In John 14:6 the Lord Jesus also said that He is the reality. The way needs the reality; the way without the reality means vanity. Unless the Lord is our reality, He can never be our way. Apart from the Triune God, the entire universe is vanity, having no content, no reality. The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is the reality. The reality is all that God is, which becomes the person of Christ. Christ is the reality of the divine things. This reality came through Him and becomes the realization of God to us. If we were to call on a name other than that of the Lord Jesus, we would not have a way into God, because all other names are void of reality. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we are immediately on the way into God because the Lord is the embodiment of the Triune God, who is the unique reality in the universe. Therefore, when we call on the name of Jesus, we receive something real into us.
The reality we receive by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus is the being and the doing of the Triune God. First, this reality is the incarnated God (1:1, 14). This reality is also the Son (8:32, 36) and the Spirit (14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:7). Hence, the reality is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Furthermore, this reality includes what the Triune God has done. The reality is whatever the Triune God has accomplished. This is the gospel (Eph. 1:13). The reality, therefore, is the very being of the Triune God and what He has done.
In the universe only what God is and what God does is real. This means that the reality in the universe is God’s being and God’s doing. God’s being is in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and His doing is redemption. In the gospel He is everything and has done everything necessary for us to contact Him. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we receive this universal reality.
The reality is actually the way, and the way is the destination. When we get on the way, we reach the destination. This means that when we receive Jesus, we have the Father. When we receive Christ the Son as the way, we have the Father as the destination. Because Christ the Son is the embodiment of the Father, when we call on the name of the Lord, we have both the Son and the Father. This is the reality becoming the way. This is Christ the Son with what He has done becoming our way into the Father. When we call on the Lord’s name, we get on this way and we have the Father.
In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus went on to say that He is the life. The reality needs life. If it is a dead reality, it is still vanity. It must be a living reality. The Lord Jesus is life to us. Christ as this life brings us the reality, and the reality becomes the way for us to enter into the Father. Firstly Christ is our life. Then this life brings us all the reality of the Godhead. Eventually, this reality of the Godhead is the way for us to get into the Father. When the Lord is life to us, then we have the reality. When the Lord is our reality, then we have the way for us to get into the Father. If the Lord is going to be our way, He must be our reality, and if He is going to be our reality, He must be our life. By having Him as life, we have Him as our reality, and by having Him as our reality, we have Him as our way into the Father. The Lord Himself is the way, this way is the reality, and the reality is in the life.
Reality is the divine life, and the divine life, which is eternal life, is the Triune God. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, the Triune God comes into us to be our life. Therefore, the life in 14:6 signifies the Triune God within us (Eph. 4:18; Col. 3:4a; Rom. 8:2a, 6b). When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we experience the Triune God within us as life. In other words, when we call on the Lord Jesus, we sense that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are in us. We have something living, moving, and acting within us. This is the Triune God within us as the divine life. This life brings us the reality, and the reality is the way for us to enter into God. When we are on the way—Christ the Son, we are also at the destination—God the Father.
In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus clearly said, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Because Christ is the way, the reality, and the life, when we have Him, we have the life, the reality, and the way. Life is the divine element of the person of Christ. If we have Christ, we possess the divine element, which is His divine constitution of all the attributes of what God is. In regeneration we have received this life, and in the growth of the divine life through sanctification, renewing, and transformation, we participate in the reality of Christ, which is the way for us to enter into the Father’s house as the Body of Christ, which is the Father’s house that consummates the New Jerusalem.