What is Truth?
"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?" John 18:37-38
"What is Truth?" asked Pilate. Men have asked this question from generation to generation without hope of an answer, "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." 2 Timothy 3:7
Jesus Christ is the truth, but men do not except Him as truth, and therefore continue in darkness. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6.
The Truth comes to a man only through the Holy Spirit, no man can of himself find it out. "And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth." 1 John 5:6. "And when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:" John 16:13.
Truth must be sought after, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Matthew 7:7-8
Truth can be attained, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:31-32.
Truth is a hard way to follow, therefore few men go on to perfection. "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matthew 7:13-14
Truth is infinite, it is deeper than you know. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." Romans 11:33-36
A warning for those who would reject truth, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Who changed the truth of God into a lie..." Romans 1:18,25. "That they all might be damned who believed not the truth..." 2 Thessalonians 2:12. "...men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth..." 1 Timothy 6:5.
"I am the way." Christ spans the distance between God and the sinner. Man would fain manufacture a ladder of his own, and... climb up to God. But that is impossible. That is the way which seems right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death (Proverbs 14:12). It is Satan who would keep the exercised sinner on his self-imposed journey to God.
What faith needs to lay hold of is the glorious truth that Christ has come all the way down to sinners. The sinner could not come to God, but God in the person of His Son has come out to sinners. He is the Way, the Way to Heaven, the Way to eternal blessedness.
"I am the truth." Christ is the full and final revelation of God. Adam believed the Devil's lie, and ever since then man has been groping amid ignorance and error. "The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble" (Proverbs 4:19). "Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Ephesians 4:18).
A thousand systems has the mind devised... "There is none that understandeth" (Romans 3:11)... Truth is not to be found in a system of philosophy, but in a Person, Christ is "the truth;" He reveals God and exposes man. In Him are hid "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). What tremendous folly to ignore Him! ...with all your learning have you bowed before Him who is the Truth?"
"I am the life." Christ is the Emancipator from death. The whole Bible bears solemn witness to the fact that the natural man is spiritually lifeless. He walks according to the course of this world; he has no love for the things of God. The fear of God is not upon him, nor has he any concern for His glory. Self is the center and circumference of his existence.
He is alive to the things of the world, but he is dead to heavenly things. The one who is out of Christ exists, but he has not spiritual life... The one who believes in Christ has passed out of death unto life (John 5:24). "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life" (John 3:36). Then turn to Him who is the Life.
"I am the way." Without Christ men are Cains, wanderers. "They are all gone out of the way" (Romans 3:12). Christ is not merely a Guide who came to show men the path in which they ought to walk: He is Himself the Way to the Father. "I am the truth." Without Christ men are under the power of the Devil, the father of lies. Christ is not merely a Teacher who came to reveal to men a doctrine regarding God: He is Himself the Truth about God.
"He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." "I am the life." Without Christ men are dead in trespasses and sins. Christ is not merely a Physician. . . "I am come," said He, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).
"No man comes unto the Father but by Me" (John 14:6). Christ is the only way to God. It is utterly impossible to win God's favor by any efforts of our own (Exposition of the Gospel of John).
