What is Truth? The world believes the answer to this question is dependent upon our own unique truths. You’ve got yours, and I’ve got mine. But believing Truth can change based on our personalities and experiences actually negates its validity. Maybe the most freeing thing about the Christian faith, however, is that what we believe as Truth is not arbitrary or based on feelings or experiences. Our Truth is based on a person named Jesus.
The way, truth, and life
Before his death, Jesus comforted his disciples encouraging them to trust him and God. As he tried to prepare these men for what would come, Jesus explained he was going to the Father to prepare a place for them, and he promised his return. Thomas, good old doubting Thomas, asked how they would find him, and Jesus answered:
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Perhaps of all the truths Jesus spoke, this statement is the basis for everything else in the quest for Truth.
The Person of Truth
I experienced Jesus’s claim in a tangible way. I had grown up in a Christian home, and I was a Bible carrying Jesus lover through high school. But in my twenties, after a failed debate about Jesus with someone I respected, I doubted everything I believed and decided I was wrong. So, I gave up my faith and tried to combine all religions as Truth.
This was the darkest, loneliest, and most miserable year of my life. Thankfully, the Lord gave me a dear mentor who loved me back to him, to the Truth. I remember her words as if it were yesterday. She held out her Bible and said, “Andy, you’ve got to take all of this or non of it!”
“I want it all!” I cried.
On that night I prayed a prayer of repentance and faith in Jesus, the Son of God. The only Way, Truth, and Life. And on that night his Spirit filled me again. I could feel his presence once more. Years later as I wrote my testimony, I realized my emptiness during that year of searching for the “bigger picture” proved Jesus as the only Truth worth believing. If you want to know Truth, you must first trust in Jesus, so that His Spirit of Truth can live within you.
The promised Helper
What I experienced when I came back to the Truth was exactly what the Savior had promised.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor (helper) to be with you forever–the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him or knows him. But you know him, for he lives in you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans but will come to you.
John 14: 16-17 NIV (addition mine)
Only hours after Jesus made this promise, he was taken away to be tried and sentenced to death on a cross. One of the most haunting questions during his interrogation came from Pilot, the Roman governor. Jesus told him, “Everyone on this side of truth listens to me.“
Pilot asked, “What is truth?”
While some may hear his tone as demeaning or sarcastic, I believe underneath the hard exterior lay a heart that truly wanted to know. He did not want to sentence Jesus. Yet when Truth’s eyes met his that morning, Pilot could not see. He couldn’t see or hear because he wasn’t on the right side of truth.
The Spirit of Truth and the Word
Friends, I want to be on Jesus’s side of Truth. Like the Samaritan woman who desperately wanted the Living Water Jesus offered, I want to be filled with thirst quenching Truth, and I want this for you too. This Truth can be found in the Word of God which is all about Jesus.
Genesis to Revelation point to the Son of God our Way, Truth, and Life. John wrote in his gospel that Jesus was the Word too. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). If we want to know Truth, it is found in Jesus and the Word. They cannot be separated.
Just as my friend challenged me years ago with a Bible clutched in her hands, “Andy, you’ve got to take all of it or none of it!” I want you to find this Truth too. Come dig into the Word with me this month to discover the promise and faithfulness of the Spirit of Truth.
free reading plan printable
Just click on the image for the free printable. As always, I pray this reading plan will be a launching pad for your time with the Lord, and you find yourself reading the verses around the one for the day. If the verse speaks to you, write it down. Journal your thoughts and let the Spirit of Truth speak to you.
discernment and understanding
Sometimes we will struggle with scripture or something taught in a sermon or podcast. When we struggle we need to wrestle. You know, God loves wrestlers. (He loved Jacob and named him Israel after a wrestling match.) As we wrestle for the Truth, his Spirit will lead us. He will help us discern and understand.
When cancer took my sister’s life, I wrestled with a few scriptures. One that particularly bothered me was Jesus’s promise, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I’ve overcome the world.”
“What do you mean by that!” I cried. “How have you overcome when cancer and other diseases still prevail?” I wrestled with this for a month until I finally heard a still small voice answering my question.
“Read the entire scripture,” the Spirit of Truth whispered. When I looked it up, this is what I found:
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 16:33 NIV
Isn’t he kind? The Spirit of Truth gently prompted my broken heart to read the entire scripture. I was only remembering part of it. The second I read it, I understood. Though we still face grief, hardship, and heartache, we can have peace in the midst of it all. His peace.
Prayer for you
I feel a prayer coming on. Grab my hands.
“Dear Father, thank you for the Spirit of Truth. Thank you, Jesus, for being our Way, Truth, and Life in this troubled world. Thank you Holy Spirit for filling us. So many voices vie for our ears. Please help us discern what’s from you and what isn’t. Help us wrestle when we need to and lead us to the everlasting Truth. Give us discipline to spend more time in your Word and seeking the wisdom of the Spirit of Truth more than we search for it on the internet. You are our very good, eternal Truth. We love you. Amen and amen.”
