Illusive Truth

truth

Truth is a Person

Pilate replied, ‘But you are a king then?’ ‘Yes,’ Jesus said. ‘I was born for that purpose. And I came to bring truth to the world. All who love the truth are my followers.’ ‘What is truth?’ Pilate exclaimed.” John 18:37,38 The Living Bible

 

In the short but dramatic interaction with the Roman governor Pilate, Jesus is asked a life-altering question. It’s an inquiry still being asked sincerely today, and the correct answer to it touches every important issue in life.

The Jewish leaders turn Jesus over to this politician. “What are your charges against him,” Pilate asks. Their response is anything but helpful: “We wouldn’t have brought him to you if he were not a criminal” they say.

So in his brief interrogation of Jesus he discovers that Jesus represents a kingdom, albeit, not an earthly kingdom. “So you are a king then?” queries Pilate.

Jesus replied, “That’s what you would call it. But my purpose for coming into the world was to testify to the truth. Those who love truth will recognize the truth in what I say.”

Pilate doesn’t realize he is speaking for mankind throughout the history of the world when he asks, “What is truth?” He asks this of the One who claimed to be “the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (John 14:6) Jesus had no hesitation claiming to speak truth because He is truth.

The truth that He offers us has the ability to set us free. (John 8:32)

There are those who believe that truth is in the hands of the beholder. That’s hardly comforting! There are many truths that science has helped us with. For instance, the ‘truth’ that the earth is flat has been firmly debunked. So has the belief that the sun rotates around us. Those were false perceptions and without real truth, perceptions can continue unchallenged.

Truth (not personal perceptions or convenient preferences) needs no defense. It stands just fine on its own. Winston Churchill said: “The truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end … there it is.”

This week truth stands before us in the person of a Man. There’s a lot we can do with this truth. We can miss it, ignore it, hide it, hide from it, attempt to modify it or simply deny its very existence. We do these things at great harm to ourselves.

Embrace truth … live in it. God knows how desperately we need truth to free us from all that shackles us and holds us back from realizing our destiny in Him.

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