The Way to the Son

Perfect conviction of the Spirit comes from the Father, and a sinner encounters it at every turn. Everything directs us to the Son, the atoning sacrifice. The Father does not draw to Himself but to the Son, and neither does the Son draw to Himself but to the Father.

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; . . . Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” John 6:44-45.

All true evangelistic preaching is the Father drawing to the Son. Some people think they can come to the Father without going through the Son, but the Son Himself is the way to the Father. There is no other way to Him.

The sinner allows himself to be drawn to the Son, and in Him he finds atonement for his sins and cleansing from an evil conscience. If he is content with this, he will remain in the same place. He looks up at Jesus as Israel looked up at the bronze serpent and was saved. The reward is the same whether a person bears the burden in the heat of the day or, like the thief, comes in the eleventh hour. They have both agreed to be paid one denarius: the forgiveness of sins. This is the state most Christians are in, whether they have been baptized in the Spirit or not.

The Way to the Father

No one can gain access to this way without first having entered through the door. Jesus says, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.” John 10:9. At this door you first receive forgiveness of sins, next the baptism of the Spirit, and then you are equipped to walk on the way. Unfortunately, most Christians say that Jesus went the way for us so that we don’t have to. Thus, they remain standing in the doorway and even hinder others who want to pass through.

The first thing we encounter on the way to the Father is the Spirit’s requirement of obedience. Since this requirement leads to suffering according to the flesh, people prefer to turn away toward Satan’s temptations. He promises freedom without obedience and without the cross. Here we have two different groups. Some walk on the way in obedience and enter into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, while others hate suffering and the cross and turn aside to Satan, believing in a freedom based on Satan’s promises instead of God’s promises.

This is the cause of the ongoing spiritual battle taking place these days.

A woman who had been saved, yet was burdened with guilt, asked a leader of one of the most progressive free assemblies what she should do with an object she had stolen before she was converted. “I should probably return it,” she said. But do you know what the response was? “You’re not going to try to help God with your salvation, are you?”

When such blind leaders, who boast that they are so pure that they wish people could look through a window into their hearts, speak in such darkness to a soul who is weighed down by her conscience, how then can anyone find the way? In direct contradiction to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they—like Satan—preach disobedience to God. They promote the sort of disobedience people already desire according to their fleshly tendencies. How can such people be God’s co-workers? Because of their hatred for suffering, obedience, and the cross, they themselves do not walk on the way to the Father, and they even hinder others from walking on the way.

Thanks be to God, their progress will be stopped. Praise God that He has, by His great grace, allowed His true light to illuminate the way so brightly that their folly has been exposed and now serves as a warning and admonition to others.

Jesus is the way.

He does not allow any cowardly souls to walk on this way. Only those who are bound by the laws of the Spirit may walk upon it. Those who are willing to take up their cross daily and follow Him are the only ones who are His disciples and who receive His knowledge. They also experience freedom, but only through the revelations of the truth, because their hope, which is working through obedience to the faith, transforms all the suffering and tribulations in the flesh into joy. This joy far surpasses the joy of liberty for the flesh, just as the joy of God’s children surpasses the joy of the world. Paul writes about this glory: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . . . .” 2 Cor. 4:17.

But how does tribulation affect people who say that obedience is bondage and that tribulation comes from a lack of vision? It can only result in despair. However, people are not usually honest enough to admit their despair; rather, they seek new comfort in a new lie.

In spite of all these inward and outward battles, the way still leads through the Son to the Father—in other words, to perfection.

Blessed is every soul who finds the way that will lead them home.