Old Testament Survey
Sola Christus

VII. Ministry in Jerusalem    13:1-21:25

 B. Last Supper        13:1-17:26

  2. “Betrayal by an Enemy” 13:18-30

  3. “Denial by a Friend”   13:31-38

1. Great Declaration: Jesus will be glorified 

 with His Father

:31 Therefore 

  when he had gone out, 

 Jesus said, 

  “Now is the Son of Man glorified, 

  and God is glorified in Him; 

:32  if God is glorified in Him, 

  God will also glorify Him in Himself, 

  and will glorify Him immediately. 

2. Great Revelation: Jesus will be departed 

 from His Friends

:33 Little children, 

  I am with you a little while longer. 

  You will seek Me; 

  and as I said to the Jews, 

  now I also say to you, 

   ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’  

3. Great Admonition: Jesus will be emulated 

 in His love

:34 A new commandment I give to you, 

  that you love one another, 

  even as I have loved you, 

  that you also love one another. 

:35 By this all men will know that you are My 

 disciples, 

  if you have love for one another.” 

denial – hope for sinners

:36 Simon Peter said to Him, 

  “Lord, where are You going?” 

 Jesus answered, 

  “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; 

  but you will follow later.” 

:37 Peter said to Him, 

  “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? 

  I will lay down my life for You.” 

:38 Jesus answered, 

  “Will you lay down your life for Me? 

  Truly, truly, I say to you, 

  a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three 

  times.

VII. Ministry in Jerusalem    13:1-21:25

 B. Last Supper        13:1-17:26

  4. “Spiritual Confidence”  14:1-31 

:1  Do not let your heart be troubled; 

  believe in God, 

  believe also in Me. 

:2    In My Father’s house are many dwelling 

  places; 

  if it were not so, I would have told you; 

   for I go to prepare a place for you. 

:3    If I go and prepare a place for you, 

  I will come again and receive you to Myself, 

   that 

    where I am, 

   there you may be also. 

:4    And you know the way where I am going.” 

VII. Ministry in Jerusalem    13:1-21:25

 B. Last Supper        13:1-17:26

  5. “Christ is ALL”     14:5-7 

:5   Thomas said to Him, 

  “Lord, we do not know where You are going, 

  how do we know the way?” 

:6   Jesus said to him, 

  “I am

   the way,

   and the truth,

   and the life;

  no one comes to the Father but through Me.

 

Intro / Context

Last week, we began a short – five week – study of what are called The Solas of the Reformation.  I was hoping to capture some of the excitement Barbara and I experienced on our Reformation tour in Scotland and England.  And the Solas seemed like the ideal vehicle to accomplish that.  And, based on the feedback following last week’s message, I think that we’re off to a good start.

I personally was really moved to see some of the places and sights that we did – in addition to the primary cities – Edinburgh, St. Andrews, London, Oxford, Cambridge – each of those cities presented several important sites.  We saw, for instance, the very place in Oxford where the Reformers, Hugh Latimer & Nicolas Ridley, were burned at the stake – a small circle of bricks , the place in London where John Rogers’ was burned at the stake – while bloody Queen Mary watched from a second story window.  The building still stands looking over a small plaque commemorating the event.

No wonder historian Phillip Schaff called ‘The Reformation of the sixteenth century … the greatest event in history …’  You had people willing to give their lives for the cause of truth – ordinary men, standing firm for biblical principles.  That is why I thought it would be good to review some of our Church History sampling the fruit of the Reformation in the consideration of these Solas.  The Solas of the Reformation – as we discussed last week – were not a series of tenets declared and recited during the Reformation.  To our knowledge, there is no historical document that sets for the five Solas until 1996.  But there and then, in the The Cambridge Declaration, godly pastors and scholars, looking back on the events of the Reformation, could see five key principles at work – and they memorialized them in those five classic superlative Latin phrases …

Sola Scriptura – Scripture alone – the one source of Divine Revelation

Solus Christus – Christ alone – the One source of Redemption and forgiveness of sin

Sola Gratia – Grace alone – the one means of spiritual restoration

Sola Fide – Faith alone – the one means of possessing Christ’s righteousness, being justified before a Holy God

Soli Deo Gloria – God’s glory alone – the one great aim of every true child of God – that God would receive all Glory and Honor

We should not be dismayed that there is no long, historical, connecting chain – tracing back to the original source of the Solas.  We do – after all – find these principles actively at work in the lives, work, and efforts of the Reformers.  The greater question about these statements is not whether or not these five statements are historical, but are they Biblical.  Do we find these truths in Scripture?  Are these concepts or principles supported by Scripture?  Without doubt, they are.

