By David ReayMonday 22 Feb 2016LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read John 14:1-6
1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. (NLT)
Many people believe that there are many ways to God. All religions are much the same anyway. Which goes to show how little such people know about faiths such as Islam or Christianity! Jesus himself was not an easygoing, people-pleasing sort of guy who told people to find their own spiritual truth and pursue it sincerely.
He made breathtaking claims like this in our passage. Given he hasn’t got a reputation for misguided arrogance, we need to take his claims seriously. He is the only way to God. Even those who have never heard of him (like the Old Testament saints), can only receive God’s mercy because of who Jesus is and what he has done. He is the means by which God extends mercy to everyone.
Jesus tells us the truth about God. Jesus is God spelling himself out in a language humans can understand. And he can be believed in what he said and did. What is more, he is life itself. Not only does he model human life as it ought to be, he offers life everlasting. Cut off from him and we can only rely on ‘three score years and ten’, give or take some.
Not all religions are the same. This doesn’t lead us to arrogant disrespect for others, but rather to a deeper focus on what makes the Christian faith distinctive. The difference is Jesus.
Blessings
David Reay