Monday, April 27, 2015

What is Truth?

In conversation with Pontius Pilate (John 18:37, 18), Jesus said, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”   Pilates' answer to this was, "What is truth?"  I don't know if he was being sarcastic or serious, but it is a fair question.

What is Truth? Is there absolute truth? Are there many truths? Is what is not true for one, the absolute truth for someone else?

Well, yes and no. We go through our lives learning things, experiencing events and behaving in various ways and this process teaches us what things are true and good and useful and what is not. There are other things that seem to be  hard wired into us and which we feel we have little control over. It is what it is. All of these things point us to and develop our sense of what truth is and so, in that sense, truth can be a relative thing to the experiencer (if that's a word).

The reality of all this...the truth if you will...is that no matter what we experience here in this life and no matter how much we believe that we are hard wired to behave in certain ways, there is only one absolute truth and that truth is God.   

So how do we know the truth of God? There is only one way in our day and that is through revelation from Him. That revelation is His inspired, written Word delivered through various prophets, scribes and apostles and collected through divine providence as one unit known as the Bible. God's truth resides in these pages, delivered for all time. It is in the Bible that we learn of the sinful state of humanity. We learn how it all happened and we also learn the remedy. And that remedy is Jesus Christ. His teaching and His personal sacrifice make it possible for us to remove the barriers between God and ourselves. All we have to do is believe the TRUTH.

Jesus is the Christ - the Messiah - the Son of the Living God! He offered Himself in sacrifice for our sins and after His death, he rose from the grave victorious over both sin and death.

If you believe that, then you do well, because it is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man.

God is a number of things, but it all starts with His Truth. If you accept His truth, then you have faith. If you have faith in Him, then you learn to love Him and eventually others. Faith and love produce trust - trust in God and in your fellow believers. And that trust creates unity within the family of God and a general sense of joy begins to pervade the individual as well as the whole body of Christ which is His Church.  All these things are bound together in obedience to God's commands and as Jesus said, "my commands are not burdensome". 

The whole process of learning to live and love within God's Truth is an amazing journey and it has been a long one for me. I am still struggling with a few things, but I know this:

Jesus Christ is my savior and the knowledge of His Father's Truth resides in me. I am saved by His grace through faith and that....is The Truth (Ephesians 2:8)

Why not join us in the Truth...? Jesus said,

Matthew 11:28, 29 

 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

There is still time to learn the absolute truth, the flesh not withstanding. Pick up a Bible. Read the gospel of John. Read the book of Acts. Find out for yourself why, after 2000 years, the idea is still alive and then join us. 

I think this is in Isaiah...."The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of God will stand forever." 

God keeps His promises to those that believe and love Him.

He's waiting.