Last week, we began with the first Sola – Sola Scriptura – Scripture alone.  And we saw that it was the context of the Church that prompted the need for a return to Sola Scriptural.  And before the would-be reformers lit upon the idea of Scripture alone, they had to first rediscover Scripture itself.  Over the course of ten centuries, the Word of God had become obscured and nearly forgotten.  For the average person, the Scriptures simply did not exist.  That was due to the fact that – since the 5^th century, when Jerome translated the Bible into Latin – as that language faded away into a dead language, so also did people’s access to God’s Word.  Once the average person could not read the Latin Vulgate, the Bible became as dead to them as Latin.

Strangely, the Roman Catholic Church grew to favor this arrangement – where only the priests and scholars had access to God’s Word.  It started slowly, but like newly poured cement, the longer the Church had exclusive stewardship of the Bible, the more rigid the Church became against putting the Scriptures back into the hands of the people.  You see, many pernicious errors had crept into the Church – all embraced and advanced by the only ones with access to the truth.  Errors, heretical teachings, and abuses by the hierarchy of the Church flourished.  Whatever the Church could not justify from the Bible, they created an alternate source of authority called tradition.  But, thanks to men like Wycliffe, Tyndale, Rogers and others, Scripture was rediscovered.  And almost as soon as Scripture was uncovered, Sola Scriptura was awakened as a lively standard.

I mentioned that the thousand years of spiritual darkness had led to countless errors and heretical teachings by those in charge of the Church.  But way worse than unchecked hedonism, bribery, the abuse of power, political maneuvering, nepotism, and tyranny, were the doctrinal heresies that Rome invented and embraced.  And on no other subject were those heresies worse than with regard to Jesus Christ.  Since God’s people had virtually no access to the Bible, all manner of devilish inventions – were concocted and forced upon the Church.

The Roman Catholic Church itself supplanted Christ.  She placed herself above Him in authority.  It seems absurd even to verbalize, but the Church displaced her Savior.

The veneration, really worship given to so-called saints began very early in A.D. 375

One of the more mournful things that this Church has done is to actually denigrate Christ by elevating Mary to an unbiblical status.  – worship, co-mediator, ‘mother of God’ 431 A.D. emphasizes her strength, maturity, and authority – even over Christ, [originally to emphasize Christ’s deity], but now, to exalt Mary – ‘queen of heaven’, ‘mother of the Church’ 1965!  A famous saying among Catholics – ‘He came to us through Mary.  We must go to Him through her.’  [modeled more after Greek/Roman goddesses – Isis, Diana, Athena, Aphrodite

The priesthood is another of the unbiblical developments within the Catholic Church.  The Catholic priest serves as a mediator between God and people – for which there is no biblical support.  In the 500s they began to dress differently than the people.     In the 1200s the confession of sins to the priest was introduced.  At the Council of Trent, which was concluded in 1563, this was the official position on the priesthood …

The priest is the man of God … he that hears him hears God.  The priest remits sins as God … their function is such that none greater can be conceived … they are justly called not only angels, but also God, holding as they do among us the power and authority of the immortal God.

Purgatory is a theological invention of the Catholic Church that was first introduced in A.D. 593.  The doctrine maintains that for any who die in an imperfect state, they go to a place called purgatory to continue paying for their sin, where they can be helped by the intercessions of the faithful.  The problem is, no one knows exactly where one stands with God and the Church, and so the pure Gospel of Christ – justification by faith – is effectively nullified.

