The "crucified ones" ~ Chapter 12 ~ Charles Elliott Newbold, Jr.

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The "crucified ones" - Charles Elliott Newbold, Jr.

Chapter 12 - The Way, The Truth, And The Life

As recorded in John 14:2-6, Jesus comforted His disciples regarding His going away by telling them that if He goes, as He must, He will prepare a place for them in His Father's abode and will come again to receive them saying, "that where I am, there you may be also."

He continues, saying, "And where I go you know, and the way you know." But Thomas answered Him, "Lord, we do not know where you go; and how can we know the way?" Jesus used the occasion to explain that He Himself is "the way, and the truth, and the life."

He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and it occurs in that order.

The Way

First, Jesus is the Way, the way unto salvation. No man can come to the Father except through Jesus (John 14:6b).

He clearly is the door of the sheep (John 10:7). Men try to enter the kingdom of God by many other ways. But they are thieves and robbers (John 10:1). No man can enter the Kingdom of God unless He is willing to humble himself in death and pass through the door who is the person of Jesus: to be buried with Him in His baptism and raised with Him in His resurrection (Rom 6:4).

This is the ministry of the outer court: the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the Savior of the world. "And you shall call His name Jesus: for He shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21).

He is the way, the road, the narrow road that leads to life. "Enter in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there are who find it" (Matt. 7:13-14).

"There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12).

That Jesus is the indisputable way of God unto God is the debate of carnal men to this day. It is an insult to the carnal mind of man which exalts itself above the knowledge of God that God should be so narrow minded. It insults the intellectual who wants either to believe that he has within himself the ability to save himself or, at best, that all religions funnel up to a common God.

But the revelation of God has come through the only begotten of God, Jesus, the Messiah of God. Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Now this is the way of God unto salvation. "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21). "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved" (Rom. 10:9).

The way is not a formula, a doctrine, a religion, or any such thing. The Way is the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus as the Way is the outer court of Passover.

The Truth

Jesus not only is first and foremost the Way, but He is the Truth. On numerous occasions He deliberately spoke to the Jews saying, "I tell you the truth..." (See John 8:40-46).

This He did not only to show the contrast between the truth and the hypocrisy of the religion of the Pharisees, but to declare who He Himself was.

He didn't just tell the truth. He didn't merely know the truth. He was the Truth.

Jesus told the Jews who believed in Him to abide in His word. He didn't say abide in His words, but in His word (John 8:31 NAS). This was just another way of His saying "abide in Me" as He illustrated in John 15:1-8 (which speaks of the true vine and the branches). For Jesus was the Word of God made flesh.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us..." (John 1:1, 14).

If you who believe abide in His word, that is, abide in Him, then three things are promised:

( 1 ) you are indeed His disciple,
( 2 ) you shall know the truth, and
( 3 ) the truth shall make you free (John 8:31-32).

The Jews boasted to Jesus that they were descendants of Abraham and had never been in bondage to anyone (John 8:33). How could He have the audacity to say He could set them free?

Jesus explained that they were enslaved to sin (v. 34). This was particularly hard for them to believe, being Jews who rigidly kept the Law and had made many laws of their own. Yet, Jesus accused them of being in bondage to sin.

They had yet to understand that "the letter [law] kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6).

So we move from Jesus, the Savior, to Jesus, the Truth. Jesus is the truth and He promised to send the Holy Spirit of truth.

Jesus instructed His disciples saying, "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me" (John 15:26).

Later He said, "When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak..." (John 16:13).

Jesus, the Way, is clearly pointing beyond Passover to Jesus, the Truth, in the person of the Holy Spirit who is the promise of the Father: The Spirit of truth.

"But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in Him" (1 John 2:27).

While Jesus and His Spirit are inseparable, He, nevertheless, explains Himself in these various manifestations: first He is the Way, then He is the Truth. The only way we can know the truth is to have the Holy Spirit reveal it to us. Thus we move from the outer court of Passover to the Holy Place of Pentecost.

The Life

But the Spirit of truth is always going to point back to Jesus.

"He [the Spirit] shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it to you" (John 16:14).

The Spirit of truth is always going to bring us back to Jesus, the Savior--back to the cross. But the irony is this: that the pointing back to Jesus is always a going on in Him, a pressing onward and upward. It is a going on from Passover to Pentecost to Tabernacles, even the tabernacle of David. For the tabernacle of David is that which is promised for the end, not the tabernacle of Moses.

"After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up" (Acts 15:16, 17).

The tabernacle of Moses had the Holy of Holies behind the great veil in which was the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat on top of the ark, and the cherubim resting at the ends of the mercy seat (Ex. 25). Only the high priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, once a year, to atone for his sins first and for all the sins of the people (Lev. 16; Heb. 9:2-7).

By contrast, the tabernacle of David was merely a tent stretched out on Mount Zion and the only article in it was the ark of the covenant (1 Chron. 16:1).

The ark of the covenant was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold and originally had within it the tablets of stone upon which was written the ten commandments, the jar with manna, and the budding rod of Aaron (Heb. 9:4).

The ark itself speaks of Jesus Christ. The acacia wood represented His humanity, and the gold overlay represented His deity.

The tablets with the Ten Commandments represented the Word of God. Jesus is the Word. So in this, the tablets of stone represented Jesus.

The manna was likened unto Jesus who is that living bread of life that comes down out of heaven (John 6:49-51).

The budding rod of Aaron (Num. 17) represented the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ as the great High Priest who entered the Holy of Holies once for all to atone for the sins of the world. "We have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Heb. 8:1-2).

This leads us to say that when it comes to the tabernacle of David, Jesus is all in all.

There is coming that time when the Spirit of truth will bring us to that resting place in Jesus where, by revelation, we grasp the reality that Jesus has finished the works of God, that He is all in all, that He is the only thing there is.

Once the true believer grasps hold of this reality, it will set him free. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).

So, He who is the Way leads to the Truth; and He who is the Truth leads onward, upward to the Life.

Having arrived at Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11:17-40), Jesus said of Himself to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he was dead, yet shall he live."

Mary ran out to where Jesus was. Weeping, she said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Jesus groaned in His spirit and later wept. They thought He wept over Lazarus because of His love for him. But I believe He wept over their lack of perception--not just their unbelief, but over their failure to recognize Him as the life-giver from God.

Jesus said to Martha, "Did I not say to you, that, if you would believe, you should see the glory of God?"

The life-giver, Jesus, has now put all of this in the reference of glory. Thus, we have moved from Jesus, the Way, the outer court of Passover, that which redeems and justifies, to Jesus, the Truth, the Holy Place of Pentecost, that which sanctifies (separates) and empowers us, onward to Jesus the Life, the Holy of Holies of Tabernacles, that which glorifies both the Father and His sons.

Therefore, let us go into Him who has gone before us into the Holy of Holies, that we might truly abide in Him and He abide in us.

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