A gracEmail reader in England asks, “If Jesus calls himself the ‘way’ to the Father, then Jesus is the route and God his Father is the destination. Yet most Christian churches seem to focus on Jesus rather than on God. Is that really biblical?”
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Christians believe the claims made by Jesus of Nazareth that the one and only living God was his Father in a unique sense which is true of no other human who ever lived. Jesus said that he came to earth from the Father and that he was going back to the Father (John 16:28). He insisted that whoever sees him sees the Father (John 14:8-9). He affirmed that he and the Father are one (John 10:30).
Elaborating on this truth, New Testament writers tell us that Jesus is the “Logos” or “Word” of God made human (John 1:14), the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s nature (Heb. 1:3). In Jesus, all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form (Col. 2:9). The virgin Mary’s firstborn son is “God with us” (Matt. 1:23).
As Son of God on the earth, Jesus considered the Father greater than himself (John 14:28). He did the Father’s will, not his own (John 5:19, 30). He spoke the Father’s words (John 14:10). Jesus revealed the Father (John 1:18), glorified the Father (John 17:4) and pointed people to the Father (John 17:3). Jesus went to the cross entrusting himself entirely to the Father (Luke 23:46). God vindicated Jesus’ trust and Jesus’ claims by raising him from the dead (Rom. 1:4). God has entrusted the Risen Jesus with cosmic dignity and authority (Phil. 2:9-11). At the End, Jesus will subject himself again to God, and God will be “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).
Indeed, Jesus is the path to God the destination. We know God’s love for us because of what we see in Jesus Christ (1 John 3:1). Through Jesus, we have fellowship with the Father (1 John 1:3). Through Jesus, we are believers in God, so that our faith and hope are in God (1 Pet. 1:21). Through Jesus, his Father invites us to know him as our own Father, too (Rom. 8:15-17).