Acts 9:1-2 English Standard Version

The Conversion of Saul

¹ But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Early Christians were seen by the religious community of the day as a cult. Cult is a word none of us particularly care to use or hear, much less be accused of being. Cult only means to think differently.

This life in Christ is all about undoing what we think we know and discovering the truth from the one how is the true witness. He was with God in the beginning and is God, and knows the truth. We have His Word and we know His witness is true.

John 8:28b English Standard Version (ESV) I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.

This is the Way. We have no authority to speak anything except what the Father has taught us. This requires a relationship with God that hears God by faith, believes God by faith and obeys God by faith.

2 Corinthians 5:7 English Standard Version (ESV) for we walk by faith, not by sight.

We talk about following Christ but this is a walk of faith not one of self-determination.

When we are born again our first examples of how to live this life is exampled by those around us. It is easier to look to them and say this is the way but it is not. We look to the lives of the disciples who followed Christ and somehow think that understanding how they followed Christ is how we should follow Christ but that is not the way.

Jesus went to be alone with the Father at night to receive instructions about the next day’s events. He did this in a deep personal relationship with His Father.

This is the Way.

John 14:1-7 English Standard Version

I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life

¹“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. ⁴ And you know the way to where I am going.” ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

We often focus on the place being prepared for us in terms of eternal life but this eternal life starts the moment we are born again into the Kingdom of God. This place prepared for us is a new heart where Christ abides in us.

Ezekiel 36:26 English Standard Version (ESV) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Galatians 2:20 English Standard Version (ESV) I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Christ is the Life. The life we have is because we have accepted Christ into our hearts. The eternal life has already begun and it is not over, we are still living in Christ and He lives in us. As for the Way, He made it possible by going to the cross and sacrificing His life for ours. Our way to this life is through faith in that sacrifice, His resurrection and His ascension.