Tag: #MyTruth

The Truth (Part 2)

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In Part 1 of “The Truth”, I shared that Jesus stated in John 14:6 “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me.”  I also shared that my take away from the story of Abraham’s servant seeking a bride for Isaac was that God told Abraham the “truth” and then God followed through on His promises to Abraham.  As I continued studying the Scriptures about truth in the New Testament, I found some other interesting facts.

First, in John 4, Jesus told the woman at the well that the hour was coming when the “true worshippers” of God will worship the Father in “spirit and in truth.”  This means that we don’t just have a “feeling” about God, but that we worship knowing the “truth”.  We are told in John 4:24 that “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit AND in TRUTH.”  So, again, we would have to know the “truth” to worship correctly.  If Jesus is the TRUTH, then we have to know Jesus to worship God correctly.  Yes, this seems like a narrow way, but didn’t Jesus tell us that the way was narrow and that He was that way (again, John 14:6)? 

Jesus stated some pretty bold things, and some things that may be hard to accept.  This leads me to ask a question?  Why should we trust what Jesus said?  He could have been a madman, in which case we shouldn’t believe him.  He also could have been an outright liar.  However, when reading Scripture, it does not appear that even his enemies could find fault with him, nor did they believe he was mad; so this conclusion (Jesus being a madman or a liar) does not seem possible.  That leaves us with only one conclusion: Jesus was who He said He was… The Son of God.  Thus, if Jesus tells us something, we should believe it as if God is saying it. 

Jesus’ position was proven through His resurrection, which was not only predicted by himself but also by Old Testament prophecies; and then it came to pass.  So, if Jesus states that we need to worship in Spirit and Truth and that He is the Truth, it seems pretty obvious that we are to worship God through Jesus Christ making us “TRUE worshippers.”  Ponder this for a moment.  I have to ask myself, “Am I a ‘True worshipper’ of God through His Son Jesus Christ?”

Later in John 8, Jesus uses the word ‘truth’ multiple times.  He says, “If you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall KNOW the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall make you free.”  Somehow, just knowing this ‘truth’ will bring us freedom. 

Jesus goes on to tell those who are listening to him that he is telling them the ‘truth’ and that those who do not believe in Jesus Christ are not abiding “in the truth”.  Later Jesus makes His famous statement, “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  He also told his disciples that after Jesus died, the Father would give them the “Spirit of truth, which is the Comforter”.  So, Jesus is the truth, but the Holy Spirit is also the truth.  In believing in a triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, this statement about Jesus being the truth and the Holy Spirit being the truth implies (With all of the other evidence that the Bible supplies) that God is also truth.  Doesn’t this just speak to how important truth should be for us as those created in His image?

In John 15, Jesus tells us that this Spirit of truth will testify of Jesus Himself and that when the Spirit of truth comes, He (the Spirit which is a personal being) will guide you into ALL TRUTH.”  Jesus finishes speaking to His disciples in John 17 and prays for them and then for those who will later believe on Him.  He prays that God will “sanctify them [those believers] through God’s truth” stating that “God’s Word is truth.”  Remember in John 1, John stated “We saw that Jesus was the Word made flesh.”  Again, we see that Jesus is truth! 

When Jesus was taken before Pilate, this notion of truth became a point of confusion for Pilate.  Pilate asked Jesus if he were a king.  Jesus replied, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.  Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice.”  At this statement, Pilate asked that question that we all want to know, “What is truth?” 

This is a question that we all must answer for ourselves.  It is my firm belief, based on the evidence given in the Scriptures, that we can know the answer to this question when asking about the truth of our origin, our purpose for life, our morality, and our destiny.  However, we first must ask ourselves, do we believe in the God who gives us the truth.  Jesus stated to Pilate, “Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice.”  That is a very bold statement and definitely worth pondering; thus, I will leave this thought to be pondered today.  Do you hear the voice of Jesus Christ?  Do you want to hear the voice of God?  Do you want to be “of the truth?”

Look for Part 3 of “The Truth” for more insight from the Scriptures about what God says about “truth”.

The Truth (Part 1)

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I have not written in a while as I organized an event for Teens called a Teen Apologetics Conference.  Why would I do this?  The message that the Lord gave me to share with these teens is TRUTH.  As Christians, we need to know what we believe and why we believe it.  However, if what we believe is not the truth, why would we believe it?  This quest for truth became my mission for a few years now.  We know that Jesus tells us, “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me.”  (John 14:6)  However, how does one define truth?

The answer to this question gets very complicated in our American culture today.  Many will say, “Well, your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth.”  Others will say, “Truth is relative.”  Others will say, “No one can know the truth.”  And, yet, others will say, “I have all of the truth.”  Some say that we live in a post-truth society now. 

When I ask this question, as with any question pertaining to life, I have to ask, “What does God say about truth?”  I want to hold forth the Word of Life and let God speak for Himself.  I began studying this subject by doing a word search on the word “truth” in the entire Bible.  I found that in Matthew 22,the Pharisees were questioning Jesus and they said, “We know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth.”  However, from the conversation, it seems apparent that these Pharisees did not truly believe this and were out to tempt Jesus, to entangle Him in His speech.  Jesus did not fall into their trap.  Later in that same chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells these Pharisees that the greatest commandment in the law is to “…Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”  (Matthew 22:37)  Isn’t that interesting?  Jesus told them to love God with their minds.  That means they have to “think” about what Jesus is saying.  This love of Jesus is not just heartfelt, but it is an intelligent love.  If this love is to be intelligent, it would seem that the truth would be important.

