The Unchangeables Part 6

As many of you know, we are in a series entitled "The Unchangeables." We have already discussed five very important unchangeables, and we have a couple of more to go. We live in a world that is constantly changing, and right now these changes are taking place very quickly. The only thing that is steady and unchanging is the word of the Lord, and tonight we will briefly examine our sixth unchangeable, which are words that Jesus used about Himself. In John 14:6 He said that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one can come to the Father but by Him.

Many of us are familiar with this verse and have heard or read it many times. However, I wonder if we understand what He was really saying. If we were to put these words into modern, 21st Century English, it might sound something like this:

I and I alone am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Nobody else is - just me. In spite of what anybody else might say, the only way to get to the Father is to come through me.

Jesus was making quite a claim with these words. He set Himself apart from everyone else. There have been many inspirational figures in history. Many of them have had great insight and wisdom. Others have had the ability to motivate large numbers of people and have even changed the course of history. There have been some larger than life people, but Jesus separated Himself from all of them. He said that He was the only Way to get to God. That flies in the face of so much that is generally accepted today: "How can there be just one way? What gives anyone the right to tell me which way to go?" Do those kind of ideas sound familiar? We hear them all the time. Even though this may be a common mentality today, and trends and ideas change on a regular basis, Who Jesus is has not changed.

Jesus is the only way to the Father. That will never change. When the Lord created this earth and all of us, He intended for us to live with Him in a close, personal relationship. He loves us and wants us to be with Him. This is how it was with Him and the first man and woman, until they disobeyed Him and introduced sin and death into the world. That sin divided us from the Lord, and Jesus came to reunite us. By His life, death and resurrection, He made it possible for the gap between us and our Heavenly Father to be closed. Of everyone in history, only Jesus has done this.

We are alive in a time when the enemy is trying extremely hard to convince us otherwise. He has introduced such ideas as:"When it comes to knowing the Lord, all roads lead to the same place. You can find Him in whatever way suits you the best. You can find him in Islam, Hinduism, Buddism or even through just plain old being good - after all, you are as good as the next guy." All of these ideas are carefully crafted deceptions designed by the enemy to keep us from truly being restored to the life our Father intended for us. It has become socially unacceptable to tell someone else that their way isn't the right way. In our modern society, Jesus Himself might not be very popular, because He said that He was the only Way.

Many that aren't interested in committing to Jesus fully, but know they can't just dismiss Him, have categorized Him as a good teacher, or even a prophet who had some good things to say. They say he was a great philanthropist who did a lot of good and had some great insights into how we should all live. These are also carefully crafted deceptions. Either we accept Jesus for Who He said He was, or we have to write Him off completely. There is no middle ground. C.S. Lewis might have said it best in his book Mere Christianity: "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell."

All of this being the case, we all have a decision to make. Who is Jesus? Who is He to you? He hasn't left room for us to just hold Him in high regard. He has plainly told us that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the only way to the Father, and all the others that make a similar claim are either lying or mistaken, at best. What it all boils down to is that God loves us immensely. He created us to be in His family, and He wants a relationship with us more than anything else. Apart from Jesus, we can never be in that relationship. However, with Him, we can close the gap between us and the Lord and live with Him in an intimate relationship. Jesus is the only Way for this to happen. That is unchangeable.

I mentioned earlier that disobedience to the Lord introduced sin into the world. The result of this sin is death. Everyone that has been born since the first man and woman has been born with a sinful nature. This nature separates us from the Lord and nothing but a relationship with Jesus will close that gap. If you are reading this and if that gap in your life hasn't been closed, it can be right now. There is nothing you can do in your own power to close it - as we have discussed, Jesus is the only One who can. Through His life, death and resurrection, He paid the price that we owed because of our sinful nature. If we acknowledge this and ask Jesus to take away our sinful nature, He will do that and reconcile us with our Heavenly Father. You can do it now, and it's simple. Just ask Him and He will show you the Way to the Father, reveal to you His truth and you will experience His life!