⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Ringing through the centuries, the centrality of the person of Jesus Christ for all of existence is proclaimed, and that by none other than Jesus Christ Himself. This overlays and penetrates every religious effort, every philosophical pursuit and every advice for wise living. This is one of the most important verses that demonstrates the deity of Christ.

Some have objected that the historical Jesus Christ never claimed to be God, that this was just an overlay that later Christians gave to the Christ “myth.” However, the historical record does not support this objection (considering the historicity of the Upper Room account and the gospel narratives in their entirety is beyond the scope of this book). Jesus certainly gave the impression of Himself as being on the order of deity by His actions and teachings.

For example, He forgave sins, which even Jesus’ detractors said only God can do (Mark 2:7-11). He took on the unique appellation that the Jews recognized only applied to Yahweh of the OT, when He said to the Jews, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58). The Jews, in response, tried to stone Him, the punishment for blasphemy. A short while later they tried again with this explanation: “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” (John10:33). So we see that Jesus’ contemporaries, and not just His close followers, understood the import of His statements and claims. They had no doubt Jesus was making Himself out to be God!

But, no less important, this very band of men, although struggling in the Upper Room with their world that seemingly was caving in on them, came to believe that Jesus was God. John the gospel chronicler makes this clear in the prologue of his biography of Christ, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God …And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1, 14).

The apostle Paul, who formerly tried to snuff out the followers of Jesus (identified in the record by his Hebrew name Saul), joined the chorus proclaiming Christ’s deity: “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him…For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form… (Col 1:19, 2:9). There is nothing more divine about God than about Jesus.

Jesus, my Lord and my God. I worship You as the Creator God of the Universe, the second person of the Trinity. One God in three persons. Blessed Trinity.