The office of “pope” is styled after rulers in pagan Rome, who called their high priest ‘Pontifex Maximus’ – the supreme mediator between God and man.  The first use of the word ‘pope’ occurred in A.D. 607, although the Church unfortunately went back into time to pin that title on Peter.  In time, the pope came to be considered the ‘vicar of Christ’ – that is, he takes the place of Christ on earth.  As one pope declared, as pope, he held ‘upon this earth the place of God Almighty.’  And so, the pope demands submission to himself of all people – Catholic or not.  So that he is to be called ‘Holy Father’ or ‘His Holiness.’  And it was along these lines that the act of kissing the pope’s feet in reverence was introduced in A.D. 709.  Interestingly, the so-called infallibility of the pope was not claimed until 1870.

Prayer directed to Mary, dead people, even angels first began to be practiced in A.D. 600, Prayer to Mary in particular became a regular feature of Catholic life.  The Rosary, a necklace-like string of beads, each representing a call for a particular prayer – the “Our Father” or the “Hail Mary” in which the person is specifically directed to pray to Mary – 10x as many addressed to Mary as to God the Father

The worship of images, statues and relics came into prominence in A.D. 786.  This practice is in direct contradiction to the second commandment – you shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness ostensibly for the purpose of worship.  Yet, the Council of Trent declared,

‘The images of Christ and the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints, are to be had and to be kept, especially in Churches, and due honor and veneration are to be given them.’

Sainthood, the practice of recognizing exceptional, or miracle-working believers began in A.D. 995.  This too is a direct affront to Christ, because Catholics are instructed to pray to these so-designated ‘saints’

Even in the Lord’s Table, there was error.  The celebration of Communion, during which the priest was supposed to be nearest the great drama of redemption, was tainted by the heresy of Transubstantiation, which began to develop in the 11^th century, formalized in A.D. 1215.  The doctrine holds that the bread and the cup of communion became the literal body and blood of Christ.  This is still their position, cited from the Catholic Catechism

The Holy Mass is the sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, really present on the altar under the appearance of bread and wine, and offered to God for the living and the dead.

 That in itself renders the celebration of Communion into a re-sacrificing of the Savior during each Mass.  This obliterates the idea of Christ’s sacrifice done once for all and accepted by God.

Confessional – confession uttered to priests for the forgiveness of sins

The sale of indulgences – is the sale of forgiveness of sin for money.  This practice was introduced in A.D. 1190 and would be especially despicable to the reformers.  Jesus Christ purchased sinners’ pardon with His own blood!

Sadly, Christianity itself had largely become a system of merit and pursuit, never really enabling a person to know and enjoy full salvation from sin.  The doctrine of Salvation itself had been muddied over and this was a direct attack on Christ’s works

All of those errors and heresies were a direct attack on the person and work of Jesus Christ.  This is what drew the attention and ire of the reformers.  The Roman Catholic Church had undermined the sufficiency of Christ’s redemptive work.  Under their system, the Christian entered into a long system of grace that must be constantly drawn upon throughout the person’s life – it was a constant system of chasing grace.  So that a person could never really have confidence that they were truly saved.  Jesus Christ, the Reformers argued from the Scriptures was the only legitimate object of the believer’s faith.  His atonement for sinners on the Cross was alone sufficient ground for a person’s faith.  This is how the Confessions stated it in the chapter titled, Of Christ the Mediator …

The Lord Jesus,

 by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself …

has fully satisfied the Justice of God,

procured reconciliation,

and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven

 for all those whom the Father has given to Him. BCF 8.5

And that meant that the Christian could be justified – declared righteous by God – by their faith alone.

Well, by the sixteenth century, after 1200 years of mischief and decline, the Church was at its low point.  The need for Reform was great.  And the Reformation suddenly began, by God’s sovereign providence, simultaneously in various locations throughout the modern world.  And these men, misinformed and misled by the Catholic Church, were all asking the same, simple question – ‘What must I do to be saved?’  That was the basic question that prompted a spiritual revolution in the Church.  As these men began to look to the Scriptures and discover for the answers to their questions, the Reformation was born.  The closer the reformers looked at God’s Word, the worse the present Church appeared in comparison.  They saw again the purity and simplicity of the Gospel, which had been cloaked in the Church’s false teachings for centuries.  The only hope for sinners, they saw, was to get the Bible into people’s hands – to translate God’s Word into the common tongue of the people of the day – whether German, Italian, French, or English.

