John 18:37-38,
"Pilate therefore said unto him, Art
thou a king then? Jesus
answered, Thou sayest that I
am a king. To this end was I
born, and for this cause
came I into the world, that I
should bear witness unto
the truth. Every one that is of
the truth heareth my
voice. Pilate saith unto him,
What is truth? And
when he had said this, he went
out again unto the
Jews, and saith unto them, I
find in him no fault at
all."
This morning, there is a common
misconception the
world over. It is the answer to
the query of Pilate
about what is truth. Man has
been pondering that
thought it seems since the dawn
of time. Both Bible
characters and worldly
philosophers and writers have
queried this same thing for
centuries. The very sad
thing is that man (as a whole)
seems to know less and
less about the truth with each
passing generation.
Each generation gets worse and
worse and more and more
ignorant. Therefore, what is
truth?
There are many
modern religions and philosophies
that say that truth is whatever
you feel it to be.
That very explanation goes
against the definition of
truth itself. Truth itself is
the truth no matter
what anyone thinks. For example,
nobody has to
believe in the law of gravity,
but that unbelief does
not keep gravity from holding
man on the ground. If a
man is silly enough to say, "I
don't believe in
gravity, so I can jump off this
bridge." He is still
going to fall to the earth
anyway. Likewise, the
truth is ALWAYS the same whether
some, all, or none
believe in it.
Also, the truth
does not change over
time. There are things that
change over time, but
something absolutely true does
not change. Perhaps
that is what the world does not
understand the most.
Truth is an absolute, and God
(Absolute) is the Author
of it. So, now that we
understand what truth is not,
what is it? Christ says that He
is the way, THE
truth, and the life. (John 14:6)
We are told that He is FULL of
grace and truth. (John 1:14) If
He is something and full of it,
then there is
nothing in Him that is in error.
He
cannot lie, because that would
go against His very
nature and existence. So, if
Christ is truth, then
the things that He did are
absolute as well. If He
died for us, then there is
nothing that can be done to
unravel that work. For example,
death is absolute.
Unless the Lord returns first,
all of us will die a
natural death. Since that does
not change, nothing
can stop that
from occurring.
We try to keep
ourselves in good condition, see
the doctor when we
are sick, have surgery if the
situation calls for it,
but nothing (short of the Lord)
can stop us from
dying. Likewise, since there is
nothing higher than
God, nothing shall keep Him from
His purpose that He
has in His Son. Therefore, we
can boldly say that
nothing shall separate us from
the love of God. What
is truth? It is
Jesus Christ Himself.
In Hope,
Bro Philip
|