JOHN 14:6

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

TO PONDER

I have a wonderful wife! Let me explain.

Our children have only been on Summer holidays for less than a week and already my darling wife has borrowed the words of Jesus to help guard me and help me to get my work done while the children are at home. "I am the way", she says, "No one goes to your father except through me!" and for this I am extremely grateful.

Jesus wasn't using the phrase in quite the same way though. While my wife, Elise, is trying to deliberately keep my children out of my hair when I am trying to do important work in the evenings, Jesus was opening a way to the Father that had not been open previously. In fact, he was saying that those who had never had access to the Father before, could now know and access the Father through him.

No longer did you have to be Jewish, no longer did you have to offer sacrifices at the temple, no longer did you have to make sure you followed the Law of Moses to the letter. All you had to do was trust the man who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" Trust that the words he spoke were true and you had access to God the Father. That hasn't changed. Those are still the terms of the agreement between God and humanity because of this child who was born to us at Christmas, and until He comes again in glory, all we need to do is trust that he is the way and know that he will bring us to the Father's kingdom.

That doesn't mean though that there is no work to be done. Plenty of people still do not know or trust that Jesus is the way. Some think he is one of many ways, others think that there is no way at all. Jesus said he had come so that we might have life in all it's fulness, and he also says to his disciples "as the Father sent me, so I am sending you." Since we now know the way, shouldn't we be telling others so that they too may have life in all it's fulness?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you that you have made a way for all people to reconciled to God through your life, death, and resurrection. Please help me to also be sent as the Father sent you, so that others might come to know you and your love through me and come to know you as the way to the Father. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle