Jesus is the way

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

JESUS IS THE WAY. He is the answer to life’s great riddle. People continually search for a path to follow, a way toward better things. It’s in man’s  very nature. Academics, sports, professions, politics, hobbies, clubs, societies, and special interests offer paths to pursue, and this is good. God intended man to be creative and industrious, just as He is, but without His higher purpose, all of these paths lead to the same familiar dead end, an empty heart.

Just any way won’t do. There are many dark paths lurking behind the door of a wrong decision, inside the intrigue of a Trojan horse, under the thin ice of a moment of weakness, or even within the seeming innocence of ignorance. People, sometimes knowingly, pursue paths that lead to destruction because of emptiness, disillusionment, self-loathing, or simply deception, else how is it that, regardless of its destination, the traveler is glad for the path? To want purpose, direction, a plotted course, is innately within man. For all of man’s wild and organic nature, he wants an underlying structure, a guiding principle, perhaps an eternal purpose, and the comfort of companionship. Man is as wild as a rogue grizzly, yet as lost and vulnerable as a lone sheep.

Jesus made the way. Jesus is God, manifested in the form of man to show the way, as a shepherd guides his flock (John 1; Psalm 23). He lived the ideal life inspired by His love for God the Father and all men. He never strayed from His path. His footprints in the sand still show the way. His life and character are revealed in the writings of scripture, penned by the hands of His closest disciples. He is also the sacrificial lamb. He gave His innocent life as a sacrifice for sinners, making it possible for all people to receive life instead of death and be restored to relationship with a holy God (John 3:16). Through the example of His life, and the substitutionary payment of His blood, Jesus is the way to being like God in our character and being with God in our fellowship.

Jesus is the only way. The world is God’s and we are His creation. God made us for His wonderful purpose, but He gives us a choice. We don’t have to love and glorify Him, for love cannot be coerced, yet, C.S Lewis wrote of a God-shaped void in every heart that only He can fill. Friend, you don’t have to accept God, but nothing will resonate within your soul, or spring forth a fountain of abundant joy within, as Jesus does. Take it from King Solomon, who in Ecclesiastes candidly chronicled his pursuit of every earthly path to the maximum; His conclusion, after all, was to live for God (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

My way didn’t work. As a person who has personally experienced both living my way and living in the way of Christ, His way is amazingly better! I invite you to try it and see for yourself. I believe you’ll be glad you did.