The way to God.
The course of the conversation here is not hard to follow. First, there is the assertion of Jesus, following upon his revelation of the heavenly dwelling-places, that his disciples knew well the road he was about to travel. He had often of late spoken of his approaching departure from this world, and even of the manner of it. Secondly, there is the difficulty, started by Thomas, that they knew not the goal, and therefore could not know the path by which it should be reached. This difficulty may have been partly an unspiritual stumbling; the twelve were thinking of an earthly road and an earthly destination, and were confusing the approach to the Father with the approach, to a city or a mansion, in which latter case, indeed, a traveler needs to know first his goal and then his route. Partly, too, the perplexity may have been owing to a deep depression, by reason of which the twelve did not do justice to their own knowledge and standing, and took a lower tone than they should have done. Then, thirdly, there is our Lord's explanatory reply. In this he gives what we may call a turn to the conversation, passing in thought from himself to them. The Father's house is for both—for the elder son and for the younger members of the spiritual family. To know the road thither—this is the matter of chief concern to all. Thus Jesus is led to communicate to them the great revelation of the sixth verse—to point to himself as "the Way," and to represent himself as the sole and sufficient means of approach to God.
I. CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. It is not so much by explanatory language that Jesus reveals to his people the character of the Father; he does not merely point out the way. But in his own Person, his life and ministry, he displays to us the attributes of Deity which it most concerns us to know; and thus he is the way. As incarnate God, as the one Mediator, he presents the Father before the view of his spiritual family.
II. CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE FAVOR OF GOD. To understand how holy and how righteous is the Divine Ruler and Judge, is to understand that sinners forfeit his favor. Our Savior is the divinely appointed Way to reconciliation and harmony with him whose laws all men have broken. He removes obstacles otherwise insurmountable, bridges chasms otherwise impassable, makes of himself a path of safety and of progress, so that the passage to the Divine friendship becomes possible and safe. On this account, probably, Christianity is, in the Book of the Acts, repeatedly spoken of as "the way," i.e. the path by which sinful men return to the affectionate interest and regard of a righteous God.
III. CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE FATHER'S FELLOWSHIP. It is, indeed, with a view to this that the former is desirable. It is moral union which is chiefly important. And the Spirit of Christ exercises over the nature of believing men that power and grace which transform into the Divine likeness. In coming thus unto the Father a man becomes a son indeed; he experiences the grace of true adoption; lie is made in the likeness of his Lord.
IV. CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE FATHER'S PRESENCE AND HOME. This perhaps is both the ultimate sense of the language, and the first meaning attached to it by those to whom it was addressed. Jesus was himself about to go to the Father, and he wished his beloved friends to understand that he would not go alone, that in due time they should enter the sacred presence and know the mystic joy. And since it was difficult for them to believe and realize this, he drew their regard to himself, and led them to cherish the hope that in his society and through his mediation they should be introduced to all the honors and to all the immortal employments of the Father's house.—T.