Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life - Term Paper Example

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life The whole New Testament is founded on the idea that Jesus is evidently the Messiah, the Son of God, the world had been expecting for centuries. Although there is no unanimous opinion among Christian groups on several biblical interpretations, they all proclaim the divinity of Christ and believe that he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The core concept of Christian doctrine could be defined with this quote from the gospel of St. John as Jesus declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John, 14:6). This paper will explore the depth of this ideology spread across the four gospels specifically that of St. John. John’s gospel begins with the assertion that Jesus is the Word, God incarnated in the flesh of human so as to become the ransom for the sin of whole mankind. His strategy was so simple that he chose a few unimportant individuals evangelize the multitude (Coleman). John’s gospel is built around the theology which defines Jesus as the sole path to real salvation. Unlike other gospels, John’s account goes to the in-depth analysis of the mission of Jesus revealed through His conversations with others. The divinity of Jesus is illustrated through a number of symbolic expressions like the word, light, door, water, fire, wind, vine, shepherded and many more. The wonders he performed were not the end but the essential signs of his godliness. The opinion of Bruce (229) is relevant in this context; “All truth is God’s truth, as all truth is God’s life; but God’s truth and God’s life are incarnate in Jesus.” (Bruce, 229). John, being the youngest and most loved disciple of Jesus has paid his genuine efforts to understand Jesus as the real path, the truth, and the life. All religions and scriptures pointed out the way to attain God; whereas, Jesus made himself the way that penetrates heaven, for he says, “I am the Door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved.” (John 10:9). The statement is simple enough for a child to comprehend as well as vast enough for an adult to explore throughout his life. The four Gospels in the New Testament are the detailed description of the life and mission of Jesus. Obviously there are certain variances in the narration of events in the gospels. According to the scholars, it occurred because each gospel had its own specific objective as well as distinctive message to convey. However, the whole content of Gospels is comprised of Jesus’ mission as the way, the truth, and the life. In fact, Jesus did not initiate a new religious order. He was born as a Jew and lived as a true Jew adhering to the teachings of the Old Testament. In other words, he insisted on the true sense of the Scriptures and Jewish laws and subsequently provoked the conservative religious leaders, priests and Pharisees by keeping himself close to truth or enough say, being the ‘truth’. His magnifying eloquence, wisdom, and simplicity attracted both common people and scholars alike. He condemned the priests for trading belief and exploiting the religious sentiments of the laity. The miracles he performed accompanied his preaching as the evidence of his authenticity and truthfulness. He often addressed himself as the Son of Man, the real meaning of which can be the Son of God or other as it has been interpreted in numerous ways. He is the Son of God who is not inferior to Father and Holy Spirit. This concept of Trinity is one of the major conflicting issues between Catholicism and other orders. The Gospel of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John are the widely approved gospels of Christian belief. Although they were written between 65 and 90 AD, the differences in their style, content, and narration point out the varying objectives of the writers. Although it is hard to determine ‘to whom, who, when, and where’ the books were written (Bockmuehl and Hanger, 100), there are certain common assumptions regarding the origin of these gospels. Among the four, gospel of Mark must be the one written first around 65-70 A.D. in Rome. The beginning sentence of the gospel indicates the whole content of this book. “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk: 1:1). He is supposed to have written this gospel targeting the gentiles outside Palestine. Mark gives importance to the narration of the miracles performed by Jesus to prove that he is the son of God. Jesus revealed the truth of heaven, simplified them with real- life stories, remained to be the real path for many sinners to eternity, and gave life to the dead in order to prove that he is the Life. The target group of St. Mathew was the Jews who had been converted to Christianity. It is believed so because Mathew, throughout his book suggests that Jesus is the Christ or Messiah the Jews had been waiting for. Since the beginning he correlates the events and prophesies of Old Testament with the life events of Jesus. His Gospel begins as “the book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham” (Mt: 1:1). According to him, Christianity is the continuation of Judaism; and New Testament (Jesus) is the fulfillment of God’s (Yahweh) promise. Through his gospel he announces that the kingdom of God has been accomplished and awaiting another Messiah would be a fallacy. Luke wrote gospel to persuade gentiles (people who were not Jews) to believe in Jesus because Luke himself was a gentile. According to him, incarnation of Christ is the Good News to the entire world (Luke: 2:10-11). He describes the personality of Jesus who is highly compassionate to the poor and crippled. Unlike other gospel writers, Luke wanted to extend the scope of salvation from Jews to the whole peoples and gentiles of the world. For instance, according to Luke the birth of Jesus is a good news to the entire world; “the angel said to them, fear not, for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Luke). Further quotes draw out readers’ attention to the superior focal point that the cause of joy is the incarnation of Jesus who is the son of God and savior. “For unto thou is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke:2:11). Finally, the Gospel of John which has an entirely different style from that of the other three was written in 95 A.D probably in Ephesus. John was the direct and intimate disciple of Jesus and gives testimony to the events (John 19: 35, 21:24). He describes the intention of his writing as “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (20: 30-31). Instead of the overall description of the events, he explored the inner meaning of Christ’s words, deeds, miracles, death, and resurrection. He wanted to define the mystery of incarnation; and as mentioned by Massey (898), many of the terms like water, light, life, death, sword, bread etc. are of symbolic meaning that represents Jesus. According to Piper (49), God’s passion for God is the driving force of every mission. Irrespective of the varying objectives, all four gospels obviously convey the message that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life that whole mankind ought to rely upon. He proclaimed the heavenly wisdom, interpreted the Holy Scriptures with unusual authenticity, condemned the pseudo piety with his godly temper, and finally stood amidst the outraging mob being trapped by the clergy and political power as the true symbol of stampeded truth. The word truth is used nearly 22 times in the gospel of John. In contrast, at the end, while Pontius Pilot asks Jesus what the truth is, he keeps himself silent as the ultimate icon of truth. Gospels especially that of St. John, defines Jesus as the sole way to get in union with Father Almighty. He annulled all conventional modes of complex religious practices and in turn revealed the compassionate facet of God so that people should approach God out of free will and true love. “If you had known me, you would have known my father also; from now on you know him, and have seen him.” (John, 14:7). Jesus is the life, the whole energy source, for he healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised people from the dead. He was set forth above the universe for the entire mankind to view upon and to enter the eternal life by believing in his mediation. Works Cited Bruce, F. F. The gospel of John. U.S: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1994. Print. Bockmuehl, Markus and Hanger, Donald (Eds.). The Written Gospel. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print. Coleman, Robert and Glad, Bill. The Master Plan of Evangelism. n.d., Web. 17 Nov 2010. Massey, Gerald. Enciant Egypt, the light of the world: a work of reclamation and restitution in twelve books. Black Classic Press, 1992. New Testament. The Holy Bible. Piper, John. Let the Nations Be Glad. Baker Book House, 1993. Print. Read More