Questions 2 Day 4 All Roads: Digging Deeper
Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
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The Questions
1) How is Jesus the way?
2) How is Jesus the truth?
3) How is Jesus the life?
John 14:1-7
“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 You know the way to where I am going.” 5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Original Intent
1) How is Jesus the way?
The disciples to whom Jesus is speaking in this passage had grown up learning the Old Testament Law; it was as familiar to them as the back of their hands and formed the rhythm of their everyday lives. God gave the Law so His people would understand that He is holy while they were not. He knew He would give Himself as the perfect fulfillment of every aspect of the Law, but until that day, the Law was a constant reminder that people were separated from God’s holiness because of their sinfulness. This passage in John is where Jesus begins explaining that this whole fulfillment of the Law thing is about to go down differently than any of them imagined. Jesus’ words were fairly confusing for these men, which is what Thomas expresses with his question in verse 5. Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that no one could be righteous on their own, He alone could give them access to God because of His own righteousness. Jesus was the only way the disciples could enjoy eternity with God, and it had nothing to do with keeping the Law, because none of them could do that perfectly. In order for the disciples to access this righteousness and be able to bring others into God’s kingdom, they first had to understand that Christ alone was the only way. Jesus’ word choices were always purposeful and often had historical meaning. When He said “I am the way”, the statement “I am” traces all the way back to Exodus 3:14, when God is speaking to Moses and says, “tell the Israelites that I AM has sent you”. Jesus is stating He is the very same God Almighty who spoke to Moses and He alone is the way to attain righteousness.
2) How is Jesus the truth?
Jesus is the complete fulfillment of the Old Testament Law. He did not come to abolish the Law, but to perfectly fulfill it on our behalf. The Law was necessary to show us how far away from holy we are. It showed us what Holy looks like. In Jesus, the fullness of truth was fleshed out as He lived on earth. While this might seem obvious to us, having the fullness of truth dwell in a flesh and blood human being was a big change for the disciples. The Law was complex, with rules for pretty much every aspect of life. There were certain procedures and strict requirements for everything from food preparation, eating, cleaning themselves, to conducting business and atoning for their sins. It must have been exhausting! The role of the religious leaders of the day were supposed to help the everyday folks understand and live according to the Law. In a way, they were the biblical equivalent of Google or Siri. If people had a question or a sin they needed help with, they’d go ask the local priest or rabbi for instruction or clarity. When Jesus said, “I am the Truth”, all that confusion was instantly erased. No one else was needed to interpret what they could see and hear for themselves. Here was a man who walked with them, talked with them, and ate with them; Jesus put God’s truth on display for them in real life because He was God!
3) How is Jesus the life?
John 1:3-4 tells us not only was life created through Jesus, but that “in Him (Jesus) was life”. This “life” is nothing less than eternal life, lived out in fullness with Christ Himself. Jesus spells it out a bit more clearly in John 11:25-26 when He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live”. (Notice how Jesus once again uses “I am” to indicate His sovereignty.) For Jesus’ disciples, this teaching must have been mind-blowing. All the teaching, training, and rule-following they had grown up with was now being replaced, not with more rules or a different law, but perfectly fulfilled in a flesh and blood, fully divine person. With His one statement, “I am the way, the truth and the life”, Jesus wholly fulfilled hundreds and hundreds of years of impossible-to-keep regulations and rules no human could ever keep. The time for fulfillment had come, Jesus made it clear that working for your own righteousness is fruitless, instead, I AM is all you need!
Everyday Application
1) How is Jesus the way?
These few verses make more sense to us today than they did to Jesus’ disciples because we know the rest of the story. Jesus died for our sins, offering His righteousness for our sinfulness, and then was resurrected to new life as He forever conquered our sin and the grave. Just like the disciples, we need to be reminded there is only one way to have a relationship with God, and Jesus is that way. Jesus said, “I am THE way”, not A way or one of the ways, but THE way. The Bible is full of confirmation of this simple truth. Jesus is the way because He is God. John 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God”. Jesus is the Word; He IS God. This God died for our sins. Romans 5:8 says, “…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. Matthew 28:5-6 confidently reports Christ was resurrected from the dead. “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. For he has risen, just as He said.” If this seems simple, it’s because it is! Jesus made it very clear and amazingly simple, we are the ones who mess it up and make it way more complicated by adding other things, when the way is simply Jesus, nothing else is needed.
2) How is Jesus the truth?
Truth according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary means “the body of real things, events or facts, the state of being the case, a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality”. While I encourage us to use Bible dictionaries to define biblical words according to their original language, I share Webster’s definition of truth because many in our society have attempted to redefine “truth”. Truth cannot be changed. It is, and always will be, unchangeable; just like Jesus. Truth is not determined by what we think, what the news tells us, or what our neighbors want us to believe. We hear things like “truth is relative” or “you choose your truth and I’ll choose mine”, but this isn’t how truth works! Not to sound like a broken record, but Jesus says, “I am THE truth”. THE is a highly important word in this verse! Jesus is THE Truth, because He doesn’t change, He never has and never will. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever”. (Hebrew 13:8) While it can leave us feeling uncomfortable knowing that real truth is unchanging, leaving no room to make up our own version of truth, John 8:32 counters our fear by telling us we can personally know Truth (Jesus) and be set free through knowing Him! Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John affirms again in John 1:17, “…grace and truth came through Jesus”.
3) How is Jesus the life?
Life is more than simply being alive. I don’t know I can fully explain what I mean by that statement in the limited space here, but our physical life, the act of our heart beating and lungs breathing is not true life. Those things just mean our bodies are functioning. Life, real honest-to-goodness life is something more, something different. This abundance of life is only discovered within the very life of Christ. Living without Jesus is simply going through the motions of existence; it’s pointless and empty. John 10:10 tells us Jesus came “so that we might have life and have it in abundance”! Yes, eternal life is a real thing, and yes, Jesus is the only way to access it, but isn’t there more? While we are here on earth, in these bodies, shouldn’t we live, I mean really live life to its fullest? What good is being alive if we fail to live fully thriving in the life of Jesus Christ? Trusting in Jesus gives us His life. In His power, we have access to living a life flooded with meaning and purpose. Alternatively, it can be a life we simply survive if we refuse to surrender to Him. We each have a choice every single day while on earth. What will you choose? Life, abundant and full, or just existing? On that day when life on earth ends, we don’t need to stop living. No! This is when all who have trusted Christ, truly experience real living in the presence of our God and Savior for all of eternity. This is the kind of living Jesus means when He says He is life!
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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