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What Did Christ Mean?

www.bibleone.net

 

By “Truth”

John 8:32; 14:6

 

Jesus the Christ (Gk. Christos: the Anointed One, the Messiah), the Son of God (i.e., God manifested in the flesh), made a number of exceedingly significant statements during His ministry prior to being crucified on Calvary.

 

On one occasion as Christ was speaking to “Jews who believed Him” (Chapter 8), He said:

 

(32) And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

 

Then later,speaking to Thomas (Chapter 14):

 

(6) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

 

The concept of “truth” is paramount in Scripture.  Indeed, there is no descriptive word more characteristic, more distinctive, and more representative of the Word of God, a fact that is repeatedly and persistently declared and inferred throughout God’s Word.

 

The entirety of Your Word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever. (Psalm 119:160; cf. 142; 19:7-11)

 

Sanctify them in the truth; your[God’s]Word is truth. (John 17:17)

 

Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. (James 1:18)

 

Truly, God’s Word is the image of truth because it is the image of God who is the flawless model and Author of Truth.

 

And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.” (Exodus 34:6)

 

For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens, and Your truth unto the clouds. (Psalm 57:10)

 

For Your mercy is great above the heavens, and Your truth reaches to the clouds.

(Psalm 108:4)

 

For His merciful kindness is great toward us,and the truth of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD! (Psalm 117:2)

 

And because Jesus Christ is the Word who became flesh, the truthof God is embodied, epitomizedin Christ.  In other words, Jesus Christ is Truth incarnate.

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14)

 

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

 

If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus. (Ephesians 4:21)

 

Truth may be defined as “the absolutely correct or actual state of a matter (i.e., that which is totally trustworthy and which exists in reality).”

 

The opposite of truth is anything that is untrue, not absolutely correct or trustworthy.  From the very beginning of the human race – the creation of Adam and Eve – the evil of truth’s obstructionwas introduced by Satan in the form of a serpent as he beguiled (lured, enticed) Eve with a lie (Genesis 3:4; 2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 12:9; 20:2), for indeed, Satan “is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).

 

Fundamentally, there are only two courses of travel for persons during their tenure on earth, and in this they are no different from their primary progenitors in the Garden of Eden.  Just as they had the ability and opportunity to follow either the course of truth or the course of untruth, so it is with anyone during this lifetime.  And just as it was in the Garden in the beginning, following untruth can only bring constraint and confinement – now and throughout eternity.

 

As to the propagation of lying, one would have to be totally blind to be ignorant of the fact that falsehoods and deceptions completely permeate the world today, from the lowest level of the family structure to theprestigious heights of politics and authority.  At all levels of human existence, the “lie” prevails – primarily the lie that there is no truth in the reality of the Living God and His Word, which is the foundation of all untruth now and  throughout all generations.

 

The Divine Alternative

 

And this was the message Christ endeavored to reveal to man as He crossed the landscape of His human existence.  As He proceeded toward the ultimate sacrifice of personally taking on and paying for the sin of man while on the cross of Calvary (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:24, 25; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24;1 Timothy2:6a), He persisted in His presentation that it was only God’s Word that reveals truth to man, and indeed, as the Word of God made flesh (John 1:1, 14), Jesus Christ –His Person and His message – are the ultimate truth.  All else is simply the “lie” promulgated by Satan from the very beginning.

 

True freedom from sin and eternal death can only be attained by following the truth of Gods Word, i.e., by following Jesus Christ.