the way. The sacrifices were only symbols of something mysterious that God would do to take away sin. I am the sacrifice.’ John the Baptist had told them three years before – ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.’ They had forgotten it. ‘The sacrifices are not the way. The worship of God’s people in ancient times was only for the time being. That is not efficacious. It is not effective, it is a symbol, it does not achieve the washing away of sin and the forgiveness of the soul.’ He fulfilled the sacrifices, he is the real High Priest, the mediator that stands between God and man. He is the Temple, if you like. The Temple will be destroyed in AD 70. Christ has told them that the Temple would not stand. His body would be the Temple, in that he was the mediator between God and man. He doesn’t mean I am the one who shows you the way. He says, I myself am the way. He is the way to heaven, the road to heaven. Here is a road, it’s been built, it’s a beautiful road, it has great bridges over terrible and wide rivers; it has cuttings through mountain passes. You could never take that journey, it wouldn’t be possible, but with a road you can pass over the most impassable terrain, and you can get through. I am the road, says Christ. You cannot get to heaven, you cannot so obey God and keep his law so as to be absolutely perfect, which is the only way to heaven. It is like a great mountain with deep rifts and valleys and fast flowing rivers, and you would drown; you cannot make it – you are a lost sinner. But I am the road. I suffered and died on Calvary to bear your sin for you; if you believe in me and come to me. I earned heaven for you; my righteousness will be credited to you if you believe in me. I am a road that takes you through that uncrossable mountain. By trusting in me you can take this journey. ‘I am the way, the truth.’ Of course, Christ is the embodiment of truth. He is the reason why. But he is the truth behind the ancient Jewish worship. All the types and the shadows, all the symbols of worship pointing forward: to whom did they point? ‘They point to me’, he tells the disciples. ‘I am the truth, the reality. And everything that I tell you is true, and every promise that I make to you.’‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ That is to say, ‘You need new life as he had explained to Nicodemus at the very beginning of the Gospel of John. You need to be born again, to have your spirit brought to life, to be converted, to be related to God, to be able to pray to him and walk with him. I am the source of that new life. I am the way, I will suffer and die for sinners. I am the truth, the fulfilment of all the promises and prophecies of old. And I am the one, who will give you eternal life and bring you into touch with the living God.’ So the disciples needed to grasp his work.