Biblical Truth and Reconciliation

Introduction

So I was looking at the calendar and planning my preaching schedule when I noticed that this Sunday is the day after “Truth and Reconciliation Day.” Now some of you may be stressed hearing me bring that up, but rest assured that I’m not planning on getting political here. No, I read those words on my calendar and it got me thinking honestly about the irony of our culture being the one to start a holiday called Truth and Reconciliation day.

Maybe I’m the only one, but to me it seems like our current culture has no respect for the words “truth” and “reconciliation.” We see lies everywhere and constant division and us verses them mentality. I mean, I’ve only lived for three decades, but it seems like public discourse has gotten worse and worse over even just the last five years.

So how did this happen? How do we find ourselves in this current cultural moment? Well I think it’s important to remind ourselves first that as Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun. We are not living in unprecedented times where people are more sinful than ever. People have always been sinful, and so cultures have always been dominated by sinful people with ideas contrary to God’s plans. As Joel reminded me in a conversation we had the other day it can’t be as bad as before the flood when there were only 8 righteous people and “every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time.”

So it’s not a matter of now verses the past that we want to evaluate. No I think it’s more productive and more appropriate for the pulpit to rather ask the question, what does the Bible have to say about this? I think it’s valuable to evaluate our culture and its ideas so that we can see how it differs from what God said in His word and how we can take steps to make sure we’re following God and not the crowd. So to that end I thought it would be productive to compare the world’s view of Truth with God’s view of Truth, and then do the same with reconciliation, which I will break down into two categories: reconciliation with God and reconciliation with people. Again, not about the holiday Truth and Reconciliation day, but about the current cultural definition of those words.

Truth

Let’s start with truth. How do we define the word “truth”? What does it mean for something to be true? First let’s look at what the world says about truth and the consequences of what they say. Of course whenever I talk about “the world” or “culture” or “people” I have to speak in generalities. I can’t speak for every individual person. So what I say isn’t going to be an accurate description of every human being on the planet, obviously.

I think to understand where we are in this conversation we need to talk about where we have been. Well for a long time there was an optimism about mankind’s ability to discover truth. There was a revolution in the science community and a firm belief that through the scientific method people could discover every truth and know all things. This led to widespread adoption of empericism and naturalism, the idea that the only things that are actually true are the ones that can be confirmed by scientifically verifiable evidence, and the idea that only that which is observed in nature is real. This led naturally to a rejection of Spiritual truth in academic circles and the rise of athiesm. Even though most people even to today still believe that there is a God, universities, philosophers and other authorities created a firm seperation between Spiritual Truth and Scientific Truth and created an artificial divide between “faith and reason.”

Why do I bring all this up? Well what a lot of these thinkers didn’t seem to realize is that as soon as you ditch God you lose all grounding for objective truth. Objective truth meaning truth that exists no matter what you believe. In other words, objective truth would be saying that the earth is round. No matter how many people believe the earth is flat, it will always in actual truth be round. But if you have no authority that stands outside of human experience than we start to face some tough questions. What happens when people disagree about what is true? What happens with truths that you can’t prove or disprove with the scientific method?

This led to the current philosophy du jour, relativism. The conclusion that many philosophers and professors came to is that truth isn’t discovered, it’s constructed. That means that you don’t go out into the world and see what things are actually true and believe according to your senses and reason, rather human beings in conversation with one another decide what is true.

So you might be wondering, Josh why are you spending time on this really abstract university level philosophy? Most people don’t even think about this kind of thing day to day. Well I think it’s actually more important than it might seem at first blush, because what philosophers teach at university they pass on to their students and the consequences of those beliefs trickle out into society until suddenly we’re living with the consequences of these philosophies without it being immediately clear where they came from.

Where we see this most is in public discourse about what is right and wrong. Where once there would be an appeal to the Bible and to God to determine what is right, even from people who were Christians in name only, now there are appeals to something called “my truth.” I’m speaking my truth, live your truth, et cetera. The idea that what is true for one person isn’t necessarily true for another. And this is why people who disagree today have such a hard time having anything close to a productive discussion. Because you’ll be arguing about something like sexuality, abortion, race, foreign policy, whatever it may be, and you can’t make sense of what the other person is saying because you think your disagreement is about the issue at hand but really the problem is that you have completely different conceptions of what is true.

Then if you truly believe that truth is constructed by groups, the inevitable result is that competing groups come up with different truths. So whose truth wins? The one with the most power and influence of course. So public discourse becomes a competition at best and a war at worst between two sides to see who will get the most power. This is why we hear things like “words are violence” and why there is so much push to silence people who dissent from the popular opinion. Because their voice in the conversation is actually threatening to make the things they believe true in the postmodern view of truth. Maybe you personally don’t run into this at all, maybe you don’t use social media much and your friends think the same way you do, fair enough. But what about your children? Your grandchildren? What are they hearing on tiktok or from their friends at school?

