“Lord, to whom shall we go?”

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I have always loved this moment in the Gospel of John. Many people had just walked away from Jesus when His teaching became difficult. Jesus then turned to the Twelve and essentially asked, “Are you leaving too?” Peter’s response is both real and memorable: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

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It is real because Peter does not elevate himself above those who just left. He simply speaks the raw truth. “To whom shall we go?” is the language of someone who knows his own weakness and who has already weighed the emptiness of the alternatives.

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It is memorable because when we allow Peter’s confession to truly sink in and become our own, it rings unmistakably true. For the person who has genuinely come to know Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6), who has tasted the heavenly gift (Hebrews 6:4–5), and who has experienced the grace of the Lord (1 Peter 2:3), returning to the mire is no longer an option. Once you have been to the mountaintop, the substitutes lose their appeal.

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You have probably heard the saying, “You don’t realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” Consider these related reflections:

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“Once you realize Jesus is everything, ‘to whom shall we go?’ is no longer a question; it’s a confession.”

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“Once you realize Jesus is everything, ‘to whom shall we go?’ is no longer a question but a settled conclusion.”

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We were made to be reconciled to Christ and to live in intimacy with Him. God’s plan of redemption, planned from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8), finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. That plan reaches its climax at the cross. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18). 

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When you truly understand who Jesus is, walking away from Him becomes unthinkable. He is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (John 6:69). Praise God that the One who has the words of eternal life has been made known to us.