I am the entrance, the doctrine, and the supergrace life. Part 2 John 14:2-6

Now in verse 6 we have the Lord’s answer concerning the way:

 

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.

 

“I am” - present active indicative of eimi [eimi] = “I keep on being”

 

/“the way” -o(doj[hodos] is used here for entrance into a systematic course of planning and action. Therefore it refers, of course, to the whole plan of God. \

 

It has to have an entrance and everyone enters at the same place. Because everyone enters at exactly the same place this sets up a principle.

 

/In the Church Age there is no excuse for anyone not becoming a supergrace hero. Everyone has the same chance and the same opportunity and the Lord Jesus Christ is the only entrance into the plan of God. \

 

This is a plan which has already been laid out, a plan for which everything is provided, plan which is categorised by one word: grace. Everything depends on who and what God is. God does it all.

 

The second thing that Jesus said has to do with what happens after you enter the plan of God.

 

/The word “truth” is a)lhqeia [aletheia]. It refers to the embodiment of knowledge and truth, therefore absolute truth, therefore doctrine. Doctrine is the mind of Christ - 1 Corinthians 2:16; Psalm 138:2. \

 

The most important thing after you enter the plan of God is Bible doctrine.

 

The third thing: “and the life.”

 

/The word for life here is zwh [zoe]. The function of life or the super-grace life.\

 

There are two Greek words found in the NT: a) zwh[zoe]; b) bioj[bios]. Zwh, used here, means the function of life; biojmeans the pattern of life. The one we have here refers to the supergrace life. The objective of all doctrine is to take the believer to the supergrace life.

           

/So: “I am the entrance to the plan of God; I am the doctrine; I am the function of the super-grace life.”\

 

 

At the entrance Jesus Christ is our saviour. As the doctrine: Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ. As the life: once we enter supergrace our greatest function is occupation with the person of Christ and/or maximum category #1 capacity for love.

 

And then we have the clear statement that lays the claim that it doesn’t matter what you believe in, if you’re a good person… to rest.

 

The corrected translation is:

/“no man comes/approaches face to face with the Father, except through Me.”\

 

Jesus Christ is the only entrance into eternal life, the plan of God, and the abundant truth and life that the Father desires for His creatures.

 

There is no other way in. And the door does not open if you approach it with works, kindness, morality, sincerity, or any other human system of thinking or works.

 

John 10:7 "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

 

John 10:8 "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

 

John 10:9 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

 

John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.

 

John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

 

/The door to life only opens when you approach it with non-meritorious faith in TLJC.\

 

John 14:7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."

 

/“If” is a 2^nd class condition: “If you had known me, but you didn’t.” \

 

This is a pluperfect, the past perfect active indicative of ginwskw[ginosko]. This isn’t the verb oida that was used by the Lord to say, “You know the way,” and by Thomas to say, “We don’t know the way.”

 

Oida means to inherently know, whereas ginosko means to come to know.

 

Thomas has had 3 and ½ years of opportunities to come to know the Lord and he chose not to take advantage of those opportunities.

 

The principle:

/Every believer is responsible for the doctrine he has had an opportunity to learn. Continuing to reject those opportunities leads to reversionism.\

 

The omniscience of God sees all. God examines the soul of Thomas and finds that a reversionist lives there.

 

Every minute, every hour, hour, month, year, you log in reversionism there is something you could have understood, some question that you had, that you could have answered through doctrine in your own soul. In other words, if you avoid reversionism there will never be a question or a problem in your soul for which your soul will not give you the answer from Bible doctrine as your grace provision.

 

/The pluperfect of ginosko [ginosko] indicates that Thomas had opportunities so as to be able to answer his own questions by now.\

 

The omniscience of Jesus Christ X-rays the soul of Thomas and finds a reversionist.

 

Here is the principle of the pluperfect: Many times when you have questions they are questions you could have answered if you had avoided reversionism.

 

/Reversionism - the believer who is negative towards doctrine and resists rebound to the point of going backwards in the spiritual life in apostasy. \

 

/The more you live in reversionism the more complex become the questions in your soul.\

 

EPH 5:15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise,

 

EPH 5:16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

 

EPH 5:17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

 

EPH 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation [a waste of time], but be filled with the Spirit,

 

/Every minute that you log in reversionism is time not redeemed, it is time wasted.\

 

Principle: The amount of wasted time in reversionism produces x-number of questions which cannot be answered, and so you must impose upon the time of someone else seeking answers.

 

 

 

Every believer was designed to be spiritually self-sustaining, and every believer was designed by God, through Bible doctrine and the daily function of GAP, to be able to answer his own questions, resolve his own problems, and to know the will of God for his life at any moment.

 

Therefore, when you waste time in reversionism you create in your soul a question box. And some of these things will come back to plague you, to distract you, to disturb you, to turn you into a rather weird and unstable person from time to time.

 

It is the believer who has a soul full of questions, a weighted down question box, who is in trouble, unstable all the time.

 

Go back to John 14:7.

           

In effect, Jesus is saying to Thomas, “You have had time to learn these things.” The use of the pluperfect indicates that Thomas has had opportunities to understand the very questions he is asking, and to answer them from his own soul.

 

Therefore there comes a time when the asking of questions is obviously a sign of reversionism. 

 

The baby believer who is just starting out in doctrine has legitimate questions. It is the PT’s job to answer those questions, but not one on one, but from behind the pulpit.

 

The baby believers are instructed to be patient and to continue in doctrine day in and day out and the promise is that his questions will be answered.

 

Our Lord said that He was the way, and then came the truth before you can move on to the life. We must receive instruction in humility and teachability. A very wise man figured this out after spending most of his life trying to find life his own way and not God’s way through wisdom.

