What is Truth?

Poor old Pilate has been vilified for nearly 2000 years for his waffling on the question of Jesus’ guilt and treatment. This is not written to address that conflict in any way. In fact, Pilate’s query, “What is truth?” has been almost as widely debated as his ethics and behavior. This will not address that either. Let’s just ask the question that Pilate did” What is truth?

Before we get to that, let’s do a little background. There are 192 references with the actual word, “truth,” in the Scripture, with 93 in the OT. That means that there are 99 in the NT. (New American Standard Translation.) So this is not an obscure concept. But what is truth? Huh. That sounds like a familiar question, doesn’t it? But what does the Bible say Truth means?

A definition is given to us in John 17:17.
Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 
Before you claim that this is a circular definition, using a word to define itself, look closely. God’s Word is truth. He is true, and we will finish our discussion with that. To explain, any Word that God speaks is truth defined. It has no error in it. (I wrote an article on my blog about the Word and how it interprets itself. Since there are no errors, it will give us a reliable explanation of what anything means. We just have to ferret out the details.

Since God’s Word is true, any question that we bring and measure against it, will either line up with truth, or be shown to be false.  What is “true,” therefore, is shown to be what it is. Let’s go to Jesus’ explanation. John 16:12-14
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.

The Spirit of Truth comes from God, so we go back to the origin of truth and He emanates from there. And now we have a Guide to point us to what is and what is not true. Turn your attention to our friend, Pilate. John 18:37-39
Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” 38 Pilate *said to Him, “What is truth?”

Jesus came, like the Holy Spirit, to guide us to truth, to “testify” to what is true. He will identify and explain truth. And if we listen to Him, we will find truth. And here Pilate utters his question for the ages. So how can we know that God is revealed through Jesus?

First, Jesus stated that He was “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (John 14:6) We can wonder if He might have usurped this role and authority. Recall John’s baptism of Jesus and the Lord God spoke from heaven that Jesus was His beloved Son and was pleasing to Him. (Matthew 3 and Mark 1) God would not be “pleased” with a liar. Later, at the transfiguration in Mark 9, Luke 9,  and Matthew 17 God, the Father goes one step farther. (V. 17:5)
...a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”
If God the Father directs us to listen to Jesus, we can assume that Jesus is truthful, as testified by God.

Now how can we know that God is true? This is not a trivial question nor a flippant one. Let’s look at what the Scripture says. Numbers 23:19
“God is not a man, that He should lie.”  

What other statements verification this? 2 Timothy 2:13 says that God cannot deny Himself.  Titus 1:2 tells us that God cannot lie. This is reinforced by Hebrews 6:18. It is impossible for God to lie. And finally  Romans 3:4 we read that God is true. In fact, if God were to lie, He would immediately stop being God. A “true” God cannot continue to be that, if He is not that. Make sense?

Pilate, to his everlasting ignominy and regret, was looking Truth in the face, and did not recognize it. And if anyone in our society asks the same question, the should learn from Pilate. Look at Jesus. He is visible in the Bible. And to deny that there is anything such as truth is as blind and ignorant as Pilate.

Here is the test. If someone wishes to refute the concept of Truth, he must first show where and how Jesus failed to be coincident in relation to reality. Truth, as defined for us by Ravi Zacharias, is something that lines up in a one to one correspondence with reality. Show where Jesus was not “real.”

Failing that, the concept of Truth must be accepted and affirmed in a logical framework as  incontestable and reliable. So what is truth? It is everything that is displayed or spoken by Jesus. Since He speaks for God, anything and everything they say, is truth. Pilate missed truth. How many people today are making the same error? Too many.

Listen and know. It’s the truth.