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Monday, April 24, 2017

The Way, The Truth and the Life {John 14}


By Lisa Thayer

“I am the way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (v. 6)

What is truth?  In the gospel of John, there are almost 50 references to truth – 13 in chapter 8!  I don’t want to get into a political debate because there’s a very fine line in politics about what is the truth.  We are surrounded by so many injections of what the truth is, we need a standard.  What do you use as a standard?  Do you follow a certain political platform?  Or person?  Perhaps you have a certain public figure.  Who do you follow?

I’ve brought up several times my personal interest in music.  I am not a professional musician in any way, shape or form, but at any performance or rehearsal, someone always begins the session by playing a note and everyone else tunes their instrument to that pitch.  Most of us do not have perfect pitch, so we have to listen and adjust our instruments to the pitch of the first player.  If we do not, then the music we play would be in discord.

In our world today the concept of absolute truth or a standard of truth has been discarded.  I often hear, “that’s your opinion”, or “everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, and we have to respect their opinion.”  And now we have a culture which is in chaos and confusion.  We find it difficult to convince people that Jesus is “The Truth.”  That He is our absolute truth, that He is what He claimed to be in John 14:6.

In the Old Testament when you see the word true or truth, it’s the Hebrew word Emeth, which means firmness or stability.  It’s not shakable.  It stands for faithfulness, sureness, reliability.  Truth is a key attribute of God.

“Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.  Psalm 51:6

“Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?  You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction.”  Jeremiah 5:3


God is looking for truth.  He is where you are right now, in your home, in your car, at your job, at your school.  He is looking for anyone who wants to have fellowship with Him.

“Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?  Who may live on your holy mountain?  The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart.”  Psalm 15:1-2

How do we live in truth in our world today?  We are a fallen and sinful people.  Scripture tells us over and over that we don’t meet the standard.  Psalm 5:9 says, “Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with malice.”  Isaiah 59:14-15 says, “So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance, truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.  Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.”  Jeremiah 9:3, 5 says, “They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies, it is not by truth that they triumph in the land.  They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me.  Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth.  They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning.” 

We are so out of tune!  What is the problem?  We are all liars, we twist the truth, we reject the truth, and we make up the truth.  Sometimes we even think we’re being truthful and in our hearts we are not.  We lie to ourselves, to others and to God.  We lie about ourselves, about others and about God.  We cannot fulfill the commands.  We do not and cannot tell the truth because from our hearts we are liars.  We are deceivers. 

Now don’t get discouraged here.  John 1:9 says, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.” 

Jesus says, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  John 8:32

Jesus is the only person who has ever perfectly fulfilled God’s standard of truth.  In John 8:13- 32, Jesus introduced us to the fact that not only does He speak the truth, but that He IS the Truth.  Truth is a person – Jesus is Truth!

“Here in John 14:6, Jesus is saying He is exclusive.  He is not ‘a’ truth for some, any and everybody else can have their own truth.  Anything that is not of Jesus is not the truth.  Anything that is contrary to Him is not truth no matter how true you think it to be.  Jesus is the Truth and any belief, any religion, any worldview that does not embrace Jesus for who He says He is and what He said He came to do, then that is false.  There is no truth apart from Jesus who is the truth.” (Nancy Leigh DeMoss)

We have free-will and we can reject the Truth or we can receive the Truth.  Those who are godly love the Truth.  Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:8 that truth comes from the heart.


Where do we fit in as believers?  Our culture considers it intolerant to insist on a standard that everything and everyone has to adhere to.  We hear, “it’s okay for you to believe that, but how dare you say that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.”  We have a great intolerance today until it comes to people who believe in the exclusivity of Jesus, then all of a sudden that tolerance becomes intolerant.  There’s even a tendency in evangelical circles that pit truth against qualities such as love and mercy and grace.  We tend to exalt one over the other.  Some it is love exalted over truth, grace over truth, mercy over truth.  And truth always loses.


 And then there’s some Christians who claim to love truth, but show little love, little grace, little mercy.  Truth is not incompatible with love and mercy and grace.  God’s truth is never at the expense of mercy, and His mercy is never at the expense of truth.

Both are necessary.  Proverbs 16:6 says, “Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for, through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.”  Do you have forgiveness from your sins?  It takes mercy and truth.  Psalm 85 gives us a picture of anticipating Christ.  God expressed His love and His heart for sinners by sending Jesus, the Truth to live among us.  Proverbs 14:25 says, “A truthful witness saves lives, but a false witness is deceitful.” 

We have so many distractors in the world in which we live.  We need a standard, a way to tune ourselves.  Jesus is going to outlive all the distractors.  We need to stay in tune and stay in the Word of God to know what is true.  All the other books, on the shelves are just distractors.  When you accept the truth, does your life look differently than before?  Do the people you surround yourself with see the difference in you because you speak and live by the Truth?  Can you handle the Truth?