“What is truth?” This is a question that Pilate wrestled with before the Lord Jesus in John 18:38. He was shaken when Jesus confronted him with the words, “For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.” Pilate was comfortable in a place where he determined what truth was. He enjoyed life where he testified to what was true. He didn’t need someone to testify this to him nor did he want that. This is the same place many in our world are in today. This is a position they are fighting for. Much like Israel in Judges 21:25, people want to determine what is true by their own judgment and what is right in their own eyes. They don’t need or want someone testifying to truth outside of their own. Like Pilate, they are not ready or willing to submit to the answer that Jesus has. Pilate wrestled with Jesus’ words in the same way our world does today because who Jesus is and what He says suggests that the answer to this question, “What is truth?” is not, “Whatever we want it to be!” The answer to this question comes from God. He is the Source of Truth and He has made it known through His Son.
The Psalmist said of Scripture in Ps. 119:160, “The sum of Your Word is truth.” Jesus echoed this in John 17:17, when He prayed to the Father, “Your Word is truth.” Truth is in accordance with fact. It corresponds with reality. Scripture reveals to us what is true about God, about life, about this world, about the past, present, and future, about us, about our sin, about what our sin deserves, and about the Savior. The truth about what God demands and what He has done is all found in God’s Word too and it is all true. God has displayed this not for debate or for our refusal but for our good and for us to submit to because He desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). God has told us the hard truth about our sin- that it is against Him (Ps. 51:4) and deserving of death (Ez. 18:4) that He might drive us to the Truth. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
There is no other Way – no matter how good it may feel or right it may seem (Prov. 14:12). There is no other Truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth-filled Word of God made flesh (John 1:1-14). He came to testify to what is absolutely true about God, this world, our need for Him, who He is, and what He has done. There is no Life other than what is found in Jesus Christ. We cannot determine life for ourselves. We cannot live as if our feelings are the judge, when one day, all men will stand before the Judge and be held accountable to His Truth (Heb. 9:27). His Truth is our Truth regardless of how we feel or what we believe. This is the answer we must all come to, submit to, and trust in to have life (John 10:10) and to be free indeed (John 8:36).
Trusting His Truth, Pastor Rudy