“No One Comes but By Me”
Love Never Dies, prt. 15
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
July 25, 2010
We’re in John chapter 14 today. Contained in John chapter 14 is one of the key verses in all of Christian theology. The way you understand this verse as a Christian (if indeed you are a Christian) will make a gigantic difference in the way you understand Jesus, God, and the work God is up to in your life and in the world. Seriously, it’s that big. When I looked at this chapter I immediately realized that this is where I had to focus for today’s sermon. Some of you have felt a bit confused by some of the things I have said in previous sermons in this series, and what I want to do today is – whether you are in that group or not – I want to clarify some of those things, and focusing intensely on this one particular verse should help me do that. As I clarify this, what I am seeking above all else is to make sure you understand that what I’m saying is not New Age, it is not what is often called a “watering down” of the Christian message, but is in fact solid Biblical interpretation. I cannot overstate how important it is that we look carefully at this verse and that you move with me into study of this verse with an understanding of what is at stake. What is at stake, as I said a moment ago, is precisely your understanding of Jesus, God, and the work God is up to in your life and in the world. I don’t want to go so far as to say EVERYTHING about your faith hinges on this one verse, but a great deal in fact does. I’ve preached every message in this series so far from Peterson’s translation of The Bible called The Message, but for our study today I want to use the New International rendering of this verse because it is the one that is most familiar to you and it will be important to feel comfortable and familiar with the verse. Let’s read it together.
John 14:6 (NIV)
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Let’s read it one more time.
John 14:6 (NIV)
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
There it is. One of the linchpins of Christian theology. And well it should be. For it is in this verse that we come to truly understand Jesus as the Logos – and how we interpret this verse determines what we understand about Jesus as the Logos! Remember, back in week two we looked at John 1, which says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And I talked to you about how the Greek word translated “word” is “Logos,” and the Greeks understood Logos to mean not only “word” but also the system of logic and understanding that gives words their meaning. So when John writes, “In the beginning was the Word,” he’s actually conveying, “In the beginning was the Reason – the prime mover – the one who is first – the one who created all things and in whom all things are held together.” He is mystery – not one who cannot be understood, but one who is infinitely understandable! This is who John says Jesus is, before he ever tells us a thing he did or a thing he said. Why? Because context is everything. So it is context I want to establish with you this morning before I “get to the point,” so to speak. In John 14:6, Jesus is explaining the nature of that saving work that he does, and the way we understand this is critical.
The problem we have in approaching key passages/verses like this one is that we lack a sense not only of mystery, but also an understanding of history. History is valuable because it teaches us what is new and what is old. See in a few moments I’m going to start talking to you in some depth about John 14:6. And if you don’t know your history, you’re going to think that what I’m telling you is new. And if you think it’s new, you will be untrusting of it. You will suspect maybe I’ve gone off the rails, that in some sense I’m not really Christian. Suddenly, your pastor who has always seemed to guide you with reasonable steadiness – in an instant – begins looking like a heretic! So I want to make sure you understand that what I’m about to tell you is deeply Christian. Now it may not be the understanding you have always had of this verse, but again – the point of history is to help us realize that ideas didn’t begin with us, or with our parents . They have foundations. So the worst mistake you can make as I talk to you today about John 14:6 is to assume that these are simply my strange ideas that come from my own head, that have no basis in history, in sound theology, etc. That’s completely not the case.
Are you afraid yet? I ask because the amount of explaining I’ve already done without even looking at the verse might be making some people think that something terrible is about to happen! I assure you that is not the case! I’m not about to go off the rails! There is no cause for fear or alarm as we look at this together. What I hope you will see is that the view of Jesus I’m about to teach you is not a LOWER view of Jesus, but rather a much HIGHER one. It is not a Jesus with less saving power, but with a great deal more saving power. It is not a Jesus who loves less, but more. It is not a Jesus who is less just, but more just. See those are the fundamentals of Christian theology. That Jesus is high above all things, that he is mighty to save, that he is loving, that he is just. If I can talk to you about John 14:6 and show you how, if anything, it allows Jesus to be MORE of these things than in our more conservative interpretation, then that in itself is a powerful argument that what I’m saying – if not dead-on right – is at least reasonable, plausible, and certainly not some kind of outright heresy. Let’s start with the traditional understanding of this verse so we can give it a fair hearing. It is, after all, what I myself believed about this verse for most of my life – up until about ten years ago. It was at that point that I realized that not only was it unlikely that my understanding of this verse was accurate, it was actually highly likely that there HAD to be another way of understanding it – or else Jesus could not in fact be the person that I learned he was in Sunday school.
See, in Sunday school and conservative Christian theology we are taught to believe that this verse is clearly saying that only Christians will spend eternity with God in heaven. It’s clear, right? I am the way, the truth, and the life – no one comes to the Father but by me.” Now really, how clear could this be? It almost seems like that’s the only way we can think about it. But in fact that is not the way it was thought about by many of the early Christians.
