Read JOHN 14:1–14

Many people today say they are spiritual but not religious. The positive side of this is that they recognize that people are more than just material or physical beings. The negative side is that they tend to focus on their personal feelings or emotions, either rejecting the idea of absolute truth or reserving for themselves the right to pick and choose what those truths might be. Such people essentially put themselves in the place of God.

By contrast, Jesus proclaimed a truth that grates on the ears of modern spirituality: He and He alone is the way to the Father. John 14, where we’ll spend three days, is part of the Upper Room discourse, Jesus’ teaching following the Passover or Last Supper prior to His crucifixion. In today’s reading, He comforted His disciples with a promise. He was going to His Father’s house to prepare a place for them (vv. 2–3).

How close is the relationship between the Father and the Son? “No one comes to the Father except through me” (v. 6). To believe in the Son is to believe in the Father (vv. 1, 11). To know the Son is to know the Father (vv. 7, 9). The words and work of the Son are the words and work of the Father. They are “in” one another— utterly unified as Persons of the Godhead (v. 10). The Father’s power—the gift of the Holy Spirit is implied here and explicitly revealed in the verses following—will also be available to the followers of the Son (v. 12).

The Father sent the Son and the Son reveals the Father. The incarnate Son is the one and only way the Father has made for us to come to Him. Faith in Christ alone is the way to salvation!

APPLY THE WORD

This passage provides us with some practical encouragement for our prayers. We are to pray to the Father in the name of the Son, for His glory, and we have direct access to God’s power through the indwelling of the Spirit (vv. 13–14). Praying for God’s will to be done is a prayer that is always answered “yes” (see Matt. 6:10).

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