John 18:37-38

“…Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”  Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”

Jesus was the most loving person to ever live and Truth incarnate.  

The world tells us today that to speak the truth about sin and rebellion is hateful.  Yes, indeed, they have this savvy argument by which they’ve reversed the moral poles and that which is sinful is good and to object to it is to be branded a hater.  Pilate, standing there in all his authority, power and splendor, represents the world against the church.  The Scripture doesn’t tell us in what manner he utters these words but one can easily imagine him saying this in the relativistic vein, just as the world says to the church today.  

We can see something important in Jesus’ statement.  He is truth.  Have we thought about what this means?  Truth isn’t a dry and emotionally meaningless thing, nor is it devoid of systematic, logical consistency.  It is both because Jesus is both.  That’s the wonder of it all.  If we eschew the one for the other we will suffer spiritually for it.  To go deep into the sweet doctrines of Scripture, to behold with our minds the precious treasures of Biblical logic, is a wondrous thing.  But to do so without childlike faith in Jesus, a deep and abiding love born from that faith, and a reverent sense of awe and humility, is to be half a Christian.  Truth and love are the same thing.  They can never be played against each other for Jesus can never be torn in two.  

Thus, to deal in sin – whether it’s sexual, or pride, or duplicity, or ruthless ambition – and to say that you’re walking in love is to really walk in contradiction.  This is the root of so much anguish in the Christian life.  Where there is no Biblical fidelity there’s bound to be all manner of discord and struggle and heartbreak.  If our circumstances are always pulverizing us and we’re in spiritual tatters, then we must run to the Book of books because it’s probable that our sinful errors are hounding us.  Likewise, if we are sure of our Biblical knowledge but our relationships are beset with alienation, hostility, and a great diversity of griefs, then we have to remember that we are not that Truth – Jesus is.  A Christian that knows Scripture – really knows it – walks in love and truth.  Knowing is never enough – we must always apply Scripture to our lives.  This is the way that one becomes Christ-like and there is no other.  Powered by God’s Holy Spirit we are renewed daily – through prayer and Word directed living – and thus we’re transformed to the image of his Son, not conformed to this world.

But the world, like Pilate, challenges the truth.  “Ah…but there’s no absolute truth,” they say.  They forget that they have just uttered one.  How can they be absolutely sure that there’s no absolute truth?  In effect, they’ve replaced one certainty with another. Unfortunately, this other one leads to all sorts of errors so gross and heinous that they’re nearly comical except for the devastation they cause.  We see them around us everywhere.   For example, our politicians consistently pass laws they say are to “help the children,” all while abortion slaughters over one million babies in the womb every year.  This is a holocaust right in our morally pretentious midst.  We protest from our universities and media that there’s no such thing as a true truth and yet at the same time declare a multitude of absolutes – the most sacred of which is the right of a woman to murder her baby.  This is what happens when a culture turns from God and does whatever is right in its own eyes.  

The question of truth is always and forever before us.  This is the fascinating reality to life in God’s world.  We can never escape questions of right and wrong.  But, dear brothers and sisters of the faith, the great conundrums of existence have been answered for us in Christ – the living Word.  “The end of the matter…all has been heard…fear God and keep His commandments.  This is the whole duty of man.”  Yes, yes, yes…it is the beautiful privilege of a man or woman’s life to serve, glorify and worship the living God.  A fool is a fool because he denies the most basic and fundamental truth of all – that God is the creator of all.  He has to constantly repress the obvious and is incessantly busy, always pushing and working against the tides of God’s order.  

Outside of Scripture, there is no truth.  Sure, there are facts but knowing a thing isn’t truth; wisdom is knowing what something means and we can’t do that outside the will of God since this is His world.  This is the great lie at the bottom of scientific materialism and those who say “I believe in science and you can’t argue with science.”  That statement isn’t science; it’s theology…really bad theology.  Science is a discipline to uncover facts, not truth.  Truth is moral and actionable and the heart of wisdom.  Nothing is more dangerous than an “expert” armed with facts but devoid of wisdom.  

We’ll never find anything really true apart from Jesus Christ – he is the truth without contradiction, the love without error.  He is perfect and holy and everlasting.  All things not based in him will ultimately perish.  All loves based not in him are ultimately, at their core, love of self because they are loves founded in error and rebellion.  Look hard at Pilate standing there in judgment of Christ and consider that he represented the highest of the world – the might and majesty of Rome towering above the humble lamb of God.  And where is Pilate and Rome today?  Christ rose from the dead as evidence that all who believe in him, repenting of their sin and their pride, and follow him wholeheartedly, devoting themselves to a life of biblical discipleship, will also be raised on the last day.  This is the foundational truth of life.  We die, then there is judgment (Hebrews 9:27).  All of the joys and loves and wonders of this age are meant to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4).  Don’t delay.  Pilate is gone.  Rome is gone.  The Word of God abides forever.  Make your choice now while the day of grace is still at hand.  

But, perhaps, you think you can escape this truth.  So far, so good, right?  

But you know where Jesus is going.  He’s going to the cross to face the wrath that you and I justly deserve.  This is the core of the gospel, my friend.  Jesus endured God’s just wrath upon sin so that you and I don’t have to if only we see this truth, accept it with our whole heart and then, through God’s power, live a transformed life of gratitude and faith.  Don’t think there are any other options.  Buddha is dead.  Mohammed is dead.  Caesar is dead.  They are all dead.  Christ alone was raised and He’s our only hope against that day we know is coming – our death.  There is no escaping it.  Some people may indeed avoid paying taxes because of their connections and status, but all die.  

So, learn from this great passage.  It’s a small line but it towers over us and our metaphysics, epistemology and ethics.  Truth and love are a person…the divine person.  Our personalities will separate these attributes and play them against each other.  Here we see, though, that they’re reconciled, like all things are, right here in the perfect person, Jesus Christ.