Jesus said He is the Way
By Pam Burton
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the WAY, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”
Have you ever been lost on the road despite your best efforts with Google maps or had your vision on the road obscured and can’t see the road ahead?
Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, the Hebrew prophet Isaiah wrote about the coming Messiah. Isaiah 40:3-5 “A voice is calling, clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
These words were echoed by John the Baptist in each of the four Gospels. Matthew 3:3 “For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet, saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!” Mark 1:2-3 “as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.”
Luke 3:4-6 “as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every ravine shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” John 1:23 “he said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said.”
John the Baptist was Jesus’s cousin chosen by God to proclaim the coming of Jesus Christ (John was the voice of one crying in the wilderness). He was a herald proclaiming the coming King. The job of a herald is to announce the arrival of the king and to prepare the roadway for the king so that his progress on the road would not be impeded. Sometimes this meant clearing debris on the road or filling up low places.
Jesus plainly tells us in John 14:6 that He is the WAY. He does not say He is a way or that He would show us the way, but He is, in fact, the only way. No man comes to the Father except through Jesus.
Every obstacle on the “road” has been removed, and the terrain and topography has been leveled or filled up. Why? So that Jesus, who is the WAY, is accessible to all who believe. His death on the cross opened up Heaven for all who believe.
Sinless Jesus said these words (John 14:6) the night before His death. On the hill of Calvary, He shed His precious blood for all of sinful man. He suffered and died, taking the penalty and punishment our sins deserved. He was buried and on the third day rose again to show that everything He ever said was true.
Acts 4:12 states, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”
Who among us will look up to the hill of Calvary and to the empty tomb? Who among us will fully acknowledge that Jesus Christ paid the penalty and punishment our sins deserved? Who among us, with gratefulness in our hearts, thank the Lord for His salvation in making His paths straight? Eternal life begins the very moment you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and make you new. Every rough ground and every crooked road can be made straight so that the glory of the Lord can shine forth in our lives to the praise of the Lord.