We are nearing the end of our study of the famous “I am” statements of Christ. These are statements in which Jesus is clearly and unambiguously claiming to be the one, true, eternal God in the flesh. And He claims some important aspect of His Person and work. I am the bread of Life. Jesus is bread… or like bread. He is the One who came down from heaven and gives eternal life and satisfaction to the world. 

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”. And all who follow Him will not walk in the darkness. Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep”. All who enter into the sheepfold will go in and out and find pasture. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, who knows and lays down His life for the sheep.” Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life”. He conquered death and all who believe Him will as well. 

In each of these statements, Jesus says so much in so few words. They say to communicate a lot without using endless words, you need to use specific words with specific meaning. You need to have a specific aim in what you are communicating and you need to hit the target. We all know about Abraham Lincoln’s great Gettysburg Address. Almost nobody knows the other guy who spoke on that day. At the time, he was a well known orator. Edward Everett was his name and he lectured for almost two hours. Nobody remembers. Lincoln gave a two minute address, using just 272 words, and those words are renowned to this day. 

Jesus, knowing that His hour has come, gathers the disciples for a foot washing, a final supper, some important teaching, and intercessory prayer. What Jesus says in John 13-16 comes from a Man (no mere man) who is about to leave those He loves. He wants to impart to them treasures of divine truth. He knows where He is going, but the disciples are still fuzzy on the whole thing. Thomas is the one bold enough to declare: Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” In just nineteen English words, Jesus gives the ultimate answer. He gives the answer to settle the matter::

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

In these tw0 short sentences, Jesus says so much. In one sense, He says it all. He says everything we need to know about the Christian faith… Here we see:

1. The ultimate good of our salvation
2. Why Jesus Christ is the exclusive means of that ultimate good
3. How you can come to the enjoy it now and eternally

Beloved, let’s first consider a subject we need to see with clarity. 

The Ultimate Good of Our Salvation

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

What is the ultimate destination point of our salvation? It is not heaven!. It is the Father. That is where Jesus was going. And he said he was going to prepare a place for his disciples… in his Father’s house. And the reason was so that they could be with him where he is. The goal of salvation is not self-discovery or reaching your destiny. Salvation in its essence is about being reunited to God. But it is fascinating that Jesus highlights the Fatherhood of God. The ultimate good is being reunited to God our Father and be part of his household now and forever. This is epic! Now there is quite a lot in our culture nowadays about the evil of patriarchy - which means “father-rule”. As Christians we need to think more deeply about it and recognize that there certainly can be forms of patriarchy that are bad and toxic and forms that are good. 

And our model for the good form is God our Father. He is “the Patriarch”, under whose authority, protection, and blessing we will live forever. The ultimate good of our salvation is being reunited to the Father. 

The question often asked in relation to salvation, “How do I get to heaven?” is not all wrong. But it certainly doesn’t go deep enough. It doesn’t get to the ultimate good of the good news. Heaven will be a place where we are reunited with loved ones who have preceded us. Heaven will be a place where we will enjoy all manner of good things - food, activities (golf, mountain climbing, music and singing, etc.). But what makes heaven heaven? God. It is that God will be there and we will be in unfettered, perfect, happy union with the Father forever. 

That’s why I say this is the ultimate good of our salvation. There are many other blessing of salvation, but they are all means to this ultimate end and goal. If you are going to Rome… that is the ultimate destination. There are other things that must take place in order for you to travel to Rome. You need a passport. The passport is not Rome. It is a means of getting to Rome. Think with me. 

Forgiveness is precious beyond measure. To know that our sins are taken away, forgotten, buried in the bottomless ocean is wonderful! Without forgiveness, we would wallow in our guilt. Worse, we would be alienated from God eternally. But in Christ, the sin barrier has been removed so that we can be brought to the Father. 

Justification is another stupendous gift. To hear the heavenly verdict “Not guilty. Justified” is glorious. To be declared righteous because the very righteousness of Christ is counted as ours is truly amazing. But the greatest good is not a positive verdict in heaven’s courtroom, but to be brought to God. Jesus came to “bring many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). 

This is the language of RECONCILIATION. Jesus brings us to the Father. Jesus reconciles us to the God who we were estranged from and at war with. First Peter 3:18 says,

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God,

It’s so clear. Paul speaks with equal clarity in 2 Corinthians 5:19

In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…

“In Christ”. The destination of our salvation is not fundamentally a place… though it will include a place. It is a Person - being reconciled to God. But here’s another word that must be used. ADOPTION. Jesus doesn’t just say that the destination of our salvation is God. He says Father. O the thrill of knowing the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as our own Father. Today, read through John 14-16 and count the times Jesus tells the disciples about the Father. In chapter 14 alone, there are no less than 23 direct references to Him. This entire chapter is about the Father. Earlier in the chapter, Jesus said,

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

The Father of Jesus is our Father. He is preparing a place for us in the Father’s house. God is the Father of Jesus by eternal generation. He is our Father by adoption. Galatians 4:4-5 says,

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The great salvation Jesus came to win for us is at its core to be brought into the Father’s eternal family by adoption. But there is one more word to describe our salvation: FELLOWSHIP. The destination of our salvation is the Father. We are reconciled - sins forgiven. We are adopted - brought into the family. To what end? Fellowship. Intimate, loving fellowship. The Father making known His love and our reciprocation in love to Him. Listen to the opening words of First John:

3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Do you hear this? The goal of John’s writing is the same as these words of Christ - it is to bring us into fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, so that our joy may be complete. Jesus brings us to the eternal Patriarch, our Father - reconciled, adopted, and in loving fellowship. This is the ultimate good of our salvation.. 

