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The Way, The Truth, and The Life
Matthew Stickel
Colorado Christian University
In John 14, John records Jesus' conversation with Thomas pertaining the way to the place Jesus was preparing in His Father's house for believers. Thomas asks Jesus how he can know the way to a place if he does not know where the place is and has never been there before. Jesus responds, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, ESV). This is a pivotal passage in the Scriptures pertaining to the question of what truth is, where our salvation comes from, and how we receive our salvation. Unequivocally, Jesus states that he is the way, the truth, and the life. Furthermore, he states that there is no other way to the Father except through him. However, within the Emergent Church movement, stifled by a postmodern understanding of truth and a complete embrace of unending mystery, Jesus' clear claim to be the way, the truth, and the life is greatly debated. Is Jesus' claim in John 14 exclusive in the sense that there is no other way to the Father except through him, or is this a common misperception and false translation of a verse of Scripture that merely suggests the Jesus is the best way (but not the only way)?
Within the Emergent Church, mystery and doubt are lifted up while truth and certainty are downplayed as philosophically modern figments of our imaginations. According to Rob Bell (2005), the pastor of a large emergent congregation in Grandville, Michigan, "the mystery is the truth" (p. 33). Similarly, Brian McLaren (1999), a highly publicized leader of the Emergent Church, writes, "God can be experienced through doubt and other spiritual 'diseases'" (p. 72). The Emergent Church's postmodern approach to theology nullifies all truth claims on the basis that searching for truth in scripture is like trying to swim to the bottom of a bottomless pool (Bell, 2005). As Bell notes, "The bottom will always be out of reach" (p. 33) and you will never know anything about an infinite God with any degree of certainty because we are merely finite creatures and completely unequipped to fathom our eternal creator.
Therefore, the Emergent Church embraces mystery and doubt as a means to experience God, abandoning truth and certainty. As Bell (2005) observes, "Truth is insight into God and God is infinite and God has no boundaries or edges" (p. 33). This approach to truth would seem to leave Christians with an infinite amount of unanswerable questions. Bell expresses this facet of his understanding of the Christian faith as a good thing because "true mystery, the kind of mystery rooted in the infinite nature of God, gives us answers that actually plunge us into even more...questions" (p. 32, ellipses in original text). The answer to all of our questions about God are more questions, and "this is why questions are so central to faith" (p. 30). A faithful Christian, according to Bell, asks questions not looking for definitive answers, but only seeks more questions because "questions bring freedom. Freedom that I don't have to be God and I don't have to pretend that I have it all figured out" (p. 30).
It would seem that Rob Bell, therefore, believes that those who look to Christ as the answer to all of our questions about the way, the truth, and the life are mere pretenders and do not really have it all figured out. How do Rob Bell and Brian McLaren tackle Jesus' statements in John 14 to be the way, the truth, the life (v. 6), the only way to God the Father (v. 6), the living embodiment of God almighty (vv. 9-11), and the perfect finite image bearer of our infinite God (v. 7)? Jesus says that we can know him (vv. 7,9), we can know the Father through him(v. 7), we can know truth with certainty (v. 6), we can know the way of salvation with certainty (v. 6), and there is no other truth, way, or life outside of Him (v. 6). Where does this verse leave the Emergent Church's infinite questions and uncertain grasp for an unknowable god?
Knowing that this verse cripples his postmodern approach to the Christian faith, Bell (2005) argues that "Jesus was not making claims about one religion being better than all other religions...Rather, he was telling those who were following him that his way is the way to the depth of reality" (p. 21). McLaren (2004), similarly, follows suit when he writes that Jesus' statement in John 14 does not mean that, "I (Jesus) won't let anyone get to God unless he comes through me" (p. 78). Both of these leaders of the Emergent Church seem to be at odds with what Christ is saying and what he means by it in John 14:6. Bell seems to believe that Jesus is not claiming to be the way, the truth, and the life, but is only claiming to be the way to the depth of reality. Furthermore, when Jesus tells us that if we have seen him then we have seen the Father (v. 9), Bell interprets that "[Jesus] claimed to be showing us what God is like" (p. 21). According to Bell, Jesus' life and ministry were merely an example of "the best possible way for a person to live" (p. 21). McLaren seems to believe that Jesus is not claiming that there is no other way to the Father except through him, but Jesus' life and message "resonated with acceptance, welcome, and inclusion" (p. 78). However, both of these observations seem to be direct contradictions of precisely what Jesus is claiming in very clear and unambiguous terms.
In John 14:6, is Jesus claiming to be the best way, a mere example of who God is, the closest thing we have to true acceptance of the mysteriousness of God, and an all-inclusive, accepting, and welcoming guide to the path to communion with God the Father, as the Emergent Church would persuade us to believe? Michael Horton (2011), professor of systematic theology and apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, argues, "Jesus Christ did not offer himself merely as a teacher of the path to truth and happiness, but as 'the way, and the truth, and the life,'" and that "he is not only the guide; he is the destination" (p. 106). Furthermore, Marvin Vincent (2009), a professor of sacred literature at Union Theological Seminary, exposits the original Greek text to mean, "[Jesus] embodies what men ought to know and believe of God" (p. 241, emphasis original), and not that Jesus is merely claiming to be the way to a deeper reality of an unknowable god. Contrary to Bell and McLaren's exegesis of this passage, J.C. Ryle (2007), a 19th century pastor and scholar, undermines the Emergent Church's emphasis on asking questions to delve deeper into our understanding of the unknown god, and argues that in John 14, we learn that "all believers are apt to undervalue the work of the Spirit in their own souls, and to fancy they know nothing because they do not know everything" (p. 58).
John Calvin (2005), the 16th century reformer, writes in his commentary on John 14:6, "all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments" (pp. 85-86). Rob Bell and Brian McLaren, noted leaders of the Emergent Church, claim that Jesus is not the only way, the only truth, and the only life. They claim that Jesus Christ is not the only way to salvation and perfect communion with God the Father. In certain words, they claim that Jesus is not God but merely a very good example of what God is like. What's more, they make these substantial claims directly after quoting Christ's crystal words in John 14:6, as if Christ's statement is an enigma and unclear. In the words of Calvin, "men contrive for themselves true labyrinths, whenever, after having forsaken Christ, they attempt to come to God" (p. 85). It would seem that the Emergent Church would have us embrace this labyrinth rather than seek the way out, and they will disguise the truth, the way, and the life as best they can so the doubter of the mystery of grace will never recognize his true savior in Christ Jesus.
References:
Bell, R. (2005). Velvet Elvis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Calvin, J. (2005). Commentary on the Gospel according to John, Vol. 2. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Company.
Horton, M. (2011). The Christian faith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
McLaren, B. (2004). A generous orthodoxy. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
McLaren, B. (1999). Finding faith - A search for what is real. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Ryle, J. (2007). Expository thoughts on the Gospels: John 10:31 - John 21:25. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Company.
Vincent, M. (2009). Vincent's word studies in the New Testament, Vol. 2. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
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