What Is Truth?
John 18:36–38
I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. John 18:37
The statement of Christ is preeminently a word to our own disillusioned culture.
First, it says that there is such a thing as truth and that truth is an entity. That is, truth is singular. It is not in fragments that would require us to speak of “truths” in the sense of unrelated facts or items. Truth holds together. Therefore, there is no phase of truth that is not related to every other phase of truth. All things that are true are part of the truth and stand in a proper and inescapable relationship to God, who is himself the truth.
Second, truth is not only an entity, it is objective. That is, it is there to be observed and discussed, and we can observe it and discuss it without prejudice. This is involved in Christ’s statement that he has come to bear witness to the truth, as one might to any fact submitted in a court of law. If truth is an entity and truth is objective, then religious truth is not something to be reached by a great “leap of faith.” Rather, it is something that may be studied and that will therefore inevitably throw light upon our natures and the nature of the universe. We look through the microscope of the Word to see our true condition. In that Book we find that God has done what needs to be done by sending his Son as our Savior. Jesus died for us. He rose for us. He reigns for us. That is objective truth, which may be studied and applied to our lives as any other truth can.
Third, truth must come from above, for when Jesus says that he has come to bear witness to the truth, he implies that, in the ultimate sense, truth is not of this world but rather must come to this world by revelation.
This is so of all truth, even for scientific truth. For it is God who has given us minds capable of perceiving the revelation of himself in nature and actually leads the mind to discover what is to be found there.
Fourth, in the ultimate sense the truth that comes from God has been embodied in a person. No one would ever imagine this. To us truth is abstract and may be supposed always to remain abstract. But God says that truth is personal. More than that, it is a person and this person is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word that was with God and is God. That Word has now come. The Lord is that Word. He is the One who has come to reveal all mysteries and make everything plain to those who will come to him.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.