Table of contents:
Why study theology? Find The 1 Way, Truth & Life
The Study Begins
It was at the Last Supper. Jesus* was going to leave His disciples the next day to be crucified. They panicked, not knowing what to do without Him. He then explained that He was going to prepare a place for them so that they could be with Him there. (* means bio in SPRITUAL LIVES.)
Thomas said to him,
“Lord, we do not know where you are going; so how can we know the way to get there?”
Jesus answered him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me. – John 14:5-6
The first Biblical comment on this comes from Peter:
Salvation is to be found through him alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us. -Acts 4:12
Why study theology when we have the Bible?
Jesus’ statement about the way, the truth, and the life is one single statement and one single truth, all embodied in Him. All the teaching below is in the Scriptures, but it is not all presented in one place. We will look at each word separately to firm up our understanding.
Why study theology? to find the Way
John 14:6 identifies Jesus as the WAY to SALVATION, and this is truth. But He is more than that. He is the Author of our salvation. Or, putting it another way, He IS the WAY, not just the road but the vehicle.
And indeed, this WAY is broader still. He wrote our names in the Book of Life from the foundation of the World and is going to confess those names before the Father and the angels! (Revelation 3:5)
And He is more than the vehicle, He is the driver! We were chosen Before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) and Jesus Himself affirms this: I have chosen you! (John 15:16)
For years I thought that applied simply to the twelve disciples, but St. Paul* teaches Timothy more:
He saved us and called us to be his own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace. He gave us this grace by means of Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 2 Timothy 1:9
Theologian John Gill puts it like this:
Christ is not merely the way, as he goes before his people as an example; or merely as a prophet, pointing out unto them by his doctrine the way of salvation;
but he is the way of salvation itself by his obedience and sacrifice; nor is there any other; he is the way of his Father’s appointing, and which is entirely agreeable to the perfections of God, and suitable to the case and condition of sinners;
he is the way to all the blessings of the covenant of grace; and he is the right way into a Gospel church state here; no one comes rightly into a church of Christ but by faith in him; and he is the way to heaven: he is entered into it himself by his own blood, and has opened the way to it through himself for his people
Why study theology? to find the TRUTH
Jesus IS the truth. When he was before Pilate he said,
I was born and came into the world for this one purpose, to speak about the truth.
Whoever belongs to the truth listens to me. -John 18:37
Earlier He had told others.
You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. – John 8:32
This saying is used widely to mean if we know what is right, we will be free from error, and that is so. Jesus is saying more than that. He is saying “If you know Me you will be free from sin.”
But Jesus is not just a logical axiom:
He is not only true, but truth itself: this may regard his person and character; He is the true God, and eternal life; truly and really man;
as a prophet He taught the way of God in truth;
as a priest, He is a faithful, as well as a merciful one, true and faithful to Him that appointed him;
and as a King, just and true are all His ways and administrations:
He is the sum and substance of all the truths of the Gospel; they are all full of Him, and center in Him;
and HE is the truth of all the types and shadows, promises and prophecies of the Old Testament; they have all their accomplishment in Him; and He is the true way, in opposition to all false ones of man’s devising. – John Gill
Why study theology? to find the LIFE
Here again, the surface answer is in terms of salvation as Jesus promised in John 3:16. Yes, the promise is true, WHOSOVER believes in Him receives eternal life.
But earlier in the Gospel, John tells us Jesus was the source of life for all things. (Verses 3-4)
And not just life itself but ABUNDANT LIFE (John 10:10). Life with a capital “L”!
Christ is the author and giver of life, natural, spiritual, and eternal; or He is the way of life, or “the living way”; in opposition to the law, which was so far from being the way of life, that it was the ministration of condemnation and death:
He always, and ever will be the way; all in this way live, none ever die; and it is a way that leads to eternal life: and to conclude all the epithets in one sentence, Christ is the true way to eternal life. -John Gill
Why study theology? To find these three are ONE
The disciples learned about each of these elements as they spent three years with Jesus, but they did not put them all together and see them unified in their Master. He had told them He had been in the shared glory with the Father before the World began, (John 17:5) but they had never put all this together.
But later, Jesus knocked Saul of Tarsus off his horse, blinded him with His glory, and changed him into St. Paul*. When the apostle Paul* saw Jesus in heaven, he was dumbfounded and heard things too wonderful to be spoken.
He did write some of this in his letter to the Colossians and explained how all of this had now become resident in Jesus and how He was:
the visible likeness of the invisible God.
the first-born Son, superior to all created things.
through him God created everything in heaven and on earth
God created the whole universe through him and for him.
He existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place.
He is the head of his body, the church;
he is the source of the body’s life.
He is the first-born Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things.
For it was by God’s own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God.
Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son’s blood on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven. Colossians 1:15-20
This glorious Jesus appeared in all this fulness to John* on the isle of Patmos and told him to write all this in the Book of Revelation. We see Jesus as He is now, the Way the Truth and the Life, and more! The King of kings, and Lord of lords!
And He is our King, our Lord, who loves us and gave Himself for us. We are waiting for Him to come again for us and rejoice in His goodness and revere His wonderful testimony:
I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
– Revelation 22:13
The Lord our Savior is the way
To purity and peace;
He gives His holy Word to guide
Our souls to heavenly bliss.
The Lord our Savior is the truth,
The inward, shining light,
That reason guides, and gives to faith
The evidence of sight.
The Lord our Savior is the life
Of ev’ry soul that lives;
And everlasting life, to those
Who keep His Word, He gives.
Jesus, my way, my truth, my life,
My God, my all in all;
At Thy blest feet, in humble love,
And lowly fear, I fall.
William Mason (1725–1797).
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