What is Truth?
In speaking of freedom, we have noted that Jesus said:
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:32).
Freedom fails when founded on an unstable foundation. If the world view that you live within does not correspond to the way things really are, then the freedom you experience within that world view is not true freedom, but an illusion of freedom. True freedom must be founded upon the truth.
What is truth? It is common in our day to regard truth as relative. We speak of “your truth” and “my truth” as though every person can define reality the way he or she wishes. But can we really live consistently as a relativist? Even the statement, “All is relative” is an absolute statement, and thus contradicts the claim.
We could not function in our world if we did not believe in some sort of absolute truth. Does not the scientific enterprise, in which non-theists place their confidence to the exclusion of God, depend on the reliability of mathematics and consistent natural laws and constants? Does not our moving about safely from place to place depend on reliable cars and consistent traffic signals, both of which were engineered using mathematics?
In our increasingly polarized society, does anyone even act like a relativist anymore? People do not respond to one another as though they believe: “Your truth is OK for you and my truth is OK for me,” but rather they heap insults on each other through social media as if to say: “My way of looking at things is right and your way of looking at things is ridiculous and dangerous.”
Jesus said:
The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me (John 18:37).
Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus to death, responded to these words by asking cynically, “What is truth?” Ironically, he walked away without an answer when the answer was literally staring him in the face. For the man in front of him, Jesus the Christ, was the one who said:
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).
But you may say, “How arrogant to claim to be the only way!” Now you are talking like a relativist, but remember, you are not a consistent relativist. This is not the time to be a relativist. One who is lost does not want just any directions, he wants the right directions. One who is sick with cancer does not want just any treatment, she wants the treatment that will bring the cure. If you want true freedom, it must be built on the foundation of truth.
Regarding the charge of arrogance, do we not want to follow leaders who are confident of who they are and know where they are going? The words of Jesus just quoted were preceded by the question,
Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way (John 14:5)?
It was in response to this question that Jesus said:
I am the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6).
Jesus knows who he is and where he is going. In a world that is clouded with the confusion of competing ideas, he tells us, in essence, “don’t be confused—I am the way.”
Yet we do prefer our confident and competent leaders not to be arrogant. And such is the case with Jesus. He was bold but not arrogant, confident yet humble. He who was the Teacher washed his disciples’ feet (John 13:1-18). He who was sought after by the crowds took the time to have a significant conversation with a woman at the bottom of the social ladder (John 4). He who was known by all as “good” sat down to eat with “tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 18:18; Matthew 9:11).
But how can we know that Jesus is the truth? Jesus made many astounding claims about himself, such as:
I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty (John 6:35).
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12).
I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die (John 11:25).
I and the Father are one (John 10:30).
Can such statements really be true? And yet, do we not hope they are true? Do we not long to find that confident leader who truly knows who he is and where he is going, who is more than just a good leader, but Savior and Lord, who is more than just a man, but the Son of God? Do we not long to find that one who can truly satisfy our spiritual hunger, who can show us the way in this dark world, who can give to us eternal life?
Next chapter: Who is Jesus?
For further study: (click and read)
David Larson, chapter on Sincerity and Truth
Book resources:
William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith pp. 222-240