Jesus is the Only Way

John 14:6 ESV

 

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

 

Jesus also said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:44; cf. Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2).

 

So, we can’t come to Jesus unless God the Father first draws us to Christ, unless God the Father persuades us as to God’s divine purpose and will for our lives, and of our own sinfulness, and of our need to repent (to turn away from our sins) and of our need to follow Jesus in obedience.

 

For the faith to believe in Jesus comes from God and is gifted to us by God. It is not of ourselves. And Jesus is the founder and the perfecter of our faith. Thus, we will submit to God and to his purposes for our lives. By this faith, we will die with Christ to sin, be changed in heart of the Spirit of God, and we will now walk in the newness of life we are given in Christ Jesus.

 

And in like manner, we can’t come to God the Father except through Jesus Christ. So, what this is saying is that no one who rejects Jesus as Lord and Savior knows God – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For, he is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So, if they don’t believe in the Son of God, then they don’t believe in God.

 

So, any religion that denies that Jesus is the Christ, that he is God, is not of God. So this means that the Jewish nation, although not speaking of all Jews, does not believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of their ancestors. They do not know the one true God. He is not their God. For, they can’t come to the Father except through faith in Jesus Christ.

 

John 14:15,21,23-24 ESV

 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.’”

 

Also, if we love Jesus, we will obey his commandments (New Covenant). So, if we don’t obey him, if obedience to our Lord is not our practice, if it is not our walk of faith, then we don’t know Jesus, which means we don’t know God, because we don’t love him and we don’t obey him.

 

Now, pay close attention to these next words. If we keep our Lord’s commandments, meaning we obey them as a matter of practice, this is saying that we love him. We are in intimate fellowship with him. And, because we love and obey him, we will be loved by God the Father, and Jesus will love us, and he will show himself to us.

 

And then he says that if we love him, meaning that obedience to him is our practice, for we keep his word, then God the Father will love us, and they (the Father and the Son) will come to us and make their home with us. So, our walks of obedience to our Lord are central to us being in genuine relationship with God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And this is not the only place that this is taught to us in the New Testament, either.

In Romans 6:16 we read: “Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (which results in eternal life)

And in 1 John 2:3-5 we read: “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.”

And this is misunderstood a lot because so many people have come to believe that their salvation from sin is a one-time experience in their lives which then guarantees them heaven when they die and which cannot be taken away from them no matter how they live their lives while they are still on this earth.

But when we study the Scriptures, in context, we soon learn that our salvation is progressive and it is contingent on us walking in obedience to our Lord, and it is contingent on us walking in holiness and righteousness and on us no longer walking in sin according to our sinful flesh. And it is contingent on us remaining in Christ and in his word to the very end or we don’t have eternal life with God but a fearful expectation of his wrath.

 

John 14:25-26 ESV

 

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

 

Not only do we have the written word of God to teach us about all things pertaining to Christ and to his righteousness and pertaining to his plan of salvation for our lives, but if we are in Christ, by genuine faith in him, his Holy Spirit lives within us, and he talks with us in our minds and in our hearts and he brings to remembrance what Jesus taught us.

 

The Holy Spirit also makes practical to our lives today how the word of God is to be applied to our lives and to our life situations we are facing in 2021 in the world we now live in and in the Christian culture we now live in, too. He is going to show us what is going on around us and how that applies to the teachings of his word, and he will show us how to respond, too.

 

For the Scriptures are not just a history book. They aren’t dead words on a dead page which we can read and learn from like any other history book. The Scriptures are alive and active and they are still speaking to our life situations we are facing today through the Holy Spirit who is living within us. And they should be alive within our hearts stirring within our hearts and minds leading us to obey them and to share them passionately with others.

 

There’s a Stirring

 

By Annie Herring

 

There's a stirring deep within me
Could it be my time has come
When I'll see my gracious savior

face to face when all is done
Is that his voice I am hearing?
'Come away, my precious one'
Is he calling me?
Is he calling me?

I will rise up, rise up
And bow down
And lay my crown
At his wounded feet

Is that His voice I am hearing?
'Come away, my precious one'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yocTjkB6hV8

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