In an age which is very similar to ours today, Jesus makes a bold statement. Much like today, the Roman Empire of the 1st century was a very multi-cultural, pluralistic society, with a very accepting attitude to all manner of religions and philosophies. There were gods and philosophies of all kinds throughout the empire, it was very much a consumer market.

Jesus’ statement went straight against the popular thinking of the day.

I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. Jn 14:6

Here was an absolute statement in a sea of relativism. To those who said that all faiths were equally valid, this was anathema. How could anyone claim to have a monopoly on the truth?

When you look at other aspects of life though, we don’t have such a pluralistic view. When we’re ill, we’d be ill-advised to take the medical advice of anyone who voiced their opinion. We seek out doctors who know what they’re talking about and have the means to help us.

In our daily lives, we rest upon absolutes when we do our shopping. We don’t make up our own arithmetic when calculating our bill, but we still to the absolutes of mathematics. Our thinking isn’t guided by how we feel, but by what we know.

If our lives at a basic level rests on absolutes, why should our Spirituality be any different? In other parts of our lives, we assess the options. In a culture which states all religions are equally valid, Jesus’ claim is either invalid, or invalidates the statement. He cannot be the way, the truth and the life, if all religions are equally valid. All religions cannot all be equal is Jesus claim is true.
A look at his claim can only boil down to three options, famously stated by C. S. Lewis.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis

Looking at the life of Jesus in the New Testament, Jesus doesn’t come across as either a fool, nor a fiend. Those who listened were amazed at his teaching, those who came to him were healed of their afflictions. His seeming defeat at the hands of men were to lead to his ultimate show of who he is. His crucifixion and resurrection would demonstrate his mission and his power.

For he was God in the flesh. All other attempts to reach God would be a contravention of the first two commandments. If we were to try to worship God apart from Jesus, we would be worshipping a false god. Not only that, but we would be trying to fashion God in our image, trying to approach him on our terms instead of his terms.

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Rom 8:3,4

For if we are to know God, he requires complete righteousness. A perfect adherence to his commandments, both doing what he commands and not doing what he forbids. In our sinful state, we are unable to be righteous. No matter how hard we try, we cannot make ourselves righteous.

Jesus had not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it. He lived a righteous life in order to fulfil it. By the grace of God, Jesus went to the cross so that, through faith in him, our sin might be cast upon him, and his righteousness imputed to us. It is only through him that we can become righteous before God.

You might think, this is all very well, but if Jesus has taken on our sin, surely we can sin with impunity? With this righteousness comes a new nature, for the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of all who believe. He enables us to do good, that we might glorify our Father in heaven. When Jesus says he has come to fulfil the law, he doesn’t mean just in himself, but also in those he has made righteous.