Sayings of Jesus: “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”

This enigmatic saying is found in John’s Gospel (John 14:6). The full text reads, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In some senses, its meaning seems plain enough, but is it . . .?

Clearly, we have three elements here—“way,” “truth,” and “life.” We first notice that Jesus does not say he is pointing to the way, the truth, or the life. It’s not his teaching about those things that is in view. Rather, he says, “I am” each of those things—in some way Jesus personifies those things. His presence is their presence.  

This “I am” statement is one of a series in John. The others are “I am the bread of life,” “I am the good shepherd, “I am the light of the world,” “I am the resurrection and the life,” “I am the true vine,” and “I am the door” (or the gateway). Each is worthy of a blog article in its own right (and perhaps in due course will become one).

John’s Gospel (sometimes called The Fourth Gospel) is different in a few respects from the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Firstly, John includes a number of events and sayings that are absent in the Synoptics (and leaves out some that they feature). Secondly, his Gospel is different in literary style, including more theological reflection and commentary. And thirdly, the Jesus we see in John is less concerned with confidentiality regarding his identity as the Messiah. 

The significance of the “I am” sayings goes beyond what is obvious on the surface to casual readers today. In John 8, some Pharisees are arguing with Jesus about his right to say certain things, and Jesus’ response is “Before Abraham was born, I am!” The very next verse says, “At this, they picked up stones to stone him.” Why would they do that? It sounds a bit OTT; the reason is because of Leviticus 24:16: “Whoever names the name of the Lord, let him be put to death; let the whole congregation of Israel stone him with stones.” That derives from the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the LXX, or Septuagint), which was widely read at the time of Jesus (Greek was the lingua franca of the day—a bit like English is now). And it’s actually a mistranslation. The Hebrew says, “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord . . .” Not the same thing at all! But it explains where the Pharisees were coming from, once we also know that in Judaism, “I am” was understood as a name of God. When Moses first encounters God at the “burning bush” in Exodus 3—having come from a pluralistic Egyptian upbringing involving many gods—Moses says (in effect), “Excuse me, but which god should I say is sending me? What is his name?” And God replies, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” Which is almost certainly not the answer Moses was looking for—“If I tell them that, I’m going to look like a right plonker!” Talk about John’s Gospel being enigmatic—Exodus 3 is giving it a run for its money here! And not least because, in Hebrew, that phrase can equally well be translated “I will be who I will be.”

So why would God say that? One reason is, I think he’s saying, “Don’t box me in, Moses—I don’t want to be defined by one name, and especially not by some other god’s name. Otherwise people will be thinking of me as a bit like this Egyptian god or that Egyptian god. I want to be defined just by who I am and who I will be to you, as you get to know me.” Which as the biblical story unfolds, is many things, with many names to describe who God is and the things he does. But the second and more important reason is that the Hebrew for “I am” comes from the same root as the principal name of God that’s introduced as early as Genesis 2—one that is spelt “YHWH”—that we tend to know as “Yahweh.” By the time of Jesus, that name was never spoken, because it was perceived to be too holy, so its pronunciation was lost through disuse. When we see that word in English Bible translations, it’s typically written as “LORD” in small caps (to distinguish it from other names of God). 

In recognition that the two are intentionally being linked in the Exodus 3 dialogue, translations such as the NIV and ESV render it as “I AM WHO I AM,” also in small caps; say to the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you.”

So, that’s the explanation for why the Pharisees were enraged by the implication underlying Jesus’ apparently simple statement. 

Back to John 14:6 and that first element, “I am the way.” Its meaning seems fairly straightforward, insofar as Jesus continues, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” In other words, Jesus is the exclusive route, or means, by which a person can know God the Father (and by implication, be saved to eternal life). You may be thinking, fair enough; that’s what Christians believe and it’s why we share the gospel. And that’s certainly not untrue. But it doesn’t answer all the questions; such as, how, exactly, Jesus is “the way”? How does that work? What does it mean to be “coming to the Father through Jesus”? You may say, “Well, becoming a Christian, of course”—or, in evangelical-speak, “Giving your heart to Jesus,” or, “Praying ‘The Sinner’s Prayer.’” And again, I don’t say that’s wrong. But I’m not sure we get it from anything that Jesus himself said (or from anything similar in the New Testament).

There’s no space here to go into how to define “a Christian” or even, “a Jesus-follower,” or to debate questions like whether “once saved” means “always saved.” But I rather like Tom Wright’s take on this verse: Jesus is saying, “If you want to know how to get to the father’s house, you must come with me” (John For Everyone, Part 2). In other words, it means joining Jesus on the journey. It means becoming as one of his first disciples—with everything that Jesus’ simple invitation to “Follow me” implied at the time. Analogizing Ruth’s words to Naomi, in Ruth 1, it means “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”   

In today’s pluralistic and religiously tolerant Western world, Jesus’ exclusivist claim to be “the way” to God can sound arrogant and jarring. But we need not read it that way—or perhaps better, we need not pass it on that way. Truth claims delivered in a pugnacious manner will always jar, even if they’re true; to wit, many street corner soapbox preachers. 

It is not pluralistic to observe that, per 1 John 2:2, Jesus is “the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.” As The Message paraphrases it, “He solved the sin problem for good—not only ours but the whole world’s.” John is not making a statement affirming universalism here, but rather the all-embracing sufficiency of what Jesus has done—the breadth and scope of his atoning work. In that sense, he is indeed the way for everyone insofar as he has made it possible for everyone. How, exactly, a person accesses the benefits of that atoning work is an entirely separate question—and so too, of course, is how a person rejects it or otherwise misses out on it.      

Let’s move on to “I am the truth.” Again, this can sound arrogant and jarring but need not be heard or explained that way. The clue is, once again, that Jesus is the personification of these things; specifically, the truth about what God is like. Even for those who believe in the existence of a God, the crucial questions are what he is like and how he can be known. Jesus embodies the answers to both questions. To understand him is to understand God. He is the truth of who God is and what he’s like, embodied in a real human person. As Jesus continues, “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”  

And then finally, “I am the life.” Other Johannine sayings of Jesus help us to see two senses of “life” here. “I am the bread of life” in John 6:35 alludes to God’s day-by-day feeding of Israel in the desert through the manna and is echoed in “Give us today our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer. It’s clearly metaphorical—picturing a life-sustaining personal relationship with Jesus each day, comparable to our need and desire for food itself. The second sense is future-focused—a life to come beyond physical death. “I am the resurrection and the life” in John 11:25 continues “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die . . .” Jesus is both life now and life in the future.

These present and future senses come together in how Jesus defined “eternal life” in his prayer in John 17:3: “Now this is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Eternal life is relational—a relationship into which we are invited now. It’s not transactional—something to “pray a prayer” to acquire. It’s not about having a Get Out Of Hell Free card to tuck in our wallet for later in case we need it. Eternal life is a quality of life, not just a quantity of life. Yes, it continues forever, but it starts now. Jesus “is” the life, for all those who are “in Christ” and “Christ in us” (as the Apostle Paul would famously put it).

The nature of our relationship is, at present, a limited and poor reflection, compared to what it will be. Paul’s metaphor in 1 Corinthians 13:12—“Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully”—was a great analogy in the times he lived in, when mirrors were polished metal (though it doesn’t work well now unless we explain that).

But back to where we started—and taking a slight metaphorical liberty—Jesus is the “exact likeness,” the “visible image,” of the unseen God (Colossians 1:15) in ultra-high definition.