The Olney Way
Dear Friend, This morning I count it a privilege to share with you a word of encouragement—a reminder of the extraordinary grace that God has publicly displayed through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. As we reflect on the final hours of our Savior’s life, we are met with a profound truth: Jesus did not seek His own comfort, but instead gave Himself fully to glorifying the Father and comforting those dearest to Him—His disciples, whom He had called to walk with Him during His earthly ministry.
As He prepared to lay down His life, Jesus told them that He would soon depart and that they could not follow Him where He was going. Their hearts were filled with sorrow and confusion. Questions swirled in their minds. Yet even then, knowing full well the agony He was about to endure— from the inner anguish in Gethsemane, to the brutal scourging, to the nails driven into His flesh as He hung between heaven and earth—His heart remained fixed on comforting His disciples.
He tenderly told them, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” And when beloved Thomas asked, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered with those soul-settling words: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
In this profound declaration, Jesus identifies Himself as the only way to the Father. He is not one of many options—He is the way, the truth, and the life. In this statement, He lays bare the desperate condition of mankind. We are fallen, and by nature, incapable of meeting the righteous standard of a holy God. Every time we violate our God-given conscience, we testify against ourselves. Our guilt exposes our need—we need a Savior. That inward witness, that aching sense of guilt and longing, is a signpost that we were made for more— for communion with our Creator. And Jesus is claiming here that He alone provides the righteousness required to stand before God. No one comes to the Father except through Him.
Jesus was preparing to walk the road to the cross, where He would bear the full weight of God’s wrath against sin. This was not the act of a harsh or unjust deity, but the outworking of divine justice and love. Because God is holy, He cannot overlook sin. Because He is love, He made a way to forgive it—through His own Son.
At Calvary, Jesus Christ—the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity—stood as the Mediator between God and man. There upon the cross, He bore the righteous judgment that we rightly deserved. Our punishment was laid upon Him, and He willingly became the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In exchange, His perfect righteousness is freely offered to all who come to Him by faith, so that they might be reconciled to the Father and receive eternal life.
Today, dear reader, if these words have pierced your heart— if the weight of your sin and the beauty of Christ have awakened you—do not harden your heart. Cry out to Jesus. Do not delay. You stand at a crossroads: the broad road that leads to destruction under the just wrath of God, or the narrow road that leads to eternal life, of which Jesus said, “few there be that find it.”
If the Spirit of God is stirring your soul, then respond today. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. You may not draw another breath. But today—yes, even now—you may call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Rest your weary soul in the finished work of Christ. Lay aside every false hope and trust in Him alone. For in Him, and in Him alone, your soul can find true rest—now and forevermore.
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’” - John 14:6 NASBS