The Way to the Son

The Way to the Son

The perfect conviction of the Spirit is of the Father, and a sinner encounters it at every turn. It points us to the Son—the atoning sacrifice. The Father does not draw to Himself but to the Son, and the Son does not draw to Himself but to the Father.

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

In all evangelical preaching, the Father draws 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.

The sinner allows himself to be drawn to the Son and in Him finds atonement for his sins and cleansing from an evil conscience. If that is enough to satisfy him, he goes no further. He looks up to Jesus as Israel looked up to 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 robber, comes in the eleventh hour. They have both agreed on one penny: the forgiveness of sins. This is the condition most Christians are in, whether they have been baptized in the Spirit or not.

The Way to the Father

The only way to begin on this way is to enter 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 receive forgiveness of sins, the baptism of the Spirit and armor to walk on the way. Unfortunately, most Christians say that Jesus went the way for us so that we don’t have to. They remain standing in the doorway and even hinder others who want to go through.

The first thing we meet on the way to the Father is the Spirit’s requirement of obedience. This requirement brings suffering according to the flesh, so by nature, we prefer to turn aside to Satan’s temptations, to him who promises freedom without obedience and the cross. This produces a division. Some go the way of obedience and enter into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, while others hate suffering and the cross and turn aside to Satan. They believe in a freedom based on Satan’s promises instead of God’s promises. This is the root of the ongoing spiritual battle taking place today.

A woman who had been saved and yet was troubled with guilt asked a leader of one of the most fashionable “free assemblies” what she should do with something she had stolen before her conversion. “I should probably return it,” she said. But can you guess what the response was?

“Are you going to try to help God with your salvation?”

When such blind instructors, who boast that they have such great purity that they wish everyone could look into their hearts, speak in such darkness to a soul plagued by her conscience, how 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 a person already desires according to his fleshly tendencies. How can such people be co-workers of God? Because they hate sufferings, obedience and the cross, they do not walk on the way to the Father, and they hinder others from doing so.

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

Jesus is the way. He does not allow any cowardly souls on this way. Only those who are bound by the Spirit may walk on it. This way is reserved for those who are willing to take up their cross daily and follow Him. Only these are His disciples, and only they can receive His knowledge. They also experience freedom, but only by the revelations of the truth, because their active hope in the obedience to the faith transforms all the suffering and tribulation in the flesh into joy. This joy is as much greater than the joy of carnal liberty as the joy of God’s children is greater than the joy of the world. Paul had tasted of these glories and he writes, “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.

What is the effect of affliction on people who say that obedience is bondage and tribulation comes from a lack of foresight? It can be nothing other than despair. But people are usually not honest enough to admit their despair; rather, they seek new comforts in new lies.

In spite of all these battles within and without, the way still leads through the Son to the Father—in other words, to perfection.

Blessed is each soul who finds the way that will lead him home.