John 14:6
John 14:66Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
JWs acknowledge — "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" — but interpret it through the Watchtower's mediator-restriction doctrine. The Watchtower teaches that Jesus is "legal mediator" only for the 144,000 anointed; the "great crowd" of "other sheep" are "beneficiaries" rather than participants in the new covenant (Watchtower, 1 Apr 1979, p. 31; Worldwide Security Under the "Prince of Peace," 1986, pp. 10-11; God's Word For Us Through Jeremiah, 2010, p. 173). The "Come to Jehovah's organisation for salvation" framing (Watchtower, 15 Nov 1981, p. 212) inserts the institution between the ordinary Witness and Christ, so that 's "through me" is mediated in practice through the Governing Body.
The NWT at reads: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Four features of the verse rule out the mediator-restriction doctrine. First, Jesus says "the way" — definite article, singular, exclusive. There is no parallel class for whom a different way or a mediating organisation is available. Second, the negation "no one comes to the Father except through me" is anthropologically total, not restricted to 144,000. Third, Jesus invites the hearer personally: "Come to me" (), "I am the vine; you are the branches" () — an architecture with no organisational trunk between vine and branch. Fourth, paired with ("one mediator between God and men... Christ Jesus") and ("propitiation for the sins of the whole world"), establishes that every believer — anointed or otherwise — approaches the Father directly through the Son. The pastoral force is immense: the Watchtower's mediator-restriction effectively inserts the organisation into exactly the place Jesus claims for himself alone. The doorstep question for the ordinary Witness is simple: is Jesus your mediator, yes or no? Most will say yes, and then discover that their own publications officially say no. See mediator-restriction, direct-relationship-with-god, universal-priesthood-1peter29, john6-68-words-of-eternal-life.