Dr. BJ Condrey

I read an article today that served as a nice reminder. It is simple and clearly affirms that faith as both belief and trust in Jesus Christ and his atoning work on the cross is the only way to be saved from sin (forgiven, declared righteous, and reconciled to God). I really liked the Google Map analogy that the author employed to show how our current forms of thinking in daily life can be very misleading and unbiblical when carried over into the theological realm.

Courtney Doctor, who has an MDiv from Covenant Theological Seminary, writes “What Does John 14:6 Mean?” John 14:6 reads: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (NIV).

Here are two excerpts that I appreciate from the named article:

Most people would say that they want to go to heaven when they die—heaven is their hoped-for eternal destination. But many of those same people believe that the route to heaven is like Google Maps—there are multiple paths to get there, and you are free to choose the one that you prefer. However, in John 14:6, Jesus proclaimed, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In other words, there are no options on the route to eternal life—there is only one way, and Jesus is that way.

It appears as if most people in our current cultural moment place a high value on believing truth to be relative— “your truth” is your truth and “my truth” is mine. It is such an appealing thought that we often disregard the faulty logic and ultimate impossibility that two contradictory “truths” can’t both be true. There can only be that which is true and that which is not. Jesus did not claim to be a truth or to be “his truth.” He claimed to be the truth. The ultimate, inarguable, definitive, eternal, and supreme truth. It’s not that Jesus merely teaches truth or that his words are true (he does, and they are!), Jesus is truth embodied. Truth incarnate. And the truth of his claim means that we are to believe him, trust him, and submit every one of our “truths” to his absolute truth.

Christians are often little more than people who believe in Jesus for salvation but do not allow his truth to shape their thinking in all areas of life. All areas. Every single area. What else would loving God with the mind—part of the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:36–40—mean? Jesus isn’t just interested in “the heart.” This can lead to the unbiblical and gross compartmentalization of the spiritual life as well as a secular/spiritual dichotomy that Nancy Pearcey writes about in Total Truth.

Is your thinking shaped by what is popular? By what is fashionable from an ideological viewpoint? By your friends? By what everyone expects you to believe? Or by the holy Scripture?