“Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” John 14:5-6
On the eve of Jesus’ crucifixion, He told His disciples that He was going away to prepare a place for them in the mansions of His Father’s house. He promised them that He would come again to take them to be with Him forever in His heavenly kingdom. Jesus told them, “And where I go, you know, and the way you know” (John 14:4; cf. John 14:1-4).
It was then that “Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’”
Jesus replied in the familiar words of John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus told Thomas that He is the way to heaven, He is the truth, and He is the source of life. And He added the words, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
What do Jesus’ words mean? They answer for us a most important question: “How can we obtain eternal life in heaven and not be condemned to the eternal torments of hell in God’s judgment of this evil world?” And Jesus’ answer is very clear.
Jesus is the road or pathway to heaven! His doctrine, His teaching proclaiming Himself as the eternal Son of God and the promised Messiah and Savior of the world, is the truth! And, He is the source of eternal life — He created man in the beginning and gave Him life, physical and spiritual (Gen. 2:7; John 1:1-4), and He is the source of eternal life, through faith in Him and His sacrifice on the cross as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29; cf. 3:14-18).
And, as Jesus Himself said, He is the only way to be saved. He said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Only those who look to Jesus and His cross for pardon and forgiveness will be saved and enjoy a place in the mansions of His Father’s house. As the Apostle Peter said of Jesus in Acts 4:12: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
What do Jesus’ words mean for you? The only way to go to heaven, the only source of true doctrine, the way to have life in communion with God the Father and to partake of the eternal joys of heaven is through faith in Jesus and the atoning sacrifice He made for you when He suffered and died on the cross. There is no other way!
Dear Lord Jesus, Son of God, and my only Savior, wash away my sins in Your shed blood, receive me into Your eternal kingdom, and grant me a place in the heavenly mansions of Your Father’s house. Amen.
[Scripture is quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.]