Really there are two possible ways of interpreting this one verse. One is, as I have said, the view that only people who confess Christ personally and have a conscious, deliberate, personal relationship with him will ever be able to know God. The other view, the one that I hold, is simply that for all who are saved, it is Jesus Christ who does the saving. Jesus is the Logos – the eternal Word of God – Jesus is the only one who IS God – who existed with God in the beginning – who created all things by his own hand and through his own word.
Now how is one different from the other? The first view, usually either without realizing it, or without admitting it, puts forth the idea that it is the religion of Christianity that saves. The second view maintains that it is Jesus, and Jesus alone, who saves. We know that Jesus never asked anyone to pray a sinner’s prayer or do any of the things we so often associate with coming to Christ (at least if he did, none of that is written down). These are not bad things, and definitely have their usefulness, but they are not things we must do in order to know God. If they were, then Jesus would have had people do them! I started Wildwind to be a church that keeps the main thing the main thing, and I think in understanding and acknowledging this we are doing something extremely important. It is not the religion of Christianity that saves anyone. Jesus told us clearly:
Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV)
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'
23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Please notice that people will say, “Did we not do all kinds of things in your name.” We, acting in the name of Jesus, can do all kinds of things, but still not know God. It is not saying a prayer of some kind, “accepting Christ,” or whatever that “gets us in.” What does the trick for us is simply doing what God would have us do. Frankly I’m amazed that some people are so threatened by this idea. I think it’s a perfectly clear teaching. Jesus is saying that the person who does God’s will will know God. The person who does not do God’s will will not know God, regardless of what he or she calls him/herself. Jesus also said this:
Matthew 12:33 (NCV)
33 “If you want good fruit, you must make the tree good. If your tree is not good, it will have bad fruit. A tree is known by the kind of fruit it produces.
And Paul said:
Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
So here’s Jesus, clearly telling people who have done things in his name that he nonetheless does not know them. Then we have Jesus telling us that we can easily identify goodness (which is to say, God-ness, since God is good and all good comes from God). Why do we look at a person who loves beyond our own capability, who is kind and generous and joyful and free of pretense and anxiety, and say, “He’s a really good person – too bad he’s not a Christian.” As if there is Christian goodness and non-Christian goodness! These fruits of love and kindness and generosity and joy – they simply ARE the fruit of goodness, fruit of God’s spirit. Where those things are, there is God. There’s no such thing as secular good and sacred good, no sense in the idea that good can come from anyplace other than God – the only one who is good! Jesus said “a tree is known by its fruit.” If you see the fruits of the Spirit coming out of someone’s life, guess who is producing those fruits? Yep! And this is true whether or not the person knows this, understands this, or even cares about it. Goodness is Godness. Wherever there is good, there is God. Wherever there is love, there is the one who IS love. Wherever there is peace, there is the Prince of Peace. Do you understand? This is not New Age, gobbledy-gook. I’m talking about Jesus – the Logos – the eternal word – the one who is mighty to save! Our understandings will be understandings on different levels. We won’t all have the same level of spiritual insight and receptivity and awareness. But do we seriously believe that can keep God from accomplishing his purposes?
Genesis 50:20 (NIV)
20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
See, there are our intentions and understandings, and then there are God’s plans – and we confuse the two. This idea that we must be intentional and deliberate and full of spiritual insight and able to consciously choose the historical person of Jesus in order for God to produce the fruits of his spirit in us – I just don’t think that does justice to who God has revealed himself to be.
The second view plainly puts forth the idea that it is Jesus Christ – and Jesus Christ alone – who saves. That is where exclusivism comes in. Both views are exclusive. The first view says that everybody who doesn’t personally confess Jesus Christ will not be able to know God. The second view simply maintains that Jesus is the one who saves all who are saved. For all who do end up with God, for all who display the fruit of God’s spirit in their lives, for all who thirst for something they can’t quite define and find themselves filled by love and goodness and peace and joy – the fruits of the Holy Spirit of God – Jesus, the Logos, the eternal Word of God – is the one, and the only one – who does and can do the saving. Why do some people find this threatening? It doesn’t lower our view of Jesus one bit. It states that Jesus is going to do far more saving than we had ever imagined, that God’s grace is far bigger, that God is far more sufficient than we ever supposed. This view is a threat not to God, not to the power and sufficiency of Jesus, not to sound Biblical interpretation, but to the institutional religion of Christianity. And that’s a powerful institution. So powerful that many don’t know the difference between the religion of Christianity and Christ himself.
