Section 121---Part III: Way, Truth, Life (John 14:4-7)
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:5-6
These verses have been parsed and pondered by the greatest theological thinkers over and over again.
"Luther speaks of it as referring to the past, present, and future." -Pulpit
E.W. Bullinger views the second and third nouns as amplifications and elaboration on the first "way:"
Regarding the Way:
"Christ is the way, the highway spoken of, Isa_35:8. Christ was his own way, for by his own blood he entered into the holy place (Heb_9:12), and he is our way, for we enter by him. By his doctrine and example he teaches us our duty, by his merit and intercession he procures our happiness, and so he is the way. In him God and man meet, and are brought together."--Matthew Henry
"Further, the way to which we commit ourselves when we seek to come to the Father through Christ is a Person. "I am the Way." It is not a cold, dead road we have to make the most of for ourselves, pursuing it often in darkness, in weakness, in fear. It is a living way--a way that renews our strength as we walk in it, that enlivens instead of exhausting us, that gives direction and light as we go forward."
-Expositor's Bible
Regarding the Truth:
"All spiritual truth is associated with Christ, because it proceeds from Him and terminates in Him." H. J. Gamble, BI
Truth lies between way and life, as if the way to life were through truth (Leigh)
"Christ, then, is "the Truth," because He is the Revealer of God." -Expositor's Bible
The two further terms used by himself are probably introduced to throw light upon the way to the Father. Thus there are numerous assurances that he is the Truth itself, that is, the adequate and sufficient expression of Divine thought. "All the promises of God are yea [i.e. are uttered] and Amen [i.e. confirmed] in him." He is the absolute Truth -Pulpit Commentary
"V. NOTWITHSTANDING THE INDIFFERENCE THAT MEN GENERALLY MANIFEST IN RELATION TO IT. I know of nothing which men are so reluctant to honour. If, indeed, you will lower its tone and destroy its vitality; if you will represent it as a philosophy amenable at the bar of man, and class it as a speculation with all other speculations it will be tolerated
VI. NOTWITHSTANDING THE WORLD’S HOSTILITY. Thus hostility has put the seal to the declaration. Had it not been mighty, it would never have awakened that hostility; had it not been right-hearted, it would never have dared it; had it not been immortal, it would never have survived it; but having awakened, dared, and survived it, in the person of Christ, and in His truth we see it, as if it came direct from heaven, bearing this testimony before all unequivocally and unshakingly, “I am the Truth.”
Take it with you as at once your defence and your law." J. Aldis, BI
Regarding the Life:
"In every man there is a thirst for life. Everything that clogs, impedes, or retards life we hate; sickness, imprisonment, death, whatever diminishes, enfeebles, limits, or destroys life, we abhor. Happiness means abundant life, great vitality finding vent for itself in healthy ways. Great scope or opportunity of living to good purpose is useless to the invalid who has little life in himself; and, on the other hand, abundant vitality is only a pain to the man who is shut up and can spend his energy only in pacing a cell eight feet by four. Our happiness depends upon these two conditions--perfect energy and infinite scope.
But can we assure ourselves of either? Is not the one certainty of life, as we know it, that it must end? Is it not certain that, no matter what energy the most vigorous of us enjoy, we shall all one day "lie in cold obstruction"? Naturally we fear that time, as if all life were then to end for us. We shrink from that apparent termination, as if beyond it there could be but a shadowy, spectral life in which nothing is substantial, nothing lively, nothing delightsome, nothing strong. That state which we shrink from our Lord chooses as a condition of perfect life, abundant and untrammelled. And what He has chosen for Himself He means to bestow upon us.
Why should we find it so hard to believe in that abundant life? There is a sufficient source of physical life which upholds the universe and is not burdened, which in continuance and exuberantly brings forth life in inconceivably various forms. The world around us indicates a source of life which seems always to grow and expand rather than to be exhausted. So there is a source of spiritual life, a force sufficient to uphold all men in righteousness and in eternal vitality of spirit, and which can give birth to ever new and varied forms of heroic, holy, godly living--a force which is ever pressing forward to find expression through all moral beings, and capable of making all human action as perfect, as beautiful, and infinitely more significant than the products of physical life which we see around us."
Upon Thomas' declaration of concern that he did not know the way:
"The patient gentleness of the Master with the slowness of the scholars is beautifully exemplified here, as is also the method, which He lovingly and patiently adopts, of sending men back to consult their own consciousness as illuminated by His teaching, and to see whether there is not lying somewhere, unrecked of and unemployed in some dusty corner of their mind, a truth that only needs to be dragged out and cleaned in order to show itself for what it is, the all-sufficient light and strength for the moment’s need.
The dialogue is an instance of what is true about us all, that we have in our possession truths given to us by Jesus Christ, the whole sweep and bearing of which, the whole majesty and power and illuminating capacity of which, we do not dream of yet. How much in our creeds lies dim and undeveloped! Time and circumstances and some sore agony of spirit are needed in order to make us realise the riches that we possess, and the certitudes to which our troubled spirits may cling; and the practice of far more patient, honest, profound meditation and reflection than finds favour with the average Christian man is needed, too, in order that the truths possessed may be possessed, and that we may know what we know, and understand ‘the things that are given to us of God.’"-MacLaren
THAT A MAN MAY, IN SPIRITUAL THINGS, KNOW MORE THAN HE IS CONSCIOUS OF KNOWING. “Ye know,” “We know not.” It may be said that our Lord is only attributing a certain knowledge with a view to stirring up His disciples to think so that they may come to know distinctly, just as we say to a child, “You know if you would only think.” -Biblical Illustrator
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:5-6
These verses have been parsed and pondered by the greatest theological thinkers over and over again.
