What did Jesus say about truth?

The Lord had indeed come to testify to the truth: truth about His father ( 4:23; 17:17), about His own person (1:14 and 14:6), the truth which sets man free ( 8:32) and gives eternal life to those who believe ( 3:14-21). He could say: "But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth" (8:40). He was ‘born’ (pointing to His manhood) and ‘come into the world’ (pointing to His deity) to give testimony to the truth. The emphasis in John's Gospel is not on the guilt of the Jews (as in Matthew) but on the Son of God giving testimony to the truth. "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." The Jews were zealous for the law, not because it was of God, but because it was theirs; the Romans sought this world and its power. Both were blind to the eternal and unseen. Jesus was the Truth, as well as the Faithful and True Witness to it. Pitate asks 'what is truth?’ (v.38) but did not wait for an answer. Whether jesting or alluding to philosophical disputes about the concept of truth, he was not an honest seeker of the truth but a frivolous sceptic.

The Lord declares to those who had been brought to believe in Him, that, if they remained firmly attached to His word (for it is a question of His word), they should be His disciples indeed, they should know the truth, and the truth should set them free (v. 31, 32). The truth supposes the full revelation of that which is divine and heavenly, that which was revealed in His Person, and in His words, and would be fully made evident when He should be glorified, and the Holy Ghost should have come. I do not think that those of whom verse 23 speaks were those who believed in Jesus, but the Jews in general. They trust to their outward position according to the flesh: they had never been in bondage, they say, forgetting, however, all their history, and their position at that very moment. The Lord passes over all that, to present the ground of the truth as to the state of man before God, and the effect of the law; for He identifies these two things - being a slave of sin, and being under the law, as the man of Romans 7 "Every one that practises sin, is the slave of sin," captive of that terrible law of sin that is in his members; but being a slave, he may be sent away from the house, and sold. The Jews, sinners under the law, would be sent away from the house of God; but the Son belonged to the house, and dwelt there always, and necessarily; if He made them free, they should be free indeed, free from sin, and free from the law. The Son, the revelation of the Father, as object, and power of life in him who shall have received Him, acting by the word, takes the place of the principle of sin in man, and the law which in vain forbade man to commit it.

What the Lord did request was, "Sanctify them through thy truth," for the truth separates by building up that spiritual immunity which preserves from spiritual disease. The root idea of sanctification is setting apart. The Son has given the Father's word, which introduces us to all His love, His thoughts, His purposes, His glory. All this is truth; that is, reality of the Divinest sort. The world lives so largely in a region of unreality and make-believe, striving to establish its systems which have no solid basis and which eventually must pass away. If we know Divine realities we must of necessity be set apart from the world's unrealities. This will expose us to the world's hatred, but it will build up strong spiritual resistance to its snares. It will immunize us against its germs. This is the kind of separation that endures, because effected by the Father's word and truth.

No wonder that as Pilate listened to these words that he could not comprehend, there was forced from him the question. "Art Thou a King then?" Jesus answered, "Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should hear witness to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth bears My voice." There shone with steady glow the glory of His person and the greatness of His mission. He was a King, indeed! He was the King eternal, and He had come into the world to establish a kingdom that would never be moved The "Word was made flesh" and He was "full of grace and truth." He came to bear witness to the truth: to tell out what God is, in a world blinded and blighted by the devil's lie He was the truth Himself, for that is what He meant, surely, when He said, "Every one that is of the truth hears My voice." His kingdom is truth, there is no lie in it, and to hear His voice means to obey the truth, and to be in His kingdom means to be subject to Him. No man knows the truth who does not obey it and no man is in His kingdom who has not submitted to Him.

"In truth." What is truth? We may answer Pilate's famous question thus: The realities of God Himself, that which God has revealed Himself to be: this is truth. The One who stood, crowned with thorns that day, in the judgment hall was Himself the truth, though Pilate knew it not, nor cared to know. He, and He alone, could say: "I am … the Truth" (John 14:6), for He alone is the perfect revelation of God, and it is as Father that He has revealed Him. Therefore He said: "He that has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).

