Jesus told His disciples in John 14 that He was going to prepare a home for them in the Father’s Heavenly House and had reserved their rooms in that house. He also told them, “You know the way to the place where I am going.”
When He said that, Thomas told Him that they didn’t know where he was going, so how could they know the way. Jesus’ response is one that every Christian can probably recite. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” [John 14:4-7 NIV]
Jesus’ statement is one of the most crucial statements regarding salvation ever uttered. Either what He claimed was the absolute and perfect truth, or He was a madman. We can be assured, that the resurrection of Christ Jesus following His crucifixion—one of the most attested to events in history—was God’s confirmation that Jesus was exactly who He said He was, God’s Son—the Way, Truth, Life—and the only avenue to the Father.
That truth both narrows and expands salvation. It narrows it by denying the claim that there are many paths to God. There is one path, a narrow one, and it goes through Christ Jesus.
In another way, however, it expands salvation to “whosoever believes.” We don’t need to belong to a certain ethnic group, a certain denomination, or a certain country to be saved. We don’t need to trace our linage or worry about our gender or social status or education. We simply come to Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Father, how wonderful that the way to You has been opened by the work of Your Son, Jesus the Christ. All may now come. Amen.