"Luther speaks of it as referring to the past, present, and future." -Pulpit
E.W. Bullinger views the second and third nouns as amplifications and elaboration on the first "way:"
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| from Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, E. W. Bullinger, 1898 |
 |
| from Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, E. W. Bullinger, 1898 |
Regarding the Way:
"Christ is the way, the highway spoken of, Isa_35:8. Christ was his own way, for by his own blood he entered into the holy place (Heb_9:12), and he is our way, for we enter by him. By his doctrine and example he teaches us our duty, by his merit and intercession he procures our happiness, and so he is the way. In him God and man meet, and are brought together."--Matthew Henry
"Further, the way to which we commit ourselves when we seek to come to the Father through Christ is a Person. "I am the Way." It is not a cold, dead road we have to make the most of for ourselves, pursuing it often in darkness, in weakness, in fear. It is a living way--a way that renews our strength as we walk in it, that enlivens instead of exhausting us, that gives direction and light as we go forward."
-Expositor's Bible
Regarding the Truth:
"All spiritual truth is associated with Christ, because it proceeds from Him and terminates in Him." H. J. Gamble, BI
Truth lies between way and life, as if the way to life were through truth (Leigh)
"Christ, then, is "the Truth," because He is the Revealer of God." -Expositor's Bible
The two further terms used by himself are probably introduced to throw light upon the way to the Father. Thus there are numerous assurances that he is the Truth itself, that is, the adequate and sufficient expression of Divine thought. "All the promises of God are yea [i.e. are uttered] and Amen [i.e. confirmed] in him." He is the absolute Truth -Pulpit Commentary
"V. NOTWITHSTANDING THE INDIFFERENCE THAT MEN GENERALLY MANIFEST IN RELATION TO IT. I know of nothing which men are so reluctant to honour. If, indeed, you will lower its tone and destroy its vitality; if you will represent it as a philosophy amenable at the bar of man, and class it as a speculation with all other speculations it will be tolerated
VI. NOTWITHSTANDING THE WORLD’S HOSTILITY. Thus hostility has put the seal to the declaration. Had it not been mighty, it would never have awakened that hostility; had it not been right-hearted, it would never have dared it; had it not been immortal, it would never have survived it; but having awakened, dared, and survived it, in the person of Christ, and in His truth we see it, as if it came direct from heaven, bearing this testimony before all unequivocally and unshakingly, “I am the Truth.”
Take it with you as at once your defence and your law." J. Aldis, BI
Regarding the Life:
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| Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Ainvaresart |
But can we assure ourselves of either? Is not the one certainty of life, as we know it, that it must end? Is it not certain that, no matter what energy the most vigorous of us enjoy, we shall all one day "lie in cold obstruction"? Naturally we fear that time, as if all life were then to end for us. We shrink from that apparent termination, as if beyond it there could be but a shadowy, spectral life in which nothing is substantial, nothing lively, nothing delightsome, nothing strong. That state which we shrink from our Lord chooses as a condition of perfect life, abundant and untrammelled. And what He has chosen for Himself He means to bestow upon us.
Why should we find it so hard to believe in that abundant life? There is a sufficient source of physical life which upholds the universe and is not burdened, which in continuance and exuberantly brings forth life in inconceivably various forms. The world around us indicates a source of life which seems always to grow and expand rather than to be exhausted. So there is a source of spiritual life, a force sufficient to uphold all men in righteousness and in eternal vitality of spirit, and which can give birth to ever new and varied forms of heroic, holy, godly living--a force which is ever pressing forward to find expression through all moral beings, and capable of making all human action as perfect, as beautiful, and infinitely more significant than the products of physical life which we see around us."
Upon Thomas' declaration of concern that he did not know the way:
"The patient gentleness of the Master with the slowness of the scholars is beautifully exemplified here, as is also the method, which He lovingly and patiently adopts, of sending men back to consult their own consciousness as illuminated by His teaching, and to see whether there is not lying somewhere, unrecked of and unemployed in some dusty corner of their mind, a truth that only needs to be dragged out and cleaned in order to show itself for what it is, the all-sufficient light and strength for the moment’s need.
The dialogue is an instance of what is true about us all, that we have in our possession truths given to us by Jesus Christ, the whole sweep and bearing of which, the whole majesty and power and illuminating capacity of which, we do not dream of yet. How much in our creeds lies dim and undeveloped! Time and circumstances and some sore agony of spirit are needed in order to make us realise the riches that we possess, and the certitudes to which our troubled spirits may cling; and the practice of far more patient, honest, profound meditation and reflection than finds favour with the average Christian man is needed, too, in order that the truths possessed may be possessed, and that we may know what we know, and understand ‘the things that are given to us of God.’"-MacLaren
THAT A MAN MAY, IN SPIRITUAL THINGS, KNOW MORE THAN HE IS CONSCIOUS OF KNOWING. “Ye know,” “We know not.” It may be said that our Lord is only attributing a certain knowledge with a view to stirring up His disciples to think so that they may come to know distinctly, just as we say to a child, “You know if you would only think.” -Biblical Illustrator
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