What is Truth

 

Pilate went back into the Praetorium, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

“Are you saying this on your own,” Jesus asked, “or did others tell you about Me?”

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed You over to me. What have You done?”

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.”

“Then You are a king!” Pilate said.

“You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”

“What is truth?” Pilate asked.

John 18:33-37

Truth is a subject that I ponder all the time now. Almost every subject brings me back to it. It seems to be the greatest concern of all. Some Christians I know and love are saying openly that it is not even possible to know the truth now. This makes me so terribly sad. 

I understand what they mean. The confusion sown on every single subject today is overwhelming. No matter what is said, its opposite is also immediately presented as truth. I know this is the work of the Father of Lies, but surely God would not leave us with no recourse. 

Jesus identifies himself as Truth. He also repeatedly refers to the Holy Spirit as the “Spirit of Truth,” and promises that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. Did Jesus really mean it when he said “all truth?”

I believe he did, and I believe he told us what to look for and how.

In Matthew 7:15-23 Jesus says: 

"Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’”

Let’s take a look at what Jesus is and is not telling us in this passage, which is all about recognizing those who pretend to be representing God, but who are actually seeking to destroy His people with their lies. 

First, he tells us that we can recognize them by their fruit. In order to understand what that means in practical terms we have to first understand what is meant by "fruit."

Fruit is the literal outgrowth of the life process of the tree from which it grows. The type of fruit is dependent on the species of the tree (grapes aren’t coming from thornbushes or figs from thistles). Jesus is telling us, first of all, that the fruit of lies is inedible.

This leads us to the entire point of fruit. It is food. Throughout the Old Testament there are many promises connected with the blessing of fruit. One of the most beautiful is found in Isaiah 45:8:

“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout;

I the LORD have created it.”

The fruit of salvation and righteousness  comes from the tree that God has created, which is Jesus. The fruit from his tree will always and only give the nourishment and life of the gospel. 

But, a bad tree, one that is not from God will give neither nourishment nor life. It will be like thorns and thistles. It will offer starvation and death.  It is fit only to be cut down and thrown into the fire. 

The next verses also give us important insight. They show us that fruit is completely different from works. Jesus tells us that, at the judgment, there will be people who have actually prophesied in Jesus' name, driven out demons and performed miracles, who will call him “Lord,” but to whom he will say that he never knew them! How stunning is that? That is quite the list of works! But despite those works, as impressive as they are, Jesus says he never knew them! Never! 

If the fruit is inedible, if it is not the nourishing, life-giving truth of who Jesus is, what he did and why he did it, if it is not rooted in righteousness and salvation, if it is not grounded in love, it is false and fit only to be burned. 

That, of course, applies to those who are pretending to belong to Jesus, but who, in reality, do not. 

What, then, about discerning truth from lies that are spoken in the world at large? 

The concept of fruit still applies, but in a little different sense. The fruit is the result of what is said. The words spoken, whether truth or lies, will bear fruit. In order to discern what is truth, it is necessary to carefully examine what is being said and to prayerfully ask God for his discernment to be given to you regarding the primary effect that those words will have on both yourself and others. 

Will what you are hearing or reading likely result in blessing or harm? To whom and how? Does it promote love or selfishness? Does it stand for mercy and justice, or does it serve revenge or greed? 

In situations where you can see the results of the words after the fact, what fruit did they actually bear? Did they move people to compassion or to bitterness. Were people inspired for good or for evil? 

The bottom line is, will your standing in support of the words that you are examining and questioning tend to point people to Jesus or drive them away? In the end, are the results of these words nourishment and life for both you and others, or are they the emptiness of thorns and thistles?

The key, is truly desiring to know the truth, sincerely asking and then earnestly listening. 

In John 14:13-17 Jesus promises us:

“Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you."

Lies I Believed about the Truth-Teller

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.... 

John 16:13a

I have a confession: I never used to like the Holy Spirit very much.

I grew in my appreciatIon of God the Father, even though he sometimes seemed harsh in the Old Testament.  There were just too many other passages which told of his unfailing love, mercy and compassion for me to doubt his goodness.  And, of course, in the New Testament it became clear that God’s plan all along was first to let us clearly demonstrate our inability to perfectly obey him, and then to send his own Son to do for us what we were incapable of doing for ourselves. In other words, God had a plan to meet his own requirements and take his own punishment in order to save us. How could I not love a God like that?

And then, of course, there was Jesus.  He is the one who agreed to come and carry out this rescue plan.  He is the one of whom all scripture speaks.  He is the one who came in the flesh to live that perfect life which I, in my flesh, had no hope of living.  He is the second Adam who allows me a do-over on being born so that I can swap families.  He is the one who took me with him from death to life, so that I now stand before God, with my debt stamped “paid in full”.  He did all of this for me as a free gift. There was nothing I could do to earn it or deserve it, and there is nothing I can do to repay it; that is called grace.  It is a story I did not truly know or understand until I was in my thirties, and once I knew it and believed it my life was never the same.