And that brings us to the second Sola of the Reformation – Solus Christus.  Because, as soon as the Reformers began to interact with and translate the Scriptures into the languages of the people, they began to see the horrific abuses of the teachings pertaining to the Savior.  What they saw in the Scriptures was Solus Christus – Christ alone.  As they looked to God’s Word objectively – for the first time in a thousand years – think of what they saw …

•        The opening of John’s Gospel proclaimed to the Solus Christus

John 1:1–5

:1  In the beginning was the Word, 

 and the Word was with God, 

 and the Word was God. 

:2  He was in the beginning with God. 

:3  All things came into being through Him, 

 and apart from Him nothing came into being that 

 has come into being. 

:4  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 

:5  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness 

 did not comprehend it.  Solus Christus

•        They would have seen Solus Christus in the opening verses of Matthew’s Gospel as well.  Matthew, after presenting Jesus’ genealogy, says this in verse :16 …

Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. 

The Messiah!  Solus Christus

•        Elizabeth believed in Christ alone …

Luke 1:41–43

:41  When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 

:42  And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 

:43  “And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?  Christ alone!

•        Poor, old Simeon believed in Christ alone … God had promised him that he would see the Messiah in his day.  And as soon as he took up the Christ Child into his arms to bless Him, he was ready to die … You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace … my eyes have seen Your salvation.  Christ alone!
•        The lowly shepherds, watching their sheep on that hillside – they believed in Solus Christus, just at the angel’s announcement … today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord … Glory to God in the highest … Christ alone!

Think of the veritable landslide of faith recorded for us in the New Testament …

•        Stephen believed in Christ alone – so much so that he was willing to testify and die for it … 

Acts 7:52  “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;

•        the Samaritan Villagers believed in Solus Christus – we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world … 
•        Peter, James, and John were reminded of Christ alone on the mount of Transfiguration – This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him …
•        The Ethiopian Eunuch believed in Solus Christus – I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
•        the royal official whose son was healed – he himself believed and his whole household
•        even the demons knew Jesus as the Holy One of God – Lk 4:34
•        the sinful woman of Luke 7 – wiping Jesus feet with her tears and her hair.  

Well, I think you see where this is going – the evidence for those who believed in Solus Christus – Christ alone – is overwhelming.  All of these testified by their faith, their action, or their words – Solus Christus – Christ alone!

Listen to how frequently this truth is proclaimed by the writers of Scripture …

Paul

Romans 3:21–25

:21  But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 

:22  even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 

:23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

:24  being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 

Romans 5:17–19

:17  For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 

Romans 10:9–17

:9  that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 

Romans 5:1–2

:1  Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 

:2  through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 5:20–21

:21  He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

1 Corinthians 1:30  But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

Galatians 3:13  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”—

1 Timothy 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

Paul believed in Solus Christus.

John

John 10:1–5

:1  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 

:2  “But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 

:3  “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  – Christ and Christ alone is that door

John 20:31  but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

1 John 2:1–2

:1  My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

:2  and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

1 John 3:23

:23  This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

Solus Christus – Christ alone!

Peter 

Speaking of Jesus Christ the Nazarene … whom God raised from the dead … he famously said in Acts 4:12  “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

1 Peter 1:17–19

:18  knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,

:19  but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

Solus Christus – Christ alone!

Writer of Hebrews

Hebrews 4:14–16

:14  Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 

Hebrews 7:25–26

:25  Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. 

Solus Christus – Christ alone!

All of the biblical writers believed in Solus Christus – Christ alone.  But do you know who else believed in Solus Christus?  Jesus!  Jesus believed in Solus Christus.  Jesus Christ believed in Christ alone!