"I am the way, the truth, and the life." There is no other way to God. The fact of Christ saying He is the way, declares that man has lost the way. What man wanted was a way back to God, to the Father; and Christ says, "I am that way," And He is "the truth" as to everything, the truth in relation to God, in relation to man, in relation to time, in relation to eternity; and if you do not know Christ, you do not know the truth about anything. Your judgment of things in this world is a false judgment if Christ is unknown to you. And is He not "the life" too? He claims these three things for Himself. It was claiming to be a great deal, was it not? Is it too much? Do you admit that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life? and have you proved it for yourself? The great thing is for your souls to be brought into association with it. There is no approach to a difficulty on God's side, but on your side there may be difficulties. There is no difficulty about your forming an acquaintance with Christ now. It is a great thing to be able to say you know a Saviour at God's right hand in heaven, and if you do not know Him, you can go to Him now, as you are, and where you are, and say, "Lord Jesus, I should like to know Thee as my Saviour." The man that sets out for God and Christ in that way may say, "Well, I do not know much about doctrines, but I know I have a soul that must live for ever; and, Lord Jesus, I want to know Thee as my Saviour." The heart of Christ is delighted with every soul that turns aside to Him; and not only at the first moment, but a deepening acquaintance must delight Him and you too. All blessing depends on it. The first thing is to know Christ, to come to Him, to say, "I desire to bow before Thee, to receive Thee as my Saviour." Christ is either inside or outside your hearts; you have opened the door of your heart to Him, or it is shut against Him. Your blessing in this world depends on a deepening acquaintance with Christ. To think that the Son of God in heaven loves to increase the acquaintance of your soul with Him! There is no company Christ so delights in as the company of those for whom He died. And is your answer, "I delight to be with the Lord Jesus Christ?"

The Father seeks worshippers — precious thought! But He seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. This implies that the inner man is engaged under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and that His truth is known and controlling the soul. This is in direct contrast with mere forms, which require neither God's truth nor His spirit, and can never satisfy His heart.

Atheists and Deists have long indulged in throwing their invectives against the sacred volume. Every now and then a Voltaire, a Tom Paine, or some other of that stamp, has been the avowed champion of infidelity, and has made no secret of his blasphemies; so that faithful men of God knew whom they had to encounter, and what they might expect from such. But now a far more effective class of instruments are actively employed in seeking to undermine the infinite worth and divine authority of the inspired word; and, we blush to add, not a few of them are the professed ministers of the gospel. The fatal mischief is wrought too, not as formerly by ignoring the Bible as a whole, as much as by various persons levelling their attacks on different portions of divine revelation; so that at this time there is scarcely a fundamental truth of scripture that is not being either questioned or denied in some part or other of Christendom. The days of evil have indeed come. The emissaries of Satan are active. Everything that can be shaken is on the move. Rationalists are busy. Distrust and incredulity abound; and many are fearful as to what may be coming next. And why all this? Is it not because they have not known "the truth"? Our Lord said, "I am … the truth." "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. … If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." This only is true freedom. (John 14:6; 8:32, 36.)

"But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil." If our words are honest and true, they need no other confirmation than "yes" or "no." The sense of this double mention of yes and no becomes clear from a very similar passage in James 5:12: "Yes" should really mean "Yes," and "No" should really mean "No." All that is more than that is only a sign that one generally does not take the truth too seriously, and therefore "cometh of evil."

In so praying, the Lord Jesus was evidently speaking of His people according to that which they are in the thought and purpose of God. The truth, however, of that which we ARE in God's mind is to exert a governing influence over us, and practically control us, for immediately following, the Lord prays, "sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is truth" (verse 17). To sanctify is to set apart, to separate, that the one so set apart may be delivered from evil and be wholly for the use and pleasure of God. Where the Father's word, which is truth, is received, we are separated to Himself, and of this practical separation Christ alone is the pattern and standard, for He adds, "For their sakes I sanctify [set apart in heaven] Myself, that they also might be truly sanctified" (verse 19, margin).