Questions about John 14:6...

sentient 6 wrote:

messiaen77 wrote:I think the verse isn't setting up Jesus as like a gatekeeper that you have to go through in order to get to the Father.  The way I read it is that Jesus is the conduit of reconciliation between humanity and the Father.  The only way to bridge the gap between us and the Father is through the Cross.  That's my interpretation of that verse.  Jesus is the instrument of reconciliation that makes it possible for us to come to the Father.

John 10:7-10New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
⁷ So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.  ⁸ All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.  ⁹ I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.  ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Not sure if you are supporting or refuting what I said so I'm not sure how to comment other than to say if I need to clarify "gatekeeper" I mean like the President's secretary that decides who gets in the Oval Office and when.  You have to gain their favor or have their blessing to enter in.  I like the gate metaphor John records here and I think it really fits what I'm trying to say:  Jesus makes it possible for us to approach the Father and without the work of Christ, we'd be stuck on the other side of the fence.

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

“ Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

“Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for Me.”

To come to the Father through the Son is to take upon ourselves His humility and selfless love, to commune of the flesh and blood He gave for us and have our own bodies and souls conformed therefrom and thereto. To try to come to the Father any other way ends in madness (weeping and gnashing of teeth). Even for the ancient Israelites, it was about making things right, purifying the heart…THEN one could bring a sacrifice (a meal to share with God).

If you wanna go through the father, you must be hebrew and live by leveticus. And even then, heaven wasn't promised to them. Most went to a portion of Sheol called "Abraham's bosom" to be judged in the final days

You go through Jesus because it's not only about worship, but recognition he was God, and following his teaching. Loving your neighbour as you love yourself, helping the homeless, and living the way Jesus lived. It was one of the things he criticized the pharasees about, they lived by the code but had no love for their fellow man and looked down on others

I suggest reading your Bible. If it wasn't clear, read it again and again until it is. We don't know the nature of God, we are not supposed to go at it from our own understanding. If you go by your own understanding, that is pride, and an abomination unto the lord

I would also add that "coming to the Father" had particular meaning in those days. On the one hand, Israel had lived in the midst of idolatry since its inception, wherein people attempted to entice divine beings into matter, trap them there, and get them to do what they wanted. On the other, there had begun some Jewish variations on the Greek chthonic journey, including meditative repetition of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), as a means to have a vision of God. Clearly, idolatry will not work, especially on the Father - in fact, the structure of the creation story in Genesis 1-2 is a deliberate inversion of the Ancient Near East practice of creating a temple, forming and installing an idol, and then opening its mouth/nostrils to bring the god into it; instead, it is God who forms creation as the temple, man as the image, and He breathes His own Spirit into man. And the meditative practices, without obedience to the life laid out by Christ, are a cheap shortcut, and if you see anything, beware, it's not God!

Another interesting aspect of this is the fact that you have God telling Moses "you cannot see Me and live," only to, nine verses later, be speaking with Moses "face to face, as a man speaks with his friend." And many times in the OT, the Word of God comes and stands before people - Jesus is identifying Himself as the angel of Yahweh and the One that was seen by the prophets and patriarchs.