May I take you back into the Upper Room on the very night in which Jesus was betrayed, arrested, and ultimately crucified?  John, chapter 13.  Now here in John chapter 13, we know the backdrop.  Jesus is meeting with His Apostles – in one final, intimate meeting.  They have already celebrated the Passover meal.  Jesus has already instituted the Last Supper.  And, in a most remarkable display of exemplary humility, Jesus has gone man to man washing His disciples’ feet.  Judas has been exposed as the one who will betray Jesus.  He has departed.  And Jesus now instructs the remaining eleven Apostles …

Read John 13:31-34 

Well, suffice it to say, all that Peter can hear in that instruction is what Jesus reveals in verse :33 – Little children, I am with you a little while longer … and … Where I am going, you cannot come.  Peter gets stuck right there.  And in verse :36 he asks, Lord, where are you going?  We read Jesus’ gracious reply and a continued exchange with Peter in the ensuing verses …

Read John 13:36b-38 

As Peter boldly but proudly asserts his willingness to die for Jesus (:37), Jesus challenges him and informs him of his soon denial – a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.  As the narrative glides into chapter 14, Jesus seeks to comfort – not only Peter – but all of the disciples …

Read John 14:1-4 

What an astounding thing – comfort from their Lord, together with a promise, that He is going to prepare a place – in heaven – for them, and a promise to return for them.  It should be so obvious that he is speaking of heavenly glory that he says in verse :4, And you know the way where I am going.  Peter falls silent, but now Thomas interjects with a challenge of his own.  And brace yourselves.  I think of Thomas as kind of ‘the gloomy Gus’ of the Apostles.  Remember, he is forever known as doubting Thomas because of his refusal to take his fellow Apostles’ testimony about the Risen Savior at face value – Unless I see in His hands … I will not believe.  Well, that Thomas is about to enter into the conversation.  Would you look at verse :5 …

:5   Thomas said to Him, 

  “Lord, we do not know where You are going, 

  how do we know the way?” 

Thomas effectively tells Jesus that he is wrong – they neither know where Jesus is going, nor do they know the way.  And in verse :6, Jesus issues one of His clearest declarations of Solus Christus – Christ alone …

:6  Jesus said to him, 

  “I am

   the way,

   and the truth,

   and the life;

  no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Jesus begins with a subtle declaration of His deity – those two little words, I am.  This hearkens back, as you know, to God’s interaction with Moses – Exodus 3:14.  Moses is beign sent by God to Pharoah to liberate the nation of Israel.  He pauses and asks God, what he should say when they ask, ‘What is His name?  To this, God speaks, God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”  So, when Jesus employs this language again and again in John’s Gospel, He is effectively proclaiming His deity.  And this is the sixth of seven times that He does so …

John 6:48  “I am the bread of life.

John 8:12  Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

John 8:58  Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”

John 10:9–11

:9  “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 

:10  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. 

:11  “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

John 11:25  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,

John 15:1  “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

And the nature of the sentence makes it explicit – the pronoun is emphatic – “I” and no other.  And the emphatic pronoun covers all three declarations …

I – and no other – am the way

I – and no other – am the truth

I – and no other – am the life 

Jesus says the same basic thing three different ways.

1. I – and no other – am the way

Thomas’ question seems to subtly suggest that – if he only knew where Jesus was going, getting there would be no problem.  He wants to know where Jesus is going.  But Jesus, on His part, is not content to answer the simpler question.  He’s going to heaven to be with His Father.  But he leaves that part unaddressed.  And instead wants Thomas and the other ten to know definitively the way to heaven.  And here, in the simplest terms, He declares that He is the way.  So, His desire is not to show the way, He is the way.  He is the way of redemption, He is the way of peace, He is the way of forgiveness, He is the way of eternal life.

