The Way, the Truth, the Life

Jim ButlerJohn 14:1–6

John 14:1–6 presents Christ's answer to the disciples' heart trouble on the eve of his crucifixion: he is himself the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him. The sermon works through two movements — Christ's departure and promised return to prepare a place for his people (vv. 1–3), and Thomas's question as the occasion for the sixth 'I am' statement in John's Gospel (vv. 5–6). Against every form of religious pluralism and syncretism, the sermon insists that faith is only as good as its object, and that the object who saves is Christ alone. The application is threefold: let eschatological hope displace heart trouble, let faith be the remedy for despair, and let the exclusivity of Christ be confessed without apology.