We have seen how the Lord is the Way and the Truth. These concepts are the necessary preliminary to the great claim that Jesus is THE LIFE. The Old Testament uniformly witnesses to the fact that the Lord God is the sole source of life. His activity in creating the earth and all forms of life upon it is simply, but comprehensively, brought out in Genesis 1. This fundamental truth is proclaimed in Psalm 36:9: “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light” (RV, as all quotes unless noted).
Whatever powers the Son possessed and exercised were accordingly derived from his Father, a truth the Lord is at pains to make clear: “I can of myself Con my own,’ NRSV) do nothing…” (John 5:30). This humility in our Lord is an example we should not forget when we think of our own or others’ achievements.
Jesus given the power to give life
As for our Lord as the source of life, we recall his words in John 5:26: “For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself.” No statement can be more important than this in view of the universal reign of death.
The context of the Lord’s words in John 5 needs to be studied to appreciate how he is the source of life. His enemies have two charges against him: he has healed a lame man on the Sabbath and he has claimed God is his Father (v. 18). We should first note great support to his claim has already been furnished in the healing of a man afflicted with an infirmity for 38 years (v. 5). However, the Lord’s claim goes further: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live” (v. 25). Later the Lord refers specifically to resurrection when, in response to his voice, some will emerge from the grave to inherit life, and others will be condemned (vv. 28-29).
In the gospel records, there are the accounts of three resurrections carried out by the Lord: the daughter of Jairus (Matt. 9:23-26); the compassionate restoration of the widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7:11-15), and the resurrection of Lazarus. The restoration of Lazarus is the transcendent event, as he was dead for four days and emerged from the tomb “bound hand and foot with grave clothes” (John 11:44). Here was the supreme vindication that the dead do hear the Lord’s voice and respond to it.
In John 10, where Jesus develops the allegory of the good shepherd, there is repeated emphasis upon the response of the sheep to the shepherd’s voice (John 10:3,4,16,27). There is one detail especially worthy of notice: each sheep has its own name, and the shepherd knows it. All this is wonderfully demonstrated in John 11, when at the grave the good shepherd, “with a loud voice” cries, “Lazarus, come forth” (v. 43). It is against the background of this event we must see the great claim made to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live” (11:25).
In Jesus is life eternal
The “works” done by Jesus during his ministry thus provide dramatic confirmation that he is the life. In his first epistle, John provides a commentary on the truths we have been considering. In I John 1:1 and 3, he stresses he is drawing on his personal experience; then, in verse 2 he declares: “And the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” Jesus was thus the embodiment of eternal life and that life in him became accessible to those who recognize the truth of his claims, so fully endorsed in this first epistle by one who had been his close and beloved disciple.
Later in his letter, John indicates how that life in the historic Jesus is made available to the believer: “And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life” (I John 5:11,12). Thus the inescapable condition of acquiring eternal life is to have the Son. But how do we have, or possess, the Son?
The answer could be a lengthy one but the Lord himself lays down the essential condition, which we have already noted: “If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). By constantly observing his commandments, we become increasingly like him, being conformed to his image, which is the authentic image of God (see Col. 1:15; Rom. 8:29). Our natural heritage is in Adam, and consequently we obey the impulses of the flesh. Our new life is in the Lord Jesus, a lofty ideal but one which we must embrace and actively pursue. None was more conscious of this than the apostle Paul. He writes of the Lord being our very life (Col. 3:4). He could speak of himself in these terms: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). So he was emboldened to write: “Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ” (I Cot 11:1).
Jesus reveals the Father
To return to our consideration of John 14: Because the Lord is “the way, the truth and the life,” he can add, “no one cometh unto the Father but by me” (v. 6). This is the essential theme of these studies. Because he was, and is, the very image of his Father, he makes a further, but related, claim: “If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also: from henceforth ye know him, and also have seen him” (v. 7).
This prompts Philip to intervene: “Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us” (v. 8). One of the fascinating features of the Gospel of John is the way in which we get to know better some of the apostles who appear only as names in the other gospels (note). The manner in which Thomas and Philip seek for guidance from their Lord demonstrates the problems the apostles had with so many of his statements and we can be grateful they gave expression to their doubts and bewilderment. The Lord lived on a level much higher than the twelve, and had a much deeper insight into the Old Testament, especially in its relevance to his own mission. We can understand how necessary it was, after his resurrection, to open the mind of his disciples so that they might more fully understand his words (see Luke 24:27,45).
As for Philip’s request, it moved the Lord to rebuke him, “Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, Shew us the Father?” (v. 9). Here is an incidental confirmation of the length of the ministry, normally reckoned as some three years. Philip and the others thus had ample time to appreciate the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus.
His works proved who he was
Jesus further explains himself to Philip when he says: “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The works that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works” (v. 10). Once more, as so often, we note the total humility of our Lord. He claims no originality for himself: he is the mouthpiece of his Father.
His next words are addressed to all the apostles: “Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake” (v. 11). What the Lord is effectively saying to Philip and the others is this: “If it is too much for you to grasp that he who has seen me has seen the Father also, you must at least appreciate that the works, the miracles I have performed, and of which you have been the eyewitnesses, provide the indisputable proof of my claims.”
This was not the first time they had heard Jesus use this argument. In John 5: “The works which the Father hath given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me” (John 5:36). Later, in support of his Messiahship, he says, “The works that I do in my Father’s name, these bear witness of me” (10:25). More relevant to our present theme, that God was in him, is the claim: “But if I do them (the works), though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (v. 38). Especially relevant to the Lord’s declaration that he who had seen him had also seen the Father are the words in John 12:45: “And he that beholdeth me beholdeth him that sent me.”
It is against this background that we begin to understand why the Lord could reprove Philip for his slowness in grasping the import of his words: “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One