And the funny thing is that this view only states clearly what most people already believe without admitting it. Ask someone with the first view what is going to happen to people who never heard of Jesus, or what about people born before Christ came to earth, and most of them will tell you God has some kind of “Plan B” to make sure his love and justice prevails for them. Folks, either this “Plan B” exists or it does not. If there’s a Plan B, which most people acknowledge, then God’s love and mercy and grace can extend to people who have not confessed Christ. Don’t be afraid of that, don’t see it as a threat to God, or to Christ, or to your belief system. Just understand that this is the way it is. Very few of us in this room today, no matter our personal take on John 14:6, are willing to say categorically that Gandhi is not at this moment in the presence of God. We just have enough sense not to go there – not to pretend to understand the mercy and grace of God. And that’s wise. But I say why not make that part of our theology? Because we already acknowledge a “Plan B,” because we already know that God is looking for people who walk with him and love him and do his will, because we already sense very deeply that we should not make pronouncements of who ends up where (though the Catholic Church has issued many edicts declaring that certain people should be damned “anathema”, the Catholic Church has never once declared a single human soul to actually be in hell!), then we can freely, without fear of "watering down” our faith in any way, leave ALL of the saving to God, allow God to save all who are willing to allow his love and peace and joy into their lives, whether they know the name of Christ or not.
Now I’m not saying all roads lead to heaven. Only one road leads to heaven, because there is only one God, and only one goodness, and only one love. Jesus made that perfectly clear. He spelled that out for us:
Matthew 22:36-40 (NLT)
36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
This really is what it’s all about. Love really IS the law. That’s why Paul said,
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NLT)
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.
3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
Christians today are so concerned about whether this person or that person has said the sinner’s prayer because we’re so convinced that’s what brings people salvation (again, such a prayer may or may not be highly meaningful), but you can go to a lot of churches for years at a time and hear very few things about love. Strange when it’s love that really is the law – love that really matters – love that Jesus himself endorsed and said is the most important thing. Listen, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the sinner’s prayer. I’m not suggesting that people should convert to other religions. I’m definitely not suggesting that it doesn’t matter whether people know about Jesus – Jesus is the eternal Word, God in the flesh. A lot of spiritual people have lived on this earth, but Jesus is the only one who ever came directly from God and is God himself. Jesus understands reality and is the image of God – we can see God when we look at him. There are a lot of elements of truth in other religions, but Buddha was not God, and Mohammed was not God, and Moses was not God. The gospel says that Jesus is the one who makes the kingdom of God available to us, that Christ alone does the saving that needs to be done, and best of all, that we can know him now! That’s the good news!
Now when I said that our understanding of John 14:6 is the linchpin of our theology, here’s what I meant. The way you understand John 14:6 determines where you are able to see God working. That's a fact. If you believe that wherever love and peace and joy are prevailing, there is God, then you can live in freedom and openness to God. If you believe God can’t be in it unless a person knows and has confessed Christ personally, then you take the mystery out of it and make it more about us and our awareness and understandings than it is about God. If you believe that wherever God’s saving work is done, Jesus Christ is mighty to save and is the one who does all of that work, you see God as the Father of all people, the one who is saving not only the world but, as Paul said, redeeming all of creation itself! Your understanding of the scope of God’s redeeming work just becomes huge, and you can give thanks in ways you never could otherwise. You can see God working in people who don’t even know he’s there – who may not even care. You can share your faith with others not from a place of “God’s working in me and he might work in you too if you’d say the magic words,” but from a place of “Here’s how God is working in me, and you know what? Here’s how I already see God at work in you” whether they understand it to be God or not! John Wesley called Christ’s work in the lives of non-believers “prevenient grace.” This idea is not new age, but is deeply Wesleyan! God is already at work in people and in the world, even through religions we don’t entirely agree with, even in political points of view that don’t resound with us, even in world events that would seem to have no redemptive purpose. This is the majestic, huge, glorious, and grand message of the Logos – the eternal Word -- doing this work of drawing all people to himself.
John 12:32 (NIV)
32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."
Finally, when you take this second view of this verse, you realize there is nothing to fear. It is easy to fear that God’s love might leak out to people who think and believe differently than us because if that can happen, then does that mean that what we believe is wrong? My friends, we are to trust Christ, and Christ alone. We are to trust that the eternal Word who became flesh and lived among us and sits today at the right hand of God truly is mighty to save – that through him you have been reconciled to God – the way is clear for you to live in union with him. If trusting in that seems insufficient, what will suffice for you?! The truth is that you can rejoice in what God has done for you, rejoice in what God is doing in others (whether they are aware of it or not!) AND feel free to share with others the freedom and sweetness that comes from living closely connected to Jesus – the vine, the bread of life, the Son of God, God himself! Just like Paul did in Acts, you can be someone who helps to bring God into the conscious awareness of people so they can participate openly in the life of God. Will you pray with me?
Jesus, thank you that before you ever came to this earth, you have been in the business of delivering into the care of God the Father all people who have ever sought to do your will. Thank you that your work, Jesus, is beyond and in spite of time, space, denominations, and even religions. God I know, like Peter said, that it is time for judgment to begin with the house of God. As those who bear the name of Christ, may we focus on living the love command, expend our energy on doing your will and being instruments of your love and grace, and leave firmly in your hands what you are doing in the lives of others. God may we increasingly spot signs of your life springing up in all people and all places and thank you that we know you’re in that business of redeeming the whole creation. We praise you, great and powerful God! Amen.
