The gospel: there is a way for you

It may seem like you don’t have a way. You look to your future and you don’t know what to see. You have a life, a mode of living you are going through, but deep down, you are thirsting for so much more. Your parents, the world, and many will tell you all kinds of “ways” to go. But, what is the right way for us? What is the path that we take?

When I think of ways, I think of highways. If you look at the map of the United States Highway System, it would be totally confusing, and it would seem like it doesn’t matter what road you take, you will end up somewhere. I drove across the country, covering over 80,000 miles on American highways. And as exhilarating and soul-searching as it was, I never found the way. All the roads just kept me driving, and driving, and driving. Burning up gas here, spending gas there. It is amazing how the void in us can perform a lifetime of searching.

I think so many people are trying to find a way, and they end up on some path that they have never examined, never questioned, and never thought: maybe there is another way. I know that you are in a situation, you have decisions to make, choices laid before you, you have hopes and dreams, you may have a job, and your family. God knows your exact situation quite intimately. He knows the hairs on your head, your thoughts before you think them, your history, your depression, your confusion, and He is making a way for you. I believe if you are reading this now, He is already at work making a way!

Why does God need to make a way for us? Because there are so many ways! But let these words sink in,

“And Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way’” (John 14:6).

You hear that, Jesus Christ is not only a way, but He is the way. God’s original way for us was that Adam would eat the tree of life and live forever. But ever since the fall, mankind has lost its way to the tree of life. But, once the Son of God became flesh, He made a way for us to the tree of life again. Now let me talk to you about this way.

The path of the Lord Jesus Christ, the way, is paradoxical.

“Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14).

On one hand, Jesus Christ is telling us that following Him is not an easy way that everyone does, but that it is a difficult way that only a few partake. Why is this? It is simply the law of the cross. You see, for most of Jesus’s ministry, He was very popular, the crowds defended Him often from the attacks of the Pharisees and extremely religious Jews. Many people came to Christ, but it would seem that few really understood Him. We, of course, see at the cross that Jesus Christ was alone. Even His closest followers are described as “standing far off.”

The reason for this phenomenon is that ever since the fall, we as human beings have become full of self-love and self-survival. Sacrifice is virtually the thing we avoid at all costs. Loss is something we naturally try to protect ourselves from. Is it not true that if you look at most of your life, you have been trying to protect yourself in one way or the other? Whether it be your reputation, defending yourself amidst allegations, bending your will to please your parents, seeking relationships to feel loved, looking for comfort in earthly things to soothe you from your inner need of satisfaction?

This is demonstrated in Peter when the Lord was being tried by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Council. On one hand, Christ is suffering, being mocked, spit on, and beaten. On the other hand, Peter is warming himself by a fire, surrounded by a group of people who question whether he was a disciple of Jesus. Out of this sheer fallen defense, Peter denied his Lord. This is deeply our condition.

The paradox of the Lord’s way is that in terms of our soul’s sense of survival, the way seems impossible. But, Jesus Christ gives us a way to overcome this:

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his soul will lose it, but whoever loses his soul for My sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).

I think we should make special note of the word “soul” Jesus used was “psyche” and not “bios” as in our bodily life. The “psyche” is simply our mind, will, emotions, personality or simply “self.” So, it is simple, to start the way, you must deny your self-love, and all the ways your soul looks to save itself, but notice, this is not an empty sacrifice. Unlike the ways of the world, which in one form or another we are sacrificing our time and energy to, and in most cases never getting truly satisfied. The way of Jesus Christ is that when we do this for His sake, we find something (it is promised!).

“My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).

You will find that the Lord’s cross is a place of spiritual rest. It is the end of this constant toiling of our souls, constantly defending and saving ourselves to no real end. But Jesus Christ offers us this easy way and the light way if we just deny ourselves. If we just start to see, “Lord, help me bring You Your cross!”

Many Christians will often make the mistake of throwing their entire lives out the window to prove to themselves just how much they have sacrificed, and even in there is a web of self-love. Notice, Jesus says, “For My sake.” We have to examine what things we deny are truly for His sake. Denying oneself is not self-hatred. Denying oneself is simply detaching from your need to settle in comfort while seeking the Lord for your life.

As you come to simply lose things for the Lord, you will simultaneously find things in Him, first and foremost, His truth.

“I am the truth” (John 14:6).

As you continue on this journey, you will find that God’s reality is the only reality, because He precedes existence itself. Jesus Christ is the Absolute Truth because He is God. His words and His way are a path of reality. You can journey on all the ways of self-love, comfort, and the soul’s preservation for advancement and survival, but you will find there is no sustaining reality, but a fragile fantasy that can be burst by the reality of the cross. You remain stuck toiling for a sense of peace in your efforts and for the strength. Your ideas and concepts at once fall through the cracks at a glance of the cross.

Perhaps, in all the ways that are presented before us, we are much like Pilate,

“What is truth?” (John 18:38).

Truth is not a matter of what, but who. God is truth. What God says is truth. This is why Jesus declared He is the truth! And because He is the way, and the truth, He is,

“the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me” (John 14:6).

So, there you have it! The Father! Jesus is the way to the Father, the Ultimate Source, the truth of the Father, and the life of the Father! My seeking soul, you are not just looking for a God, but you are looking for a Father, and you need the Son!

This truly is the beauty of the Christian life; it is really one of losing yourself to get lost in God. To find this wonderful uncreated life that was with the Father, and the Son has made a way for us, for you.

“For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water... A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness” (Isaiah 35:7-8).

See your soul like the wilderness, the desert, the parched ground, the thirsty land, that once it emerges on the holy highway of Jesus Christ, you will find your soul filled with waters, streams, pools, and springs, for Jesus promises us,

“Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst” (John 4:14).

So you who thirst, come and leave behind your way, and come to the way of truth so you can drink the waters of life!