One of the most well known and often repeated verses in the Gospels is John 14:6 which is traditionally translated, "Jesus says to him, 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.'" More often than not, this verse is used to declare that only those who believe in Jesus Christ (and usually in a specific way) will achieve salvation, whether they have heard of Jesus Christ or not. This verse is used to exclude the majority of humanity, and include only a very small group of people who profess a certain set of doctrines about Jesus Christ. Up until relatively recently, I myself struggled with understanding this verse any other way as well.
The key though to understanding what Jesus was saying here and elsewhere in the Gospel of John is that John starts his Gospel with calling Jesus Christ the Logos incarnate. The Logos in the ancient Roman world was similar in concept to the Tao or even the Hindu Om. It was divine in nature with a relationship to the God, as the ancient Greeks and Romans used the term, which at times seemed distinct and at times overlapped. A standard definition might be the "divine principle which was used to create everything, and which also resides in every human being in some form." The Logos, identified with the God, is the active governing principle of the universe which the God used to create the universe and in which the entire universe consists and is held together, and which every human being holds a share or part. In the first century, the Logos was both the conscious rational mind of the individual, and the conscious rational mind which governed the cosmos, operating in both. Every human soul contained a shred, piece, or fractal of the Logos, and the Logos was the governing Head over them all. John's understanding of Jesus as the Logos Himself is crucial to understanding Jesus' statements about Himself.
When Jesus speaks of the God as His Father in the Gospel of John, He is speaking as the Logos. It is the Logos which does whatever it sees the God and Father doing. When He says, "Before Abraham came to be, I Am," it is the Logos which is speaking, and not His humanity. When He says, "I and the Father are one," it is the Logos which is one with the Father. And so, when Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," He was speaking as the Logos. It is no accident that it is John who records Him saying it, and it is John who begins his Gospel by calling Jesus Christ the Logos incarnate. This is an important distinction, because it is the Logos which is the way, the truth, and the life. When He said, "No one comes to the Father except through Me," He was saying that there is no way to experience that unity with God/Source, no way for the human soul to communicate with its Source except through the Logos of which it is a part or member. What He is not talking about here is that no one can come to the Father if they don't believe He died to pay for their sins. What He is not talking about here is that no one can come to the Father if they don't accept the Nicene Creed. What He is not talking about is acceptance of the canon of Biblical Scripture, six day creationism, or any other specific doctrine or teaching. He is talking about being the Logos Himself, firstborn from the God through which and by which everything was created, and of which every human soul holds a part.
Why is this such an important distinction? Because there are many who appear to have found ways to suppress or disengage from their malfunctioning amygdala and survival responses apart from any Christian faith, or even knowledge of Jesus Christ Himself. There are many Buddhist monks who appear to "operate with the Spirit" producing the "fruit of the Spirit" of love, joy, peace, patience, trust, and so on without adhering to even the basics of strictly Christian belief. As I wrote about previously, those who have had Near Death Experiences suddenly appear to be able to stay in communication with the Logos part of themselves and demonstrate all of these things. None of them may use this language to describe it, but this appears to be what is happening. And so just as Jesus told those Judeans listening that He had sheep who were not a part of that fold, so also these people among others appear to have stumbled into an understanding of engaging with the Logos and disengaging from their egos produced by the malfunctioning flesh regardless of whether they profess to be Christian or not. The mechanics remain the mechanics regardless of what a person might believe about them, or what theological beliefs they might have. As long as the amygdala and survival responses are neutralized in some way, communication with the Head can begin to flow again.
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