Jesus Is... The Truth

John 14

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.”

Jesus did not come to show us the way, nor has He come only to make the way, but to be THE Way. This is revealed through him as The Truth, not some version of it, and manifested to us in The Life only a saving, redeeming, and healing God provides.

We’re in a 3-part series called “Jesus Is…” Welcome to part 2.

Last week we talked about...

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

Today we’re focusing on Jesus saying he is “The Truth”.

Truth is defined as something which is in accordance with fact or reality.

Words to describe truth are: Factuality, faithfulness, firmness, reality, reliability.

In our American culture, truth has been fractured from what it actually means and bifurcated to fall into two segments of meaning: objective and subjective truth.

There are subsets of truth such as metaphysical truths which exist outside of humanity, but within the conditions of the universe as we know it as laws of physics. There’s also moral truths, which are understood principles or rules which we live. Moral truths can be conferred or inferred from others whether it be society, a tribe, and culturally. It’s important to underscore the origin of moral truths. Where did they originate or how did they come to be?

It can be argued we had moral truth written on our hearts when God created us.

Paul said in Romans 2:15-16 says, “The Gentiles (non-Jews or people who do not follow God) demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.”

Subjective Truth is easy. Subjective truth simply means truth as I see it OR truth as it pertains to me OR truth according to what I want it to mean. If I say I am a yellow turtle with a red dress and golden nails, but I’m also ageless and have black hair.

Are you able to picture that image? ...a yellow turtle with a red dress and golden nails, but I’m also ageless and have black hair...

If I said that is how I identify today, not only would it need to be accepted as truth, but it would be celebrated as truth among the masses. It would be celebrated and it would be required you celebrate me or you’d be a bigot.

The truth of who I actually am, being a heterosexual, caucasian, male in his forties, married to a woman— the same woman for that matter— isn’t as interesting, unique, and worthy of being celebrated.

When we’re kids and hold an image like this as we play, or when, as a young boy, I dressed up as a cowboy or pirate or police man or tiger or slither my body on the ground like a snake… I would be seen as having a healthy imagination.

Zoom forward to adulthood— if this metamorphosis imagination does not subside of who we believe we are within our own minds, however is not the reality, we’re now told it’s okay and celebrated as such. Our culture has taken it a big step further to include not only how we perceive ourselves, but also how we curate our own personal identity within our imagination through the lens of our subjective truth in regards to our gender and sexuality.

We won’t be spending time on this subject today because this is quite polarizing and the pulpit is not the best place to delineate about it. I prefer one on one dialogue with topics of this gravity and am always open to grab coffee or tea with anyone desiring to meet.

Where we’ll be spending our time today is not in exploring subjective truth, because that shifts and changes, and can every day, but rather we’re going to unpack the objective truth that is the standard of all truth.

Objective truth— that when anything subjective is compared or contrasted, the power of reality will prove evidential or at the very least, convicting, whether one realizes, reacts, responds, or repents.

The truth we’re exploring today is the sort of reality that exists with or without humanity. This truth existed before the world began, before water, before darkness, before air, before the laws of physics, before the universe itself.

The truth we’re discovering will reveal as much about where we’re going as where we came, but also reveal our purpose and our identity.

This truth accomplishes what all other versions of reality and truth cannot. This truth completely satisfies our existential longing for love, fulfillment, and quenches our internal thirst for more.

Jesus said...

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 14

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

When he said he is “the truth” this is what he meant...

Truth. The Bible does not provide a systematic account of the nature of truth in either its theological or philosophical dimensions. Nevertheless great prominence is given to the idea of truth in Scripture because God is the God of truth (Pss 31:5; 108:4; 146:6) who speaks and judges truly (Pss 57:3; 96:13). God is the God of all truth because he is the Creator, and it is impossible for him to lie (Heb 6:18).

All things exist because of his will (Eph 1:11). His will is the ultimate truth of every proposition or fact. Because of God’s will the stars continue in their orbits (Ps 147:4).

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Truth)

Whether God’s creative power also extends to the truths of logic and mathematics has been the subject of controversy in Christian theology, some (e.g., Descartes and possibly Luther) claiming that two and two equals four only because God wills it, while the mainstream of Christian theology maintains that such a view is either speculative or incoherent.While a general account of truth may be inferred from biblical data, the focus of Scripture is upon soteriology, the revealed truth in the gospel of God’s redeeming grace through Christ. This is the truth which Christ and the apostles proclaimed (Jn 8:44–46; 18:37; Rom 9:1; 2 Cor 4:2), which was foreshadowed in the OT (1 Pt 1:10–12), and witnessed to by the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:13).

So Christ brings the truth (Jn 1:17) and the Holy Spirit leads into all truth (Jn 16:13).

Christ Jesus brings the truth, which is the written Word of God, and the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinitarian God, leas us into all truth.

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 16)

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears.

The Spirit will guide you.

The Spirit will speak whatever he hears, which will be heard from what the Father speaks through the Word, which is Jesus. The complete Trinity is at work together, in perfect unity, to be Truth, bring Truth, and speak Truth.

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Truth

By extension from these basic ideas about scriptural truth, Christ spoke of himself as the truth. Scripture elsewhere calls upon people to “do the truth” (Jn 14:6; Gal 3:1). Christ is the truth because, being God, his words carry divine authority. They are truth and life (Jn 6:63). In addition the life of Christ epitomized truthfulness and utter reliability. When people live in obedience to the truth, they are true and reliable.

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

John 12–21 (2) Loneliness and Perplexing Questions (14:4–11)

Here John joins three powerful ideas of “way,” “truth,” and “life” to produce a classic statement concerning the significance of Jesus in providing salvation.

What Jesus wanted people to understand, wants us to understand, when he said he is The Truth has everything to do with salvation.

The second half of John 14:6 says “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Truth leads to the source and Jesus said he is the Gate to the source who is the Father.

An over-simplification of salvation through Jesus is him saving us from our own selves, saving us from strongholds in our lives which hold us back from living abundantly, and from the consequences of sin rooted deep within us effecting both the existence of our everyday life and our inter-personal relations impacting others or their own sin effecting and impacting us.

Sin is an infection. Jesus provides the cure through salvation found only in him.