The Way
“If, then, you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because He Himself is the way.”
Thomas Aquinas
No other person, no other faith in the world has made such a claim as Jesus and His followers.
Jesus said,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6.
Even when faced with the wrath of an angry crowd Jesus did not back down on His claim to be God John records.
“The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
John 10:24-32.
Jesus even after being beaten, hung on the cross and facing death never backed down. Luke’s Gospel records what happened on when Jesus hung on the cross with two criminals.
Luke tells us,
“One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:39-43.
Notice Jesus did what only God could do. Promise the man he would be with Him in Paradise.
In John’s Gospel we are told this conversation between Martha and Jesus. John records,
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes Lord” she told Him, “I believe you are the Christ the Son of God, who was to come into the world,”
John 11:25,26.
Jesus made all these statements knowing that to claim to be God or equal to God could have had him killed. In fact it was that very Jewish law that his enemies reminded the Roman governor of and used to have Jesus put to death.
C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity, wrote of Jesus,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
The apostle Paul Writing to the Romans said,
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation”
Romans 5:6-11.
Christians believe that through Jesus, God reached down to mankind and said to man I love you so much I am willing in earthly terms to show you how far I will go to offer you eternal life.
Christians do not believe man can be good enough to stand before Holy God. You cannot work your way to heaven. The Apostle Paul stating,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8,9
C. S. Lewis points out,
“He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.”
C.S. Lewis.
The fact is, Jesus died for you the reader. Do you believe this?
Please think about it.
“If, then, you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because He Himself is the way.”
Thomas Aquinas
No other person, no other faith in the world has made such a claim as Jesus and His followers.
Jesus said,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6.
Even when faced with the wrath of an angry crowd Jesus did not back down on His claim to be God John records.
“The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
John 10:24-32.
Jesus even after being beaten, hung on the cross and facing death never backed down. Luke’s Gospel records what happened on when Jesus hung on the cross with two criminals.
Luke tells us,
“One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:39-43.
Notice Jesus did what only God could do. Promise the man he would be with Him in Paradise.
In John’s Gospel we are told this conversation between Martha and Jesus. John records,
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes Lord” she told Him, “I believe you are the Christ the Son of God, who was to come into the world,”
John 11:25,26.
Jesus made all these statements knowing that to claim to be God or equal to God could have had him killed. In fact it was that very Jewish law that his enemies reminded the Roman governor of and used to have Jesus put to death.
C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity, wrote of Jesus,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
The apostle Paul Writing to the Romans said,
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation”
Romans 5:6-11.
Christians believe that through Jesus, God reached down to mankind and said to man I love you so much I am willing in earthly terms to show you how far I will go to offer you eternal life.
Christians do not believe man can be good enough to stand before Holy God. You cannot work your way to heaven. The Apostle Paul stating,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8,9
C. S. Lewis points out,
“He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.”
C.S. Lewis.
The fact is, Jesus died for you the reader. Do you believe this?
Please think about it.
