Some of the best known words of Jesus are found in Verse 6 of the 14th Chapter of the Gospel of John: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” The deep, spiritual yearning of the faithful ever since Eden, when our first earthly father forfeited our inheritance, has been to come to the heavenly Father. However, through the ages, man has sought Him in vain when endeavoring to come to Him in his own way, and by means of his own devices. Now, the Son of God offers The way in which man can be brought near to God— God’s way. For God’s own Son it was the way of the cross. Those who would be “brought nigh unto Him through the blood of Jesus,” must follow the same path, the way of the cross. There is no other way, for “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). In ecclesias in the early days the believers were called “followers of the way.” It is not by accident or chance that in these last days believers identify themselves as “being in the truth,” the truth which alone leads to eternal life through Jesus who promised it. The truth includes the way, and we must take note that the way to immortal life must first lead to the cross —First the cross, and Then the crown.
In the period in which Jesus lived, crosses were made on which criminals were to die; that was their sole purpose, and the reason why they were constructed. But in the case of the Lord Jesus, the cross was not the symbol of a felon’s death. Rather it was the everlasting memorial of a glorious victory over sin and death. Here God’s righteousness was vindicated, and flesh received its just reward. The saints, having identified themselves with Him on the cross, die with Him, and share in His resurrection (2 Corin. 5 :14,15) The apostle expresses the spirit of this teaching in the third Chapter of Colossians. In Verses 3 and 4 he reminds us : “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in Glory.”
There is a divine source of comfort in these words “hid with Christ in God” that is really beyond our fullest comprehension In the following quotation the prophet expresses the provision made in a time of trouble for those who belong to Christ: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut the doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out if his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity : the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain” (Isaiah 26:20, 21).
There is a strong relationship here in the chambers the believer is invited to avail himself of in a time of trouble soon to come upon a troubled world, and those prepared by the Master in His sojourn away from His household, For He said: “In my Father’s house are many abiding place. (R.V.), I go to prepare a place for you, etc.” (John 14:1-3). The great comfort is that we are always in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and He is ever with us, even to the end of the age (R.V.). If there s any separation, it is we who separate from Him. But His divine love is always there, ready to receive us back into the shelter and security of the everlasting arms.
In this same chapter of Isaiah, he dead in Christ who shall live are classified, also those who remain in the congregation of the dead and shall not see life (Verses 3, 14; 19). There is much to be said in the Scriptures about the “living dead.” The way to life is entered only through the waters of baptism, which symbolizes our death with Him, and our rising to walk in newness of life. The way to life can be entered only in this manner, and we suggest to those who have not been baptized that they make an earnest study of the sixth Chapter of Romans and similar Scriptures that show the way to life. To be dead in “trespasses and sins” can be remedied by faith and obedience as above mentioned, but the baptized believer must continue to walk in the way, and not fall back into sin. It was the master’s challenge to those who listened to Him in His day “to let the dead bury the dead, come ye and and follow me.” It is the same challenge today, and will be until He returns to bestow life eternal on those who have obeyed that challenge.
It is a paradoxical situation that to follow Christ means the road to Calvary. But, although Calvary was the way to death for our Lord, death could not hold Him, and he arose to eternal life. If faithful in following Christ’s way the same reward will be given to us. The Master died to make the way to life known and available for all who would take up their cross and follow Him. The apostle expresses the spirit of the paradox in Galatians, Chapter 2, Verse 20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Happy are we if so be we can apply these words to ourselves in examining our own lives. No one can do it for us, we must examine ourselves (I Corin. 11:28).
There is a way we can measure our progress in the life that we now live by faith in the Son of God ; it is given to us in 2 Corin. 3:18 from the English Revised Version: “But we all with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
In other words, we do not compare ourselves with ourselves. Those who do this are not wise, for the Scripture tells us to honestly look into the mirror of our own lives to see if the transforming influence of Jesus has made us more like Him from day to day. It is not easy to psychoanalyze our own lives. We would far rather do it for someone else, but do it we must, with Jesus as the standard to be reached.
May we recognize our failings NOW and remedy them before it is too late, for if the Spirit of Christ is not in us, we are none of His. It is NOW that we must show a likeness to the divine image if so be we shall be like Him when we see Him as He is. At that time we shall look into the mirror, not dimly, but clearly, and see ourselves then, as God sees us NOW (1 Corin. 13:12).
Let us attempt NOW to be transformed into the divine likeness from glory to glory by the spirit of Christ that dwells in us . . . or should.
To receive Christianity in an intellectual rather than in a moral aspect is to treat it as a new system of philosophy rather than a spiritual regeneration of one’s own the and character. This is the error that has proven fatal to so many, both in the past, and in our own day. The truth must penetrate the intellect, but it must also completely change one s life. The complaint of the intellectuals in Christ’s day was that He came to sinners, and not to respectable society — by their standards. They did not see that He came to reform them from sinners to saints by first appealing to their reason, and then, through the forgiving love of God penetrating their hearts, cause a spiritual and moral regeneration to take place in their lives.
It is the same today. The power and intent of the Gospel has eve been thus. The intellect alone will not perform this miracle; it must go farther, to the fleshly tablet of the heart (Matthew 23:23).
The way of the cross then is the daily walk of a transformed life There is no other way to the Kingdom of God. Let us who are ii “the truth” emulate those worthies of old. May we, too, be followers of the “way,” even a they, and when Christ comes who is “the way, the truth and the life’ may we be given that great re ward, eternal life.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One