What is truth according to the Bible?

Throughout the scriptures there is that which God designates as 'the truth.' It is divine, and above the opinions of men, however wise and pious they may be. In the O.T. the admonition is given, "Buy the truth and sell it not." Prov. 23:23. 'The truth' must refer to God, who is true, but is not called 'the truth:' hence it comprises all that may be known of God, whether declared by creation or made known by revelation. Truth is not simply that which is held as dogma, but must be received in the soul. Paul asked the Galatians who had hindered them that they should not obey 'the truth?' Gal. 5:7. Judgement is coming upon Christendom "because they received not the love of 'the truth' that they might be saved." 2 Thess. 2:10. Truth is the real way of liberty: "the truth shall make you free." John 8:32, 36. Truth cannot be separated from the Lord Jesus, who is "the way, the truth, and the life." This is objectively; subjectively the Spirit is the truth as having come from the glorified Christ. In the three Epistles of John 'the truth' is constantly referred to, and a Christian woman is warned not to receive any one into her house, nor wish him God-speed unless he holds the doctrines taught by the apostles — in other words, 'the truth.'

Now why is this? For a reason of the deepest import; and, as being of a general character, we may glance at it for a moment. Jesus is THE TRUTH. The truth is to be found nowