The way to find life's turning point

When Jesus said to His apostles, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” did He say it like, “You guys are just wearing me out; don’t you get anything?!” or did He say, “Wait a minute! I am the way! I am the truth! I am the life!”?

“I’m not sure," says Jordan in an old study. "I vacillate between the two and I’m almost overwhelmed with the desire to say He went, ‘Phil, Tom, you guys aren’t getting this. I’M the way, I’M the truth, I’M the life!'

“It stands as one of those clear statements that emphatically indicates who the Lord Jesus Christ is. First, there’s that definite article. But when He says, ‘I am,’ this is one of those ‘I Am’ statements.

“You remember in John 5:58 He said, ‘I am THE bread of life’? He said, ‘The only place you can get the substance of life is from me.’ ‘I’m the light of the world.’ THE light, meaning, 'There’s NO light, NO understanding, NO truth, nothing outside of what you get from me.' Paul says, 'In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.'

“Then Jesus said, ‘I’m the door.’ 'It’s through me you get to God.' He then said, ‘I’m the good shepherd.’ (John 10). Then He said, ‘I’m the resurrection and the life.’ Then He said, ‘I’m the true vine.’ (John 15)

“Those Jehovah titles, seven of them in the Book of John, match the seven Jehovah titles that are connected with the seven Jehovah feasts of Israel back in Leviticus 23. Just as you have those seven compound names, they match. There’s no doubt about what He’s saying when He says this and He pulls out those three things: 'I’m the way, because I’m going away and I’m preparing a place for you.'

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“That term ‘the way,’ by the way, became sort of the shorthand description of the followers of Christ. Acts 16:17 says, ‘The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.’ It's that little expression 'the way.'

"In chapter 18 when Apollos shows up at Ephesus, verse 26 says, ‘And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.’

“You see 'the way' picks up sort of a personification to it. In Acts 24:14, when Paul is giving his defense before Felix, he says, ‘But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.’

“The way--the doctrine Paul followed--they called heresy. What Christ is talking about when He says, ‘I am the way,’ is, ‘I am the way to the Father. I’m the way to God.’ And that’s the whole issue about the way of God. The whole issue is how do you get to God? You get to Him through Jesus Christ, no other way.

*****

“Hebrews 10:19-20 says, ‘Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

[20] By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.’

“This is talking about the new covenant. The new and living way is in contrast to the old ministration of death in the Mosaic law. What the Messiah’s going to do is He’s really going to get them to God. He’s bringing the disciples to a place where He’s going to talk to them about the new covenant.

“He’s saying to them, ‘Here’s the whole scope of what ought to keep your heart from being troubled. I’m going to go away and I’m going to come back and you’re going to reap benefits over here because I am the way; I’m the one who’s going to provide this new and living way that’s going to accomplish that. I’m the truth. Thy word is truth. I’m the life.’

“By the way, without Him there is no life. He’s the Creator. Everything in life is about Him. He said, ‘The words I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.’ The real issue in the life there is He’s the resurrection and the life. He’s already told them that in chapter 11. He’s the way because He’s the truth. He’s the truth because He’s the life.

"The great proof of the fact that He is the truth and the way is that He’s the life. It all hinges on His resurrection. His resurrection says sin has been put away by the sacrifice of Himself. And now He appears the second time without sin to accomplish His purpose.

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“I figured out that no matter what I did and no matter how hard I worked at it, tomorrow I’d be able to look back and say, ‘Boy, I could’ve done better.’ I told the Lord one day, ‘You know, Lord, if the success of the Body of Christ is dependent upon me serving you, there's trouble,’ and it was along in there that I began to realize that it isn’t really what I’m doing for Him that’s the issue; it’s really that I’m in Christ and He’s in me and it’s His life in me that’s the real issue. And you know that is a turning point in your life.

“When you realize it’s really not what you do for the Lord or you striving, being on the treadmill with, ‘Gotta get there, gotta accomplish it’ . . .  the Christ life is really Him in you, living out through you.

“Now, that’s wonderful to understand in theory, but you’re like I am and we’re both like Paul was in Romans 7. He said, ‘To will is with me, present with me . . .  I got all the will you want. My problem isn’t willpower; my problem is WANT power. Because the good I would do, I don’t, and the evil that I don’t want to do, I do. How to perform I can’t find a way . . .’

“See? I know you know what I’m talking about. You’re not any better than I am. And the answer to that in Paul’s case, in Romans 7, isn’t in what you’re doing. It’s saying that, ‘What I’m going to do isn’t going to be the issue.’

“The answer is in, ‘And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’ There’s the how to perform.

“The Word of God works effectually in you that believe and the Christ life is really Christ’s LIFE living in and through us, and we know it’s Christ living in us when we know we’ve got an objective standard of His Word. That’s why we want to study it rightly divided so we can understand it and know what He’s doing today, what it is we’re to believe and put our faith and trust in, and then we take that Word into the details of our life.

“People say sometime, ‘You guys are so doctrinal; it’s nothing ever practical.’ There’s nothing where God’s more involved in your life than when you take the truths of His Word and apply them to the details—the nitty-gritty of your life.

“I’ve told people for years, in Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3; if you took the instructions in Romans 12, or Ephesians 4 beginning in verse 25, and you wrote those things on a piece of paper, wrote on each one of them . . . And you just spent one day with each one of those things, trying to figure out how to have that live in you, you know what? You see, it’s that application.

“We’re complete in Christ; there’s nothing that’s ever going to be added to you. It’s now just an issue of a faith appropriation of that identity into the details of your life. And that’s the practical reality of Christ living in you. It’s not just words; it’s taking that truth and seeing that live in you.

“Grace isn’t just a theology to believe; it’s a life that LIVES. That’s what excites us, that’s what keeps us going; that’s what impels us along. Now, as Believers, and as we function as Believers, the thing that causes us to rejoice, and sustains us and keeps us going in that direction, is the patience of hope.

"That hope--every time you see in Paul’s epistles that he talks about hope, if you just see that word ‘hope,’ instantly think, 'Christ is coming.' Think 'Rapture' when you see that word. You’ll have the doctrine that he’s talking about and you’ll have the idea in your mind.”

(new article tomorrow)