The Way to the Father

(Gospel e-Letter - December 2015)

The Lord Jesus told us plainly what our life’s purpose should be. He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Our ultimate aim should be to meet the Father, both now and for eternity. We were created to know and glorify him, to experience his love and be enthralled by his majestic beauty.

Jesus also told us how to reach our goal. “I am the way,” he said. We can approach the Father through the Son, who came down from heaven for this very end.

Jesus insists that he alone is the way. No person will ever be welcomed by God except through his Son. Such an exclusive claim jars in the ears of modern society. The nineteenth century mystic, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, expressed the sentiment of our own culture. He says that there are various ways to God, just as “a man can reach the roof of a house by stone stairs or a ladder or a rope-ladder or a rope or even by a bamboo pole.” Most people today believe that all religions ultimately lead to God.

Ramakrishna may succeed in getting on top of the roof using a rope. There he would meet many other likeminded people, just as religious as he is. But let’s be honest: would he meet God? The Creator and Ruler of all things does not live on a rooftop; the Almighty God dwells in the highest heavens in unapproachable light. Only one bridge covers the infinite distance between the creature and the Creator, between the sinner and a thrice-holy God. The bridge is Jesus Christ, the only Mediator appointed by the Father himself. “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Abraham, David, Mary the mother of Jesus, the repentant woman who washed his feet with her tears, the malefactor crucified beside him, the apostles Peter and Paul, together with all the other saints, are in heaven in joyful fellowship with God, through the Lord Jesus. If we honestly desire to join their company in eternal felicity we must, like them, entrust ourselves to the Lord Jesus and seek to become his disciples.

Jesus is the way because he is God’s only Son, the image of the invisible God. When one of the apostles requested him to show them the Father, Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Elsewhere he declared, “No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27).

Moreover, Jesus is the way to the Father because he took away the sin that separates man from God. The eternal Son became a human being so that he would offer himself as a sin-offering. He cleanses his people from all iniquity and qualify them to draw near the glorious light of God the Father.

Lord Jesus, up till now I have wandered in darkness; I am lost and do not know where I’m going. I cannot depend on human wisdom, man-made religions or systems of philosophy. Lead me to the Father, Lord Jesus, for you alone are the way to him.