Knowing the Truth

In John 14:6, Christ states: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me."

This is an exceptional verse for many reasons. First, we are reading the words of Christ. Anytime the Creator of the universe talks, we should listen. His creative power is seen in the invention of all that we see. Furthermore, His genius is manifest in the creation of the Church (Colossians 1:15-18). As Paul states in this epistle, He is the Firstborn, the Prominent One, the One with which we have to do. In Him we live and move and exist (Acts 17:28). On Him we depend. It is to Him that our praises rise. When He speaks, we should listen.

Second, I love the fact that Christ refers to Himself as 'the Truth.' Anyone who is remotely involved with society can attest to a hatred of truth in our culture. "What is true for one person does not have to be true for everyone," they say, revealing the subjectivity of their thinking. Why does our culture pride itself in this subjectivity? Why such outright disgust for objective truth? No one disputes gravity, a law effecting all people. No one disputes that all men physically die. Yet our culture yearns to make its own truth. To the Christian who understands Scripture, the obvious answer lies in sin, and I think more specifically with the rebelliousness inherent in the sinful nature. Our country was founded on rebellion. I think that vein still provides life to the American body today. Yet Christ said, "I am the truth." I love that definite article! There is only one truth! Christ is the truth. All truth then must flow from Him. His word, then, is truth! In fact, Christ states as much in His prayer in John 17:17: "Sanctify them in truth, Your word is truth."

One problem with the church in America to day is that we have lost the essence of truth. Because of our rebellious mentality, we think that we can subjectively twist the words of God to mean what we think they mean or what we want them to mean. As John MacArthur states in his book 'Why One Way,' "the meaning of Scripture is Scripture." What he is saying is that God's truth is revealed in what He means in His word. When we understand Scripture incorrectly or out of context, we are not understanding the truth of God, but rather a lie! When we do not teach the word of God as He meant it, we are then teaching a lie! This should be horrifying to any pastor or teacher of God's word! We should be driven to diligently pursue the understanding of Scripture, begging for the Holy Spirit to teach us His truth!

So then, the focus of every Christian should be to understand what God wants to communicate to us. That is His Truth! It is an objective, life-changing, life-giving truth! It brings Him glory because it communicates Him to His creation. Just the idea of Him communicating Himself to us should drive us to our knees in humble thanksgiving and adoration of Him. How much more the actual communication of Himself to us!

Lastly, the real eye-opener may be in the last phrase of this verse: "...no one comes to the Father except through Me." I think that the majority of the church has cut this verse out of their bible. Our culture screams for tolerance of ideas, leading them to accept the fallible theory that there are more than one way to the Father. The real stupidity of this belief is that it opposes God and His word. It opposes the truth! Therefore, it must be a lie. As the church, we must fight against this lie! The only way to the Father is through Christ! Christ said there are only two roads, one broad and one narrow. The idea that there are more ways to the Father is simply the broad road leading to hell masked to look like the narrow road leading to heaven. It is a lie! No wonder since the father of lies is the deceiver. While he claims to be paving his hopeless road to life, he is actually filling it with potholes, traps, and snares, ultimately leading to death in hell. Yet Christ makes His offer: "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst (John 6:35)." He is the truth. We must pray that He will change us to live like we believe it.