So what is our hope in this crazy post truth landscape we find ourselves in? Where can we place our feet that will give us a more solid foundation and lead to the ability to actually come to a knowledge of what is true? As in all things we need to place our hope in God and in His son Jesus Christ. We need to undo the modern mistake of seperating God and the Bible from any discussion about what is true. So what does the Bible say about truth? Well that’s what our raison d’etre is today. We as disciples of Jesus believe as He did that the Bible is God’s word, so let’s see what God says about the nature of truth, to what degree it can be known, and how we can know it.

Well first of all, truth is founded not on ideas but on the person of God, and in particular in Jesus Christ. Let’s take alook together at John 14:6

John 14:6 CSB

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

A familiar verse, no doubt. Now in context, Jesus had just told the disciples that He was going somewhere that they couldn’t follow (meaning His ascension after the crucifixion and resurrection) and saying that although they don’t know where He’s going but they knew the way to get there. When Thomas asks how they can know the way if they don’t know where He’s going, Jesus replies with this.

For our purposes today we’re concerned most with His statement “I am… the truth.” What does it mean for Jesus to say that He is the truth. Not just a truth, the truth. Well by saying this Jesus is making a claim that the grounding of all truth is in Him. He is the foundation for truth and all things that He says and does are true, and all things that are true are true in Him.

So if Jesus is the truth, than how do we know what’s true? By the words of Jesus. This is why throughout the gospels you will hear Jesus saying “truly I tell you,” because His word is true. And Jesus and God have both spoken in the Bible that we hold in our hands. So to know God’s Word is to know truth, and it is knowable by reflection on God’s word together, discovering what is there for us to read.

So in contrast to the moral landscape we find ourselves in now, where people are left to discover truth on their own and constantly clashing on competing definitions of good and evil, right and wrong, if we found our beliefs in Jesus and on His truth we surrender our own selfish ambitions and live by an objective moral standard outside of ourselves that teaches us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love others as ourselves.

We still have a problem here though. When we look honestly at God’s Word and His standard for what is good, we find that we don’t measure up. We find that we are all hopelessly unworthy of God, and we find ourselves still constantly struggling against one another and sinning against one another. So the truth isn’t enough, we also need to be reconciled to God and to each other.

Reconciliation: God and People

So what is the current cultural outlook on reconciliation between God and mankind? Well according to the dominant view on this issue there is no reconciliation necessary at all between God and Men. A minority of people would say this because on their view there is no God, so there’s no one to be held accountable to.

For a larger portion of the population there’s a much stranger view at play here. Based on secular philosophies that are rooted in athiesm, there are people who on the one hand believe that there is a higher power, still the most popular view, but that human beings are somehow the ones who construct truth. Meaning they decide what is right and wrong for them. They are the ultimate authority on what is sinful.

Now if an individual is deciding what is sinful, how often do you think the things they declare as sinful are the things they themselves are practicing? Not very often. These same kinds of people usually also believe that all roads lead to heaven, since what’s true for them isn’t necessarily true for others, so as long as that person is loving and tolerant they can get to heaven too, even if they’re worshipping an entirely different God or no God at all.

Now don’t ask how being loving and tolerant are the only absolute standard, and on whose authority.

This leads to all kinds of problems and contradictions. How can God only exist for you and not for other people? Wouldn’t that contradict the very definition of the word “God”? How can the Bible be authoritative in any sense if you are the one who is deciding which parts of it are truly inspired?

What the Bible teaches is that there cannot be reconciliation without atonement and repentance. You see the Bible teaches that God is Holy and Just. He cannot just ignore evil and leave it unpunished. Since we are all sinful and corrupt than we all earn the penalty for sin, which is death. So how do we get out of paying the penalty for our sins? The only way is if someone were to take the punishment on our behalf. But this person must have the authority to stand in our place. They must be innocent, or else they couldn’t pay for someone else’s crimes without paying first for their own. And their righteousness would have to exceed the debt of sin that all of humanity owes in order to pay for it.

Well there’s only one man who fits this criteria: Jesus Christ. He died for our sins and made it so that we can be reconciled to God. We read in Romans 5:6-11

Romans 5:6–11 CSB

For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

So the Bible way is the only way to actually be reconciled to God, because it’s the only way that acknowledges the truth of what we’ve done wrong and the truth of the atonement. And not only that, but while we agree that God accepts everyone as they are, we don’t believe that God wants to leave us that way. In the words of Romans 8:29 He wants us to be conformed into the image of His son. He wants us to become like Jesus, to be righteous like Him with the goal set in Matthew 5:48

Matthew 5:48 CSB

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Of course we will never attain to perfection in this life, but we can pray and read Gods word and do our best so that we can become more and more like Jesus in this life to prepare us for the perfection that is coming in the next one.

So we’ve talked about truth and we’ve talked about reconciliation between God and men, but what about reconciliation between different peoples? What does the world say about that, and what does the Bible say in comparison?

Reconciliation: Between People

So what does the world have to say about reconciliation between different peoples? On the surface the truth is relative crowd seems like it could get along with anyone. You do your own thing and I’ll do mine and we can just leave each other alone, right? Well in practice things really haven’t worked out that way. The problem as I’ve alluded to before is that you can’t get everyone on the same page, and so it becomes a battle between different viewpoints. Thus it becomes apparent that the only way the truth is relative crowd can have things the way they want it is if they convince or silence everyone who doesn’t agree with them.

