It cannot be emphasised strongly enough that the most important word in the Bible is not Jesus, nor even God, but the word “I.” Everything turns on this. When Jesus says, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life,” he is not making a statement about religious belonging or demanding belief in a historical figure. He is revealing something far more radical: identity itself.
For centuries, the institutional Christian church has largely misinterpreted this statement by assuming that the “I” refers exclusively to the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth. Yet the Master repeatedly refused to anchor truth in personality. He redirected attention away from the personal self and toward the indwelling Father — away from the messenger and toward the message that can only be recognised from within.
The “I” that is the Way is not personal. It is the universal I AM, the ground of your Being. To encounter this “I” is not to adopt a belief system but to undergo a profound reorientation of identity. The Way is not something to follow externally. It is something to awaken to as who you already are.
This understanding reframes everything Jesus taught about life, salvation, and union with God. Salvation is not a future reward granted for correct belief or behaviour. It is the release from the illusion of separation. It is the direct KNOWING of the indwelling Presence that has never left you.
The personal “I am” is not who you are — it is the veil that obscures the universal “I AM.”
The suffering of the human condition arises from identification with the personal self — the story made of memory, emotion, and fear. The revelation of the true I does not fix this personality; it transcends it. This is why the Master spoke of dying in order to live. Not the death of the body, but the death of false identity.
When the restless activity of self-thinking and self-willing falls silent, something profound occurs. When intellect and will grow quiet and receptive, the Eternal is no longer experienced as “other.” God is known directly — not as an object of belief, but as Presence. This practice is the abiding in Be still and KNOW that I AM from the psalms.
When you stand still from the thinking of self and the willing of self… then the eternal hearing, seeing, and speaking will be revealed in you.
— Jacob Boehme
This is what Jesus meant by eternal life. It is not something earned later. It is the ever-present grace revealed when the personal “I am” yields to the universal I AM. The experience often described as Heaven within is simply the recognition of this truth. Heaven is not a place and not a time. It is the state of Being one with God.
Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being one with God.
— Meister Eckhart
To KNOW this is not to believe something new. It is to remember what has always been true. KNOWING, in this sense, is not intellectual understanding. It is revelation. When you KNOW, you are the KNOWING itself. This is the Way the Master pointed to. This is the Way into the direct experience of eternal life. And this is the invitation that Christianity Without Fear offers — not as belief, but as KNOWING, not as something to be earned in the future, but as the ever-present grace here and now.
If something in this reflection has stirred a quiet recognition, you may wish to explore the wider Core Principles that shape what it means to live a life more abundant. These principles are not offered as beliefs to adopt or ideals to strive toward, but as simple orientations that return us to Presence, to KNOWING rather than effort, and to the natural unfolding of LIFE as it is lived from Being rather than fear. Together, they form a gentle pathway within Christianity Without Fear, inviting a way of living that is rooted, spacious, and already nearer than we imagine.