By Tim Frank
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage
Focal Passage: John 1:14-18; 8:30-32; 18:36-38
When my older daughter was in high school, one of her assignments was a debate on absolute truth. She had the side in favor of absolute truth.
In order to make the argument for absolute truth, she had to first establish there is one God who is Lord of all, maker of all and above all. Once established, the one true God is absolute truth and what He says is absolute truth. Apart from God, there is no absolute truth. In Him, there is absolute truth.
John 1:14-18 says that God became flesh and lived among us in Jesus Christ. To see Him was to see God. To hear Him was to hear God. Jesus is the embodiment of God’s grace and truth. God’s absolute truth is revealed through Him. The Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:15-19; 2:9 that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” and that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Therefore, Jesus is God, and He is absolute truth about God.
The question then is asked, “Can we know absolute truth?” That absolute truth exists does not automatically mean it is knowable. Jesus is the embodiment of truth, and He taught that believers in Him could know the truth. John 8:30-32 says that many people were believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior. As they believed, He called them to continue in His Word and be His disciples. The promise He gave to them and to all who believe in Him is that absolute truth can be known and that truth will set one free.
In John 8, Jesus gives a three step process for knowing the truth that sets one free. First, believe in Him through faith and repentance. Second, continue in His Word, the Bible. Third, follow Him as His disciple.
Apart from Jesus, a person does not know, nor can understand, the absolute truth of God or His Word. Those truths are spiritually discerned only through the Holy Spirit of God working within the Believer (I Corinthians 2:14). He, the Spirit of truth, is our teacher who guides us into all truth of God (John 16:12-15).
In John 18:36-38, Jesus was on trial before the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. He was questioned regarding His claim to being a king and seeking to establish a kingdom. Jesus affirmed He was a King but then shared that His kingdom was not of this world.
He told Pilate that He came into the world to testify to the truth. Pilate voices the question so many have asked through the millennium, “What is truth?”
Pilate lived in a world where the only absolute was the word of Caesar. He did not realize that the embodiment of absolute truth, God Himself, was standing before his eyes. The truth he sought, the truth that would set him free, was found in the person of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps you wrestle with the question of absolute truth. You ask with Pilate, “What is truth?” The answer you are seeking is found in Jesus. He is truth. He is absolute truth. The only way to know truth is through knowing Jesus Christ. Know Him; know truth. Continue in His Word; learn truth. Follow Him; live truth.
