In His Plan, God gave us purpose and meaning. He created us to be His delight and the object of all His affections. Man’s only concern is to freely respond to God’s love, by embracing and receiving His love:

- to live from Him and in Him

- to love Him back,

- to love his neighbor as himself,

- to do His will.

Our given purpose of life is to know, to love and to walk with God, through Jesus. In other words, it is to see God in the person of Jesus.

Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give LIGHT to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the PATH of PEACE.

—Luke 1:79

Jesus told him: “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen Him!” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.

—John 14:6-10

Go deeper — Deuteronomy 10:12; Micah 6:8; Mark 12:29

We walk with God by letting Him bring us back to the relationship for which we were created. He did this through Jesus: his Life, sacrifice, redemption, and indwelling. In other words, we walk with God by living in the likeness of Jesus Christ, receiving and embracing His love for us, and being that same Love for ourselves and others.

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

—Ephesians 1:18

Now we are able to live in that way, not because of our own strength or even from our own effort, but because God gave us all things so we could be and live like Jesus.

By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

—2 Peter 1:-4

Go deeper — 2 Timothy 1:8-9; Romans 8:28-29: Phillipians 3:12-14; Ephesians 4:1-3; 2 Peter 1:10

God never stopped longing for a personal and an intimate relationship with every human being. After the Fall, the relationship was broken, but that didn’t change God’s longing for us. Through Jesus, God made a complete revelation of Himself accessible to all mankind. Through Jesus we came to know God; he made it accessible and desirable to even the “least of these” human beings.

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.

—Luke 14:8-10

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.(…)

—Colossians 1:15

For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

—2 Corinthians 4:6

He is a light to reveal God to the nations and he is the glory of your people Israel!

—Luke 2:32

Scriptures say “God is light” (1 John 1:5). Light is invisible until it reflects upon an object; that’s when we are able to see light. This was exactly what God did through Jesus: God reflected Himself in Jesus. So as we look to Jesus (and through Jesus) the same light shines in our hearts, and that enables us to see God.

We can also see God through Jesus in the Word and His character:

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

—John 1:1

The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.

—Hebrews 1:3A

There are two very interesting revelations about God’s name, JEHOVAH:

It is an unfinished sentence. Basically, what God is saying is “I AM whatever my people need” (according to His will). That sentence was left blank by God Himself so that we may bring our many and various needs, as they arise, for Him to complete!

This great name of God goes round and round in a closed cycle “I AM what I AM”. But the moment human need and misery present themselves, He becomes just what we need. It is not we, moreover, who are beseeching Him for this privilege, but He who is pressing it upon us. He is asking us to ask (John 16:24).

In the same way God fulfills the needs of His people in the Old Testament, today he continues to do this through Jesus.

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

—John 16:24

Our first and basic need is to know the truth about ourselves, as God sees it, and about God. It’s not possible to see the grace of God in Jesus until we see the truth about ourselves and give a full answer to all its challenges.

It’s at this point that Jesus becomes to us what we need.

Jesus told him, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one come to the Father except through me.

—John 14:6

Our response to that is willingness to accept the truth as it is revealed in Jesus Christ and trust Him and His love for us.

Jesus does not merely teach us facts (as if truth would be something apart from Him), but He says and reveals Himself to us as Truth. That means that to see Him is to see the truth about ourselves, Him, and the rest of life.

When we look at the cross, we not only see the Truth about everything, but we also see the great and sweetest grace of God toward us. Grace and Truth flow from the cross, for “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”.

For the law was given and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.

—John 1:17

Jesus is Truth to the deceived and Grace for the wretched.

Once we acknowledge the truth about ourselves, the human condition, and who Jesus is, we are ready to see that He is also the Door and the Way.

Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.

—Matthew 10:9

We are to live through Christ rather than trying to live like Christ. That’s why Paul continually uses the expression “through Christ” and “in Christ.”

There are 4 essential things to understand if we are to see and experience Jesus as our Door:

Jesus is the wide open Door. “Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). In the same way God’s Grace is the expression of His goodness to those who don’t deserve it, Jesus is the Door through which sinners can come.

This Door is open on a street level. That means that Jesus is immediately available for us as we are and where we are. His blood made Him available to the sinner as a sinner, and to the failing saint as a failing saint.

But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth). And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).” In fact, it says,“The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.” And that message is the very message about faith that we preach

—Romans 10:6-8

This is a low Door. In order to enter through it we need to bow our heads low in repentance, have our will broken, and admit that we are no better than what Jesus had to become for us.

This is a narrow Door. If you’re going to enter, you will have to stand there alone. That is, it must be you alone who repents; it’s a willingness to repent as if you were the only sinner in the world.

But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

—Matthew 7:14

Jesus says that He is both the Door and the Way. The Way is about a continuous relationship with Jesus and an experience of Him.

And a great road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the Highway of Holiness. Evil-minded people will never travel on it. It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways; fools will never walk there.

—Isaiah 35:8

Once we enter the Door, in time, very easily we tend to make other things (like prayer, Bible study, evangelism, church, etc.) the way to Jesus. There is no way to Jesus, because Jesus is Himself the Way.

Apart from Jesus, the sinner and the saint are faced with the same thing: sin. If it is sin that blocks the sinner’s entrance, it is sin that impedes the saint’s progress. With sin in the world, and within their heart, how can they hope to walk in a consistent fellowship with God? If the sinner needs a Door, the saint needs a Way: a Highway along which he can run in joy, rest, and power over sin.

The answer is Jesus’ finished work for sin on the Cross. That’s what made Jesus the Door and the Way. Then the steps of repentance and faith, by which we entered through the Door, are constantly reiterated in order to walk the Way.

Our end is to be transformed into the character of the Lord Jesus Himself. God made us right with Him through Jesus so we could have a relationship with the Father and the Son reestablished. Revival, power, being used by God, and having this or that blessing are all just things that naturally flow from Jesus as the End: they are not the end in themselves.

Our willingness to have Him and be in fellowship with Him again, is the reason why we should be willing to go the way of repentance—not for any other motive than because we want Him.