House of Faith Ministries

stupidly asked what has to be the dumbest question ever asked: What is truth?

 

John 18:38 “Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’...I find no fault in Him at all.”

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I do not fault people for not knowing what truth is if they have not met Truth, but Pilate met Truth in person and recognized Him to be Truth, for he also said that he found no fault in Him; if there is no fault in Him then He is the real thing, the entirety of truth.

 

Is there something going on here that can help us to understand what the entirety of God’s Truth is?

 

Let’s take a look at what Jesus said to Pilate first, who by the way, was not a stupid man, for Pilate’s position required him to be astute in both, politics and governance, which requires great insight into matters of understanding people’s behavior in regards to the application of laws.

 

John 18:37 “Pilate therefore said to Him, ‘Are you a king then?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’”

 

Pilate knew that the charges that they were brought against Jesus were politically motivated, for the ministry of Jesus was a threat to the Jewish leadership of that time. Pilate saw this as a struggle for power between the Jews, and he saw himself as the kingmaker.

 

So that in essence what Pilate asked Jesus was this, Tell me, why should I make You a king, what’s in it for me? To which Jesus responded, You know that I am a King for you have seen My authority (I’m paraphrasing).

 

Then Jesus reveals to Pilate what His ministry, or kingship, was really all about, For this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. It was at that point that Pilate crossed the line, in what is a normal human response when confronted with undeniable truth, he turned and mocked Truth!

 

After that Pilate tried unsuccessfully to extricate himself from the matter. He tried to release Jesus indirectly, by putting Him side by side with the worse criminal, but they chose the criminal over Jesus.

 

He had Jesus tortured and punished by having Him scourged, mocked, and ridiculed, then he brought Jesus before His accusers and said:

 

John 19:5 “Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the Man!’”

 

But it was not enough to satisfy the lie, for the lie can never exist while in the presence of Truth, no matter how much the truth is ridiculed.

 

John 19:6 “Therefore, when the chief priest and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, ‘Crucify Him, crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.’”

 

The reality is that once a person is confronted with Truth there is no going back, they can try to suppress the truth all they want, but like in the case of Pilate’s actions, to no avail.

 

What is the message here for us who believe that Jesus is the Truth?

 

Is He the entirety of Truth, or like Pilate, are we struggling to come to terms with the reality of it?

 

Let me explain what I mean. Here is what the second part of our opening text reveals to us.

 

Every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

 

Our normal human response to truth is to recognize it at first, but we are also influenced to believe that truth can change in response to the changing circumstances. In other words, we inheritably take issue with absolute truth that endures forever.

 

We inherited that predisposition from Adam and Eve who believed the lie of the devil at the cost of partaking of the tree of life, which is: Every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

 

So that as Christians we are confronted with a constant assault against the truth of the Word of God in which we first believed.

 

All the devil has to do is to get us to doubt just one of His righteous judgments, and just like that, we will find ourselves outside of the absolute truth that endures forever. And like Pilate we try hard to make up for our deficiencies and we just end up making it worse.

 

Here is the key that keeps us from falling away from the Word of Truth:

 

Psalm 119:157 “Many are my persecutors and my enemies, yet I do not turn from Your testimonies.”

 

I do not turn from Your testimonies, plural, that means I keep every one of them, and I know that His testimonies, or covenant, endure forever.

 

In order to keep all His testimonies, all the time, we need to understand the covenant that God has secured to His testimonies. For we cannot keep any of His testimonies outside of the covenant of salvation.

 

Hebrews 6:17-18 “Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel (His testimonies), confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.”

 

The context is the priesthood of Jesus as the mediator of the new covenant, and it is within this context that God takes an oath which is based on two immutable, or unchangeable things: First is the fact that it is impossible for God to lie. The second is that God swore to the priest from Melchizedek’s line that He would not change His mind.

 

Hebrews 7:21 “...The Lord has sworn and will not relent (change His mind), ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’”

 

Can you see how God deals with the tendency of our fallen human nature to see truth from the context of changing? He removes any grounds to doubt that we may entertain, by basing the New Covenant on two unchangeable facts: The God who cannot lie, swore that He would not change His mind!

 

In the natural we see some things that are very dear to us today, fall out of our favor tomorrow. Persons that we love and have sworn to love in the past, can give us reason today that causes us to change our minds and our feelings towards them.

 

And that is how we tend to see ourselves in the sight of God. When we are trusting in His testimonies we feel good and secured. When we struggle to comprehend the truth of His promises to us, we wonder if we’ve done something that caused Him to change His mind about us.

 

Without love there is no way to resolve this.

 

Psalm 119:165 “Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.”

 

I love His law because I love Jesus; God’s law, God’s Word, God’s promises, God’s statutes, are one and the same with Jesus!

 

The law of the Lord is perfect because Jesus is perfect!

 

The law of the Lord is perfected in us when we put our trust in the entirety of God’s Word!

 

Jesus is perfect in every way, therefore we love and trust Jesus in every way, there is no reason then why we should not put our trust in the entirety of God’s Word at all times, all the time, for ever and forever.

 

Jesus loves us and has saved us; He swore on an oath, and He cannot lie, that He would not change His mind about His love for us.

 

He loves us eternally and unconditionally, is there any reason why we should not love Him and His Word eternally and unconditionally as well? I see none!

 

How do we handle then, the daily barrage that continuously confronts our trust and confidence in the Word and promises of God to us?

 

Psalm 119:158 “I see the treacherous, and am disgusted, because they do not keep Your word.”

 

Here is something new, instead of distrust, when doubts are raised about the veracity of God’s Word, it is disgust toward the slanderers that raises up from within us.

 

Is it not so that when something treasured that is beautiful and lovely is slandered, that contempt towards the slanderers is what rises?

 

Why should we doubt the immutable and unchangeable Word of God that promises us God’s unending, fervent, and perfect love?

 

Is not Jesus the manifestation of God’s perfect love towards us?

 

John 3:17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

 

What part of Jesus do we not love or agree with? If we love and agree with all that Jesus is and did for us, then we also must believe that the entirety of God’s Word is truth.

 

Since it is God’s Word who testifies of Him and of His love and of His covenant that He made on our behalf.

 

We cannot and should not have one outside of the other!

 

Psalm 119:166 “Lord, I hope for Your salvation, and I do Your commandments.”

 

James 1:22 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”