 

Prov 1:1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:

 

Prov 1:2 To know wisdom and instruction,

To discern the sayings of understanding,

 

Prov 1:3 To receive instruction in wise behavior,

Righteousness, justice and equity;

 

Prov 1:4 To give prudence to the naive,

To the youth knowledge and discretion,

 

Prov 1:5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning,

And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

 

Prov 1:6 To understand a proverb and a figure,

The words of the wise and their riddles.

 

 

Prov 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

 

Prov 4:1 Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father,

And give attention that you may gain understanding,

 

Prov 4:2 For I give you sound teaching;

Do not abandon my instruction.

 

Prov 4:3 When I was a son to my father,

Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother,

 

Prov 4:4 Then he taught me and said to me,

"Let your heart hold fast my words;

Keep my commandments and live;

 

Prov 4:5 Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!

Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

 

Prov 4:6 "Do not forsake her, and she will guard you;

Love her, and she will watch over you.

 

Prov 4:7 "The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom;

And with all your acquiring, get understanding.

 

Prov 4:8 "Prize her, and she will exalt you;

She will honor you if you embrace her.

 

Prov 4:9 "She will place on your head a garland of grace;

She will present you with a crown of beauty."

 

Prov 8:1 Does not wisdom call,

And understanding lift up her voice?

 

Prov 8:2 On top of the heights beside the way,

Where the paths meet, she takes her stand;

 

Prov 8:3 Beside the gates, at the opening to the city,

At the entrance of the doors, she cries out:

 

Prov 8:4 "To you, O men, I call,

And my voice is to the sons of men.

 

Prov 8:5 "O naive ones, discern prudence;

And, O fools, discern wisdom.

 

Prov 8:6 "Listen, for I shall speak noble things;

And the opening of my lips will produce right things.

 

Prov 8:7 "For my mouth will utter truth;

And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

 

Prov 8:8 "All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness;

There is nothing crooked or perverted in them.

 

 

Prov 8:9 "They are all straightforward to him who understands,

And right to those who find knowledge.

 

Prov 8:10 "Take my instruction, and not silver,

And knowledge rather than choicest gold.

 

Prov 8:11 "For wisdom is better than jewels;

And all desirable things can not compare with her.

 

Prov 8:32 "Now therefore, O sons, listen to me,

For blessed are they who keep my ways.

 

Prov 8:33"Heed instruction and be wise,

And do not neglect it.

 

Prov 8:34"Blessed is the man who listens to me,

Watching daily at my gates,

Waiting at my doorposts.

 

Prov 8:35"For he who finds me finds life,

And obtains favor from the Lord.

 

Prov 8:36"But he who sins against me injures himself;

All those who hate me love death."

 

/1 Tim 2:11

Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. \ [How did that get in there?]

 

Go back to:

John 14:7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."

 

/If you had ginosko [come to know] Me, you would have oida [inherently known] My Father also.\

 

“you would have known” - pluperfect of o)ida, inherent knowledge.

 

In other words, if you had after salvation taken in the doctrine you had been taught then you would not only know Me (occupation with Christ) but you would have understood the whole function of God the Father: “you would have known my Father also” - author of the divine plan.

 

/The Father is the author of the divine plan. By coming to know Christ, you will know the Father and then understand the plan.\

 

None of the disciples have seen the Father yet the Lord tells them that they can know the Father by knowing Him.

 

/This is true because both the Son and the Father have identical thinking, HEB 1:3.\

 

 

/HEB 1:3

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.\

 

/The real person is what he thinks, PRO 23:7.\

 

/Prov 23:7

For as he thinks within himself, so he is.\

 

By application, you are what you think. What you think affects you personally. God has designed you to have a certain personality. That personality will never be realized until there is spiritual growth through doctrine.

 

/Your true personality will not be realized until you reach the first stage of spiritual adulthood, spiritual self esteem.\

 

/SSE is cognitive self confidence, the beginning of effective use of the problem solving devices, vision of your personal sense of destiny, and the beginning of agape love for God.\

 

Through plugging away under the function of metabolizing doctrine the believer passes through spiritual childhood, spiritual adolescence, and onto the first stage of spiritual adulthood, SSE.

 

 

 

This is the beginning of the normal spiritual life. No longer is your soul under the control of your emotions or MAS’s. Though emotionalism still occurs and sins still occur they are more sporadic and you rebound much quicker than before.

 

You have a tremendous amount of doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness, but you also have tremendous vulnerability to the sins of arrogance and the emotional complex of sins. The rapidly advancing believer is vulnerable to failure. We will fail and even shock ourselves at times, however, the believer at SSE doesn’t put any trust in his flesh so he doesn’t fall into emotionalism or some form of repentance.

 

Self-esteem might be defined as respect for self, satisfaction with one’s self, or a good opinion of one’s self. But those are superficial definitions. Self-esteem is confidence in what you know, and how to put it into operation. What has only been a characteristic of a few great leaders in history is now available to each of us as believers.

 

Spiritual self-esteem is maximum humility and minimum arrogance. It is confidence in God, confidence in the Word of God metabolized in your soul and circulating in your stream of consciousness. It is not confidence in the energy of the flesh. Ps 118:8-9,

 

 

 

/Ps 118:8-9

It is better to take refuge in the Lord

Than to trust in man.

It is better to take refuge in the Lord

Than to trust in princes. \

 

Spiritual self-esteem is the declaration of independence of your royal priesthood. Like America through off the yoke of England so the believer at SSE has thrown off the yoke of the OSN.

 

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

 

The believer in spiritual self-esteem has learned from his own right pastor to use his own doctrine in his own stream of consciousness to solve his own problems and to answer his own questions. This is accomplished totally apart from counselling, controlling, bullying, manipulation, creating role models, or anything else.