Jesus Christ is The Truth

The world is struggling with the question of truth. It seems to me that we cannot go on with life without seriously engaging the question of truth. “Is Truth Dead?” this was the question posed on the cover of ‘Time Magazine’ published on the 3rd of April 2017. One of my mentors, Mr Ntsibande intensified the weight that this question have upon my heart when he made an assertion that, there is a dearth of truth now than ever!

In order to adequately answer the question of is truth dead; we need to know what is the truth. Knowing what the truth is will help define its existence and the necessity it has in our lives. In the Christian faith, the truth is not an object, the truth is a person. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of truth. God’s divine truth is revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

The testimony of Jesus about the Truth

Pilate asked Jesus, ‘What is Truth?’ taken from the gospel of John 18:38. From chapter one, the writer of the gospel according to John already confronts his readers with the reality of truth. Thus, this question in chapter 18 becomes the climax to the theme of truth, which runs throughout the gospel of John. There is a strong parallel between who Jesus is and what truth is in the Bible. In fact, these two are one according to the gospel of John.

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32.

“So if the Son (Jesus) set you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36.

This parallelism brings the notion that what the truth does, Jesus also does. In fact, the two are used interchangeably. The gospel of John alone provides adequate proof to the assertion that Jesus Christ is the truth. This answers the burning question ‘What is truth?’

In chapter 1 of the gospel of John, we find that Jesus is full of grace and truth^[1]. In fact, Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ^[2]. The adjective “full” from verse 14 “…full of grace and truth” is important here. In Greek, it implies that Jesus is completely covered with the truth. Meaning, there is nothing that is the truth that is not in Jesus Christ. He is the truth, completely. Moreover, this is to say that we cannot add anything to Jesus as truth or we cannot go beyond Jesus Christ in seeking and finding the truth.

Jesus took it upon Himself to be known as the truth, He never left it to people to decide whether or not He is the truth. He made this point clear in the following words:

“Jesus said to him “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” John 14:6.

The above statement is definitive; it has no ambiguity in it. Jesus is taking ownership of the truth here and He makes that very clear to his listeners. When the Roman governor Pilate asked, “What is Truth?” Jesus pulled a daring and mind-blowing statement about the truth.

Jesus said, “…For this purpose, I was born and for this purpose, I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” John 18:37.

You typically “bear witness” to show that something is true, in this instance it is the truth that is attesting to Itself. His presence on its own is proof that truth exists. When modernisation scatters the puzzles of meaning and leaves us confused, here is a man, who audaciously affirms with no ambiguity that He is the true meaning of life and that He is the absolute truth.

Jesus is the embodiment of truth about life. Life and all its meaning is centralised in the person of Christ Jesus. God has manifested His True Self to humanity through His Son Jesus Christ, and the Son gives us the true meaning and essence of life.

“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.” Colossians 1:15 – 18 (MSG).

Christ is the reality that perfectly holds all things together. In Him, all things find their precise essence, true functionality and initial purpose.

The church is the custodian of the truth.

Jesus Christ is the truth and the church is the custodian of that truth. The mission of Jesus Christ is to give eternal life. This mission needed to go further than His physical existence. Thus, He formed a Body of people – the Church. The church was established by Jesus Christ upon the revelation of Who He is, Matthew 16:16-19. The church must make known the truth that has been revealed in Christ Jesus.

Jesus Christ chooses to entrust the church to maintain and advance the truth. The church is the pillar and foundation of the truth^[3]. God’s intention through the church is that His manifold wisdom might be made known^[4].

However, currently, people are questioning the truth. Some even go to the extent of denying the existence of truth. Questions about the truth are louder than the truth itself. If the church is living up to its calling, why there is so much dearth of truth as Mr Ntsibande has underlined. The question posed by Time Magazine “Is truth dead?” underscores the confusion and frustration that is in the world about the truth.

In this situation we need to ask, has the church lost the plot of being the pillar and the foundation of the truth?

If the church fails to systematically indoctrinate its members about the truth, it will fail to convict the world with the message/gospel of Jesus Christ. The assignment of the church is to know and understand God (Jeremiah 9:24, Isaiah 43:10) and make God known so that people may live by that knowledge. In fact, the church has been empowered by the Holy Spirit to do this work, (Acts 1:8). The church is the custodian of the truth. The call of the church to the truth by Jesus (the Truth) is to walk in the truth. This was the case in the early church:

“It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” 3 John 1:3-4 (NIV).

Our joy should not be elsewhere but in the faithfulness to the truth. We must not misplace our greater joy to the pleasures of this world or trade the eternal truth of the Gospel for temporal benefits and personal gain. Compromising the truth of the gospel is to undermine the work of Salvation. Being negligent with the truth of the Gospel misleads people’s faith and puts them under a wrong impression about God. This underpins the need to watch our doctrine closely and rightly divide the Word of Truth, 1 Timothy 2:15.

The church must strengthen its knowledge of the truth and increase its method of disseminating the truth in the world. We are called to contend for the truth of the gospel, Jude 1:3. Let us lift up Jesus Christ as the ultimate truth as this is the only way to live in the reality of God’s divine purpose and will for our lives. Jesus Christ promised that if we lift Him up, He would draw humanity to Himself, John 12:32.

Conclusion

Jesus Christ is the living truth. He is the standard of truth by which we measure all things; justice, love, moral, evil, good, and righteousness. If we are to live meaningful lives as people, Jesus Christ must be the centre that holds our lives. The absence of Jesus in one’s life will result in inaccurate judgement of what is the truth and how that truth reveals itself in our daily lives. The human endless struggle with the truth and its application in life end when we acknowledge that we are not autonomous beings. We need God to guide us with His divine truth – which He revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is an undying truth, for He is the same yesterday, today and forever, Hebrews 13:8. The truth is only dead in the absence of Jesus Christ but in Him we live, move and have our being, Acts 17:28. The truth that was revealed from the beginning of time (Genesis 1 and John 1), still stand today, and it will remain forever. It is an unequivocal fact that Jesus Christ is the eternally living truth for all humanity and creation.

By: Thabang T. Letsie

[1] John 1:14.

[2] John 1:17

[3] 1 Timothy 3:15

[4] Ephesians 3:10