Boot and Fountain of all life in religion, ttie Eedeemer from death and the Giver of everlasting life. He that knows and believes in Me, however weak and ignorant he may feel, has spiritual life now, and will have a glorious life in my Father's house hereafter."
Some think that the three great words in this sentence should be taken together, and that our Lord meant, " I am the true and living way." Yet the general opinion of the best comments tors is decidedly unfavorable to this view of the sentence. To my own mind it cuts down and impoverishes a great and deep saying.
Musculus remarks that no prophet, teacher, or apostle ever used such words as these. They are the language of one who knew that He was God.
[iVb man...cometh... Father. ..hy me.] Here our Lord teaches that He is not merely the way to our Father's home in heaven, but that there is no other way, and that men must either go to heaven by His atonement or not go there at all. It is a clear distinct limitation of heaven to those who believe on Christ. None else will enter in there. Rejecting Christ they lose all.
We should mark carefully what an unanswerable argument this sentence supplies against the modern notion that it does not matter what a man believes, — that all religions will lead men to lieaven if they are sincere, — that creeds and doctrines are of no importance, — that heaven is a place for all mankind — whether heathen, Mahometan, or Christian, — and that the Fatherhood of God is enough to save all at last, of all sects, kinds, and characters ! Our Lord's words should never be forgotten. " There is no way to the Father but by Me." God is a Father to none but to those who believe in Christ. In short, there are not many ways to heaven. There is only one way.
" Coming to the Father," in this place, we must remark, in eludes not only coming to Him in glory at the last, but coming to Him in a friendly relation for peace and comfort now in this life,
"By Me," is literally, "through" Me, — as a door, a gate, a road, a path, an entrauce. It is an expression which would be peculiarly expressive to the Jews, taught from their child- hood to draw near to God only through the priests.
7. — {If...knoicn me. ..Father also.] This is a deep saying, like every saying which handles the mysterious union of the Fa ther and' the Son in St. John's Gospel. The meaning seems to be, " If you had rightly, properly, and perfectly known Me, as the Divine Messiah, in all the fulness of my nature, you would then have known more of that Father to whom I am insepara- bly united. No one can rightly know Me without knowing the Father, because I and the Father are One."