Jesus Is the Exclusive Means Of This

Jesus declares Himself to be the only means of this. Only Jesus can bring us to the Father. Mohammed cannot. New age spiritual enlightenment cannot. Being born into the correct family cannot. Being an ethnic Jew cannot. Only Jesus Christ can bring us to the Father. Jesus makes no bones about this:

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

There we see it: I AM! Jesus I Am. He is Yahweh - the eternally self-existent God. Think about this fact: Only God can bring us to God. No mere man can. Only the eternal Son can bring us to the eternal Father. Jesus gives us three exclusive descriptions of who He is. Not one, but three. And they are exclusive. He does not say I am a way. I have some truth. I possess life. See the definite article in front of each. 

First, Jesus is “the way” to the Father. Jesus is the one path to God the Father. We live in a day in which more and more professing Christians are entertaining ideas of a broader road. The idea that it is truly narrow is distasteful. A famous evangelist (Billy Graham). But Jesus said it. And we believe it! The way is narrow and the road hard that leads to life. The way is exclusively found in Christ that leads to the Father. Listen to Hebrews 10:19-20: 

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

Of course, we remember it was his dying breath - the shedding of his blood and the tearing of his body on the cross. We see this in Matthew 27:50-51

50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

Jesus is the way to the Father. But then Jesus is also “the truth” that leads to the Father. It is not enough to say, “I too am traveling on the road called “Jesus Christ”. We know that some people believe in what the bible would describe as “another Jesus”. I have an acquaintance who stops into the church from time to time who talks quite a lot about Jesus. But I tells him nearly every time that it is another Jesus. As Christians, we must hold to the truth. It matters what we believe. It is true that we do not need to have perfect theology to be saved - praise God. But we must believe in a Christ who can actually save. A Jesus who did not rise from the dead cannot bodily bring you to the Father. A Jesus who did not vicariously substitute Himself for you, cannot bring you to God. Jesus is the truth that leads to the Father. 

Finally, Jesus is “the life” that brings us into eternal fellowship with the Father. We need the life of God to fellowship with God. We don’t need just a little boost of energy. We need life… eternal life. Jesus is “the life”... the eternal life, which he shares with us so that we can fellowship with God.

Jesus is the exclusive means of coming to the Father.  And finally…

How You Can Enjoy This Salvation

You must come to the Father through Jesus Christ. He puts it in the negative:

No one comes to the Father except through me…

There is no salvation remaining aloof from God. One does not enjoy Rome by hearing about Rome… or looking at pictures of Rome… or watching a documentary of Rome… or reading a book on Rome. You may get an appetite to want to visit Rome. But the way that you enjoy Rome is by going to Rome for yourself! This is how one comes to enjoy the salvation of reconciliation with the Father which Christ exclusively accomplishes for us. You come to the Father! 

O how many professing Christians (maybe some here) hear this and it sounds foreign. “Coming to the Father??” There has not been the enjoyment of coming into the Father’s family… entering as a son, a daughter into the eternal Father’s home. 

And again we hear the Savior say, “through me”. Of course, there is no true enjoyment if you attempt another way, than through Christ. But how we try! We approach the Father based on our need. LIsten we all have needs, but our need alone will not bring us an inch closer to the Father. We must come through Christ. Or we approach God and feel closer to Him because of a particular atmosphere or style of music. But that will not bring us a bit closer to the Father. It is only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Or we seek to be disciplined in spiritual duties (prayer, fasting, bible reading - which are good things). But these things alone bring us no closer to the Father. Martin Luther. It is through Christ, and Christ alone. 

Now, when our need drives us to seek God and we come to God through Christ - that’s the goal. And when we worship, whether old hymns singing acapella or some loud multi-instrument modern melody… and we draw near to God through Christ - amen! And when we open our bibles and approach God through Christ, and pray in the name of Jesus… of course, that’s good. But we need to come to the Father through Him… it is only through Christ - he has opened the way to come with confidence.  

This is one of the main points of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 4:15-16; Hebrews 7:25.

Think about what prayer is. Jesus teaches us to pray to “our Father”. Over and over again in John 14-16, we are told to pray “in the name of Jesus”. What does that mean? It is more than merely uttering those words. That can be nothing more than a mantra. To pray “in Jesus’ name” is to pray to the Father through Jesus. To approach God through Christ, because He is the One (and only One) who gives us such access. 

** And this language of “coming to the Father” or “drawing near” is so important. In one sense, it’s another way to describe faith or believing. But Jesus uses other language to describe what believing is like. Believing is like “eating” (John 6). Believing is like “drinking” (John 7). Believing is like “coming to the Father”. In fact, it is like coming in response to an invitation. 

Jesus says, “Come to the Father through Me. I have made a way. Come enjoy life in My Father’s house. Come into the fullness of joy”.