But then there was the Holy Spirit.  My picture of the Holy Spirit was of someone whose job it was to make me into a better person. I saw him as someone who wanted to help me but couldn’t, because I was apparently too stupid and/or too stubborn to accept his help.  I was keeping him from doing his job, and I was pretty sure the Holy Spirit was exasperated with me.

When I heard the Good News of who Jesus really was, what he really did and why he really did it, my life was turned upside down, in a very good way.  That was when my true love for God the Father and Jesus began, but my confusion about the Holy Spirit lingered.

I still heard mixed messages:  Jesus came to do for me what I could not do for myself,  and now the Holy Spirit was going to come and help me become what I could not become by myself.  In my head I heard the sound of screeching brakes as the Good News train seemingly came to a halt. I waited, hopefully, to see if I had become any better about letting the Holy Spirit help me, now that I knew the gospel, but I couldn’t see much difference.  Actually, the very fact that I was watching to see if I was better seemed to be counter to the gospel.  

I decided to focus solely on Jesus and what he did for me and to put the question of the work of the Holy Spirit off to the side.  Looking back, I’m certain the Holy Spirit helped me to make that decision.

Ultimately, I came to an understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit which, for me, is in harmony with what I know to be true about God the Father and Jesus. This understanding came primarily from the book of John in four passages where Jesus himself talks about the coming Holy Spirit and what he would do.

The first is found in John chapter 14, verses 16-17:  “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

These verses are found in the middle of a conversation Jesus was having with his disciples, preparing them for the fact that he would soon be leaving them.  Jesus tells them that he will be the one making the request for the Holy Spirit to be sent; this was his desire and he, personally, would ask the Father.  The request had not yet been made because Jesus had to complete his earthly mission by dying on the cross and securing salvation for all who would believe in him before he could make this request. 

He tells them that the Father will send “another” Helper.  The word “another” in the Greek is “allos”, and implies something or someone of the same type or kind.  Jesus was telling them that, after he secured our salvation he was personally going to ask his Father to send us someone who would help us in the same way he helped us.

The Greek word used for “Helper” is “Parakletos” and in general means "an aid", with the underlying idea of comforting, encouraging and exhorting.  Greek writers used the word to mean a legal counselor, or advocate, who comes forward on behalf of and as the representative of another.  If you look at different translations of this verse, you will see that some use “Helper”, some use “Advocate” and some use “Comforter”.  The word encompasses all of those meanings.  So, this verse tells us that, after Jesus secured our salvation he was personally going to ask his Father to send us someone else, like himself, who would help us, advocate for us and comfort us.  Jesus says this Helper will forever be in and with those who believe in him. 

I was always erroneously taught that when the Holy Spirit came, the focus shifted from Jesus to me.  No one was crass enough to say it exactly that way, but the implication was clearly that after Jesus did his work, my work, through the strength of the Holy Spirit, began.  But scripture teaches that, because of what Jesus did, we should now rest from our works.  Hebrews 4:9-10 says, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.”  If the coming of the Holy Spirit wasn’t intended to shift the focus from Jesus to what the Spirit was going to do in me, then what was its intention?

The loving Father sent Jesus to rescue us, and now Jesus, after completing the rescue, asked the Father to send the Spirit of truth to continually and forever remind us of and apply the truth of that rescue.  We see that in these verses:

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” John 14:25-26. 

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” John 15:26

The job of the Holy Spirit has never been to draw attention to himself, or to us, by making our improvement the central focus.  His primary purpose has always been to illuminate, clarify and apply what Jesus did.  

The fourth passage in John gives us further insight:

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” John 16:7-11

The Holy Spirit’s job is to convict the world that all are sinners, unable to reach the required standard of goodness, and that our only hope is to believe in Jesus who offers us his righteousness which he secured for us through his life, death, resurrection and ascension.  As a result of what Jesus accomplished for us, the power of the ruler of this world (Satan) has been broken; he stands judged. If we accept Jesus’ work on our behalf we no longer stand judged and condemned before God.  The work of the Holy Spirit is to tell the story of Jesus over and over!

The Holy Spirit calls to us, just like a loving parent with arms open calls to a crying or lost child.  He calls us to come and be comforted with the good news that Jesus has rescued us. He encourages us to be like Jesus—full of love and compassion, extending the same grace we have received to those around us; and, when we fail, he comforts us with that same good news.  He tells us we do not have to be afraid, because God’s opinion of us is already secured and He is well pleased with us because of Jesus. He constantly reminds us that our salvation is not dependent on our success; it is dependent on Jesus’ success. He assures us that we are free to try and fail and try again. That is the work of the Holy Spirit within us, to tell us the good news of what Jesus has done for us until it works its way into every fiber of our beings and that Good News changes us from the inside out.