Articles
Except Through Me
“Except Through Me”
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6).
1) No one can approach God except through Jesus.
Jesus is the only way to the Father. There is no other way but His way. This passage should tell us “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). That being the case we should appreciate that neither Mary, the Pope, Buddha, nor any other man can serve as a mediator. Men might wish for someone other, but “no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
2) No one can comprehend God except through Jesus.
Jesus plainly taught that to know and see Jesus is to know and see the Father; “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (Jn. 14:7). Jesus later explained that this is true because the Father dwells in Him, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works” (Jn. 14:10). Unitarians make a contextual blunder by asserting that Jesus is the Father and the Father is the Son. Such is not what Jesus taught. Rather, since Jesus came here to carry out the Father’s will in word and deed, anyone who saw Jesus’ works saw the Father’s; anyone who heard Jesus’ message heard the Father’s. In this sense, the Father dwelled in Jesus. When Jesus stood before them doing the Father’s will, it was as if the Father Himself were before them. This is the same way that Jesus dwells in us and we in Him. He later said, “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:20). The Father’s person was no more in Christ than Jesus’ person is in us or our person is in Him. We dwell in Him and He in us through His will, but His person resides in heaven (cf. Acts 8:56).
3) No one can fellowship God except through Jesus’ commandments.
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (Jn. 14:21). Notice that without keeping our Lord’s commandments we cannot love Jesus; we cannot be loved by the Father or the Son; we cannot know Him. Earlier Jesus stated, “…unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3). One named Nicodemus asked, “How can a man be born when he is old?” (v. 4), to which Jesus answered, “…unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v. 5). No one can go to heaven unless they are born again. Similarly, Jesus commissioned the apostles to, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk. 16:15). Are you heaven bound? Do you love Jesus? Have you obeyed the Lord’s commandments?
Steven J. Wallace
06/04/2002
- Except_Through_Me.pdf (21.07 kB)
