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?
