Jesus is the only one who can bridge the gap between our sin and God’s holiness.
JOHN 14:1-6
1 Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
4 And you know the way where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
The last verse in today’s passage makes a powerful and unequivocal statement. Jesus clearly says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
People have taken exception to that statement for 2,000 years. Some say the Lord didn’t mean for it to be taken literally. Others categorically reject His authority to make the claim at all. However, as believers in the lordship of Jesus Christ, we must take what He says as truth. So let’s think for a moment about the word picture in that verse.
When Jesus calls Himself “the way,” many people imagine a one-way street. They take this to mean that there are lots of roads, but He is the only one that leads to the Father. That’s a good image, but I think we can do even better.
I like to think of Jesus not as a road but as a bridge—our bridge to God. Consider the apostle Paul’s warning in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (emphasis added). The picture here is of a great chasm between us and God, and we cannot make it across. Unable to bridge the gap, we fall.
So, what is the only way across a chasm? A bridge, of course. And that’s what Jesus is for us. He stands in the gap, providing safe passage across the void and into the loving arms of the Father.
Meditate on this mental image. When we imagine ourselves helpless and lost—with heaven just out of reach, beyond a great divide—we can begin to appreciate the true power of the cross.
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