Now to be clear I just want to say that I’m not a conspiracy theorist about this. I’m not claiming that there’s a group of people behind the scenes trying to manipulate the world and rule everyone in a George Orwell’s 1984 type way. These ideas are influencing society because there are a lot of passionate people who are convinced of these ideas and think that they are the best way to remove inequality in our world and put everyone on an even playing field. The problem is that these ideas turn everything into a battle between the oppressors and the oppressed. The majority verses the minority. Suddenly a coalition of people who were oppressed in the past bands together and it starts to look a lot like they want their turn to be the oppressors.

It also leads to people being lumped together and judged by their skin colour instead of as individuals, as you may have seen from the constant complaints online about “white guys.” So we’ve answered our very truly problematic history of racism with… more racism? I don’t think it takes a prophet to see that this can’t end well. If we give privileges to some people based on their skin colour and deny privileges to others because of their skin colour doesn’t that just make a new group of oppressed people who will want to turn around and oppress their opressors back in an endless cycle of racism and hate? Forgiveness is lost in a society that pits people groups against each other and perpetuates continued division and strife and only leads to more pain.

So what is the Biblical answer? Does it have a better outcome? Well the Bible teaches the unity of mankind on two levels. First we are all unified in our sinfulness and inability to live up to God’s standard. We are all flawed and far from perfection. According to Romans 3:10-18

Romans 3:10–18 (CSB)

as it is written:

There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.

Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Sounds about right, doesn’t it? I mean in the age of social media and constant news feeds we are more aware of the human capability to do wrong than ever. And we read again in Romans 3:23

Romans 3:23 CSB

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

So even before God through Jesus redeems us we have a worldview in the Bible of equality. If we are all the same, hopelessly lost and rebellious to God, than what basis do we have to place any group or individuals above any other? We are all starting on a level playing field here.

But of course it gets better than that. We aren’t left in our state of seperation as we addressed before, but given reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ, and now in Christ we are a new creation, and united in the same inheritance. We read in Galatians 3:27-4:7

Galatians 3:27–4:7 CSB

For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise. Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. Instead, he is under guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world. When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

So we are all united now and the distinctions between race and gender should no longer cause conflict between those who are in Christ. Does this mean that there are no differences at all between the different races and genders? Well this book was written by the same Paul who teaches male leadership in the household and in the church, so clearly he doesn’t think so. The point is that we are all now the body of Christ and sons of God. That means when God looks at us He sees His son, and that when we come to the New Heavens and the New Earth we will all receive the same inheritance.

So what is the result in the meantime? Well the ideal practice of Christian equality looks like providing for one another taking care of one another and treating everyone as equally valuable in the sight of God. Paul describes well this outlook in Ephesians 4, where he talks about people having different gifts and roles but still being equally valuable and the way we should treat one another as a result. Let’s read together

Ephesians 4:1–16 CSB

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. For it says: When he ascended on high, he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people. But what does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, to fill all things. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

Not only does the Bible teach unity among believers, but also forgiveness for those who have wronged us. Embedded in the Lord’s Prayer is the call to forgive others just as we have been forgiven, and the prayer is followed by a stern warning from Jesus about the importance of forgiveness Matthew 6:12-15

Matthew 6:12–15 (CSB)

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

“For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.

And we don’t just forgive people who have wronged us from time to time, but we are called to love the people that we would call our enemies. Matthew 5:43-48

Matthew 5:43–48 CSB

“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

So does that sound like a call to view the world as a battle between the oppressors and the oppressed? A call to view everything in terms of race? A call to constant tribalism? Or does it sound like we should forgive people and love them no matter what they have done or who they are, and view every single person as an image bearer of God?

Conclusion

So you may be asking at this point, Josh what is the point of this sermon? Well the simple fact of the matter is that as disciples of Jesus we need to be aware of the differences between us and the world. And Jesus promised us that as long as we were living by His name the world (in general) would hate us. So we shouldn’t be surprised if taking a sober look at our culture shows a major difference between them and between us.

John 17:14–19 (CSB)

I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

So we have one of our application points: Be students of the Word. Let God’s Word be the foundation of what you believe, and I mean that in both senses of the way the Bible uses “God’s Word,” Jesus and the Scriptures. It’s not enough to academically read the Bible to mine out its truth claims, but we need also to know and love Jesus with a real personal relationship and grow more and more like Him every day.

So what does this look like in the practical every day? Well I think the most practical advice I can give you is to pick your battles. When you interact with people who view the world so differently from you don’t get distracted on the particular issues, focus on what’s most important. Because the solution to the world’s view of truth and reconciliation isn’t to force them to agree with our view, it’s to introduce them to Jesus. So bring the conversation to Him as much as you can and make it about our shared status as lost sinners and the hope that is found in Jesus instead of how we disagree.

In the end the answer to our clashes with culture is the same as the answer to every one of the problems we face: The gospel.

Romans 1:16–17 (CSB)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

So let us go now in faith as ambassodor’s for Jesus truth, and ministers of Jesus’ reconciliation.