What is Truth?

[HKHaugan]

“Do You Swear to Tell The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth, So Help You God?”

 

I’m sure you remember that as a question asked of a witness in a courtroom before he gives his testimony.  Truth there means the witness is being asked to express his view of the facts as best as possible about a given situation.  Everything hangs on the moment of the testimony and the subsequent decisions of a judge and a jury.  But human beings are flawed with imperfect reason, observation and action due to sin.  There is no question that personal issues are part of the imperfect shaping of their conclusions. 

 

Sin dictates that what the world calls truth is far from it.  The world outside of God approximates truth but never gets it right.  It depends on a system of laws; civil, social, cultural, economic, psychological and personal perception, to arrive at conclusions. In conversations we are lured into believing gossip, partial knowledge, a friends’ comment, all of which are second-hand opinions out of context, to make some conclusion.  Imperfect thought and behavior read by imperfect perception and ending up in imperfect conclusions.

 

You might answer someone if they asked what they heard was really true, “To tell the truth, I’m not sure,” or probe “Was that true when you said…?” or in a question you’re asked about someone’s character you respond “Well he’s true blue” and of course, your recognition of a wise statement, “Truer words were never spoken.”

 

As disciples of Jesus we have three measures by which we discern whether or not something is true, Jesus, His Word and the Spirit of Truth.  Jesus said He is the truth.  He also said that the Word is truth and that the Spirit of truth will support the first two.  Everything else is speculation, guesswork and questionable perception at best. 

 

The best way to determine truth is through the Cross of Christ.  When Jesus gave His life on the Cross He did it in the faith that He was the Son of God and would not be left in a tomb.  His Resurrection proved Him right.  He was in fact not only the truth but the way and the life as well.  What do we conclude from this?  Truth is spiritual, personal and alive wrapped in the person of Jesus.  Therefore, it is no longer just an illusive concept, a philosophical assumption or a man’s conclusion.

 

But what about telling the truth whether it is in a court or conversation or in a passing comment?  That is where the world is everyday.  The principle here is that If Jesus is truth and He is the risen Lord then He is present in all our deliberations.  We no longer rely on our ability to tell the truth but on the Spirit of the truth to express as best we can the situation in the light of the presence of the same Spirit. What the world perceives as truth will be overcome by what really has or is taking place.  The Spirit of truth may reveal my believed but imperfect perception of an event, which in turn is thrown in the mix of the testimony of others, the mix necessary to establish what really did happen or was said or what was concluded.  And this may not happen at the moment but over a period of time. You know the saying, “In the final analysis the truth always comes out.”  And of course, when Jesus returns that is the Truth coming out and He is the light of the world exposing everything to be evaluated in Him in the final judgment.

 

How do we get to the point of letting Jesus move us to relate truthfully wherever we are?  There are three steps.  They involve belief, trust and faith.  It is belief for the mind, trust for the heart and faith for our spirit.  All involve the Holy Spirit and He is the promise Jesus fulfilled when He ascended into Heaven.  Pentecost was when we realized the eternal gift given each of us who accepted Jesus as personal Lord and Savior.  These three steps are the work of the Holy Spirit.

 

First, we allow the relationship we have with Jesus to be our focus.  We shift our mind from self-consciousness to Jesus-consciousness.  We move into the moments of our lives with the awareness of the presence of Jesus.  His presence is where we start to believe, where we start to trust and where we start to act in faith.  

 

Secondly therefore, we study His Word as the fountain of reason.  The Bible is the mind of God telling us how to adjust the way we use our mind to see the world.  The Bible conditions our mind to evaluate our experience by His principles. 

 

Thirdly, we trust and have faith in the Holy Spirit to guide us every next moment.  It is the Spirit of truth that inspires the faith to act in the reality of His presence wherever we are. 

 

Jesus is the perfect human mind, heart and spirit.  He is the way we are restored.  He is the example and the provider of our restoration.  He is the fulfillment of our restoration.  He is the truth and when Paul tells us that Jesus came to reconcile the world to Himself He is talking about our mind, our heart and our spirit.  They are the world in which He has put us and called us to be His.  We are His reconcilers.  That’s the truth.