The next major find when studying the word “truth” from Scriptures is in the book of John.  The word “truth” is used in 22 verses.  The first occurrence is in John 1:14 when John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among the disciples, and that this Word was full of grace and truth.  It is interesting that grace and truth are combined in this phrase.  A few verses later, in verse 17, John tells us that the “law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”  In other words, TRUTH came by Jesus Christ.  What does this mean?  We are then told by Jesus Himself in John 3:21 that “He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”  So, if we “do” the truth, we will come to some understanding. 

I have so much more to share from John, but this thought came to mind in my reading at this point.  I wondered what the Old Testament had to say about truth.  The first use of the word truth occurs in Genesis 24.  Abraham was getting very old.  He wanted a wife for his son Isaac, the Son of promise.  Since Abraham did not want his son to marry the Canaanite women, he sent his servant, who is unnamed in this chapter, to Abraham’s own family in the land of Ur to take a wife from Abraham’s own kindred for Isaac.  When the servant asked if he should take Isaac to this land if he could not find a wife, Abraham told him to promise that he would not do this.  The promised land (the Canaanite land) was promised to Abraham, and although he did not yet own the land, Abraham acted on faith that this was his land.  Isaac was to stay on this land promised to Abraham’s seed.  So, the servant went to look for a wife for Isaac.

Abraham’s servant arrived at the land of Ur and he asked God for kindness for Abraham.  He prayed very specifically about how to know which “damsel” would be the wife for Isaac.  The servant  asked God to show him the woman to be Isaac’s wife by having the damsel let down her pitcher of water to the servant and offering him a drink and then offering drink to the camels as well, if she were the one to be Isaac’s wife.  Immediately after his very specific prayer, the servant ran to where he saw a damsel and asked her for a little water.  This damsel (whose name was Rebekah) did exactly what the servant prayed, nothing lacking.  She offered the servant water AND offered to give the camels drink, and kept drawing water for the camels until they were finished drinking.  Then the servant asked this damsel whose daughter she was.  She told him that she was from Abraham’s family.  The servant was awestruck.  Genesis 24:26-27a says, “And the man [this servant] bowed down his head, and worshipped the LORD.  And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his MERCY and his TRUTH…” 

Genesis 24:27 has the first use of the word TRUTH in it in the Old Testament and this word is tied directly to the word MERCY.  God provides both mercy and truth.  God’s truth that He would give the promised land to Abraham’s and then his son Isaac’s seed.  Isaac needed a wife for this to happen.  Abraham knew that God had promised the land of Canaan to him, not to the descendants of Canaan.  Abraham walked by faith in following God, even if in his lifetime he did not inherit the land from the Canaanites.  Still, Abraham walked in faith that what God spoke to him was the truth.  God had promised Abraham the land and many seed, in fact, so many that his seed would be like the number of stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5).  Since Abraham believed God (and this was counted unto him for righteousness (Romans 4:3)), Abraham sent to find a wife for his son Isaac that would carry on the family line.  He also took measures to be sure that the son remained in the land promised to him.  So, we see that Abraham’s servant understood all of this and then declared that the LORD God did not let Abraham down, but He provided Abraham both mercy and truth. 

This is the takeaway for me: God told Abraham the truth and He brought what He promised to pass.  This scene of Abraham sending the servant to get a bride for Isaac the son is exactly a picture of what the Holy Spirit does on God’s behalf for Jesus in the New Testament.  God sent Jesus here to show the way, but then Jesus was resurrected to be seated at the right hand of His Father forever.  Jesus told us in John 14-17 that when He would return to His Father, God would send the Holy Spirit to lead people to the truth, the truth of Jesus Christ and God’s promises.  He also told us that the truth would set us free.  (John 8:32)  In Ephesians 5 we are told that marriage is a picture of Christ and the church, with Christ being the groom and the church being the bride.  So, the Holy Spirit is sent to draw us to Jesus Christ, and ultimately to God the Father.  Jesus is not meant to come back here forever.  Rather, we are to be taken to live in His kingdom, whatever that may look like. 

The truth is, God loves us and He desires that we fellowship with Him forever.  He won’t force us, just as Abraham’s servant didn’t force Rebekah (read the rest of the story for yourself and see the beautiful ending to this story).  However, the Holy Spirit guides us to the truth of God’s love.  The Holy Spirit, called the Spirit of Truth, shows us the truth of Jesus Christ and His purpose on the earth.  The truth is Jesus Christ Himself.  There is so much more to say about this in the Scriptures, but I will leave it with this for now… seek the Truth, and God will reveal it to you.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me.”  (John 14:6)  So, when you are trying to find the meaning of truth, be sure to take into account the one who was bold enough to call Himself TRUTH. 

In Part 2 “The Truth” more of the New Testament passages on the subject of truth will be explored.  Look for it soon.