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Joh_14:6. I (no other than I) am the way, on which men must go, in order to come to the Father in His heavenly house, Joh_14:2-3, and the truth, and the life. But since no one, without going the prescribed way, without having appropriated the truth to himself, and without bearing in himself the life, can come to that goal, οὐδεὶς , κ . τ . λ ., is thus the exponent to all three particulars, not merely to the first. The three moments lay down the proposition that no other than Christ is the Mediator of eternal salvation with God in the Messianic kingdom, according to three several characteristic aspects which are co-ordinated, yet in such a way that the advance is made from the general to the particular. The characteristic of the mediation of salvation, in the first point, is not designated with reference to matter (as in ἡ ἀλήθεια and ἡ ξωή ), but as to form, in so far, namely, as the mediation of salvation itself is therein expressed in a specific figure (comp. Joh_10:9). On individual points, note: (1) Christ is the Way, not because He ὑπέδειξε τὴν ὁδόν (Cyril. Melanchthon, and many others), whereby both the expression and the figure are departed from, and the relation of things is not sufficiently attended to, but because in His personal manifestation the mediation of salvation is objectively given, absolutely the sole mediation for all men, but which has to be made use of subjectively, that is, by faith on Him, like the man who is aiming at a goal, and for that purpose must take and pursue the given way which is the means of its attainment. (2) Christ is the Truth, because He is the self-revelation of God which has been manifested (Joh_14:7; Joh_14:9), the Light that is come into the world, without the appropriation of which salvation is not obtained. (3) He is the Life (Col_3:4), because He is the Principle and Source of eternal life (in its temporal development and future consummation); so that whoever has not received Him into himself by faith (Joh_6:50-51, Joh_11:25-26), has become a prey to spiritual and eternal death; comp. Ignatius, ad Trall. 9 : οὗ χωρὶς τὸ ἀλήθινον ζῆν οὐκ ἔχομεν ; ad Ephesians 3 : Χριστὸς τὸ ἀδιάκριτον ἡμῶν ζῆν . These three points are not to be separated according to time (Luther: beginning, middle, end; so also Calvin), but Christ is all three at once,—in that He is the one, He is also the second and the third,—although this cannot justify an arbitrary fusion of the three predicates (as would be the Augustinian vera via vitae).
οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται , κ . τ . λ .] the Johannean sola fide. Note how Joh_14:6 is the summary of the most perfect self-confession of the Son regarding Himself and His work.