The history of mankind shows that we are quite creative in coming up with other possible means of getting to heaven.  Ever since Adam and Eve unceremoniously exited the garden, mankind has been searching for the way back to God.  Religion is mankind’s attempt to reach out to God in order to smooth things over with Him.  All of the religions of the world are basically the result of mankind’s effort to please God and sneak into His heavenly domain.  And so, we must note, Jesus here doesn’t say that He is “a way” to the Father.  He says that He is THE way.  Jesus Christ is the only means of access to God.  Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.  He is the means and the only means of sinners accessing heaven.  As He will say in summary at the end of this verse, no one comes to the Father but through Me.  Faith in Jesus Christ – in His death and resurrection – is the only way of salvation – the only way to enter into eternal fellowship with God the Father.

2. I – and no other – am the truth

Secondly, Jesus tells Thomas and His other Apostles, that He is not only the way, but also that He – and no other – is the truth.  Jesus’ statement here is one of contrast.  Most people look for truth in philosophy, or science, or some other discipline.  Jesus tells Thomas that He – and He only – is truth … and definitively the truth.  When we speak of truth, we think of truth as over against a lie.  Likewise, here.  Here, Jesus points to the fact that He is the final revelation of God.  He is truth incarnate – the living God made flesh.  The writer of Hebrews said it very succinctly in the opening verse of that epistle, the Son, Jesus Christ, is the means of which God … has spoken this one last time.  And then he says this, He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.  Jesus Christ is a true and accurate representation of God.  He is not only true, He is the truth. 

In Christ, and only in Christ, both God and people are seen in the light of truth – as they really are.  Paul said it twice in rapid succession to the Colossians, speaking of Christ Himself, Colossians 2:3 … in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  Only a few verses later, verse :8-9, and listen to how practical this revelation of truth is …

Colossians 2:8

:8 See to it that no one takes you captive

  through philosophy and empty deception,

  according to the tradition of men,

 according to the elementary principles of the world, 

 rather than according to Christ.

:9    For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily 

  form,

And here is that magnificent opening of John’s Gospel brought to light … 

John 1:1–2

:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

:2  He was in the beginning with God.

John 1:14  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:17

:17  For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

I – and no other – am the life 

Here is the third thing that Jesus declares to His Apostles – I am the life.  This point hearkens all the way back to the Fall of Adam and Eve into sin.  That sin left them not only with a sin nature – sinful, and cursed by God Himself, it set the clock to ticking in their very life – their mortality, the eventuality of their death comes instantly into view.  But it’s worse even still.  The Fall of Adam & Eve left them, and all humanity with them spiritually dead.  The natural man is a dead man – spiritually speaking.  He is born, he lives, he grows, he experiences.  From a human perspective he is very much alive.  But from God’s perspective he is dead.  He has no love for God, no interest in the things of God, he has no spiritual vitality at all.  He is alive to this world.  He is dead for the next.  This is what Jesus speaks to when He says that He is life.  He comes to restore life as it was meant to be – a life of joy, a life of forgiveness, a life of peace, life everlasting, life eternal.  I remember, and it has to be some 40 years ago, I remember seeing a billboard for a large Church that cluelessly declared, “Life is better with Christ.”  And I remember instantly wincing in disapproval with that thought.  Life is not better with Christ.  Life – true life – is Christ.  I – and no other – am the life.  Life as only Christ can give it is a recurring theme in John’s Gospel …

John 1:4  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

John 5:24  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

John 6:51  “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

John 20:31  but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

And with that, Jesus issues His direct and moving conclusion …

  “I am 

   the way, 

   and the truth, 

   and the life; 

  no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Would you take note of something very significant here.  Jesus is obviously speaking of heaven in a general sense throughout his interaction with Thomas.  But would you note his language here.  He doesn’t say that no one comes to His Father’s house … He doesn’t say no one comes to heaven.  He says that no one comes to the Father.  There is the hope of an intimate communion with the heavenly Father – soon to be restored – but only through His Son, Jesus Christ.

The bottom line is that all people will live eternally.  But people have this strange idea that all roads lead to God – that one’s religious persuasion is irrelevant as long as you are sincere.  That’s foolishness.  Jesus says that there is one way, one truth, one life – and that no one comes to His heavenly Father except through Him.  Only those who are in Christ will live eternally with the Father.

Solus Christus – Christ alone.

John 3:16–17

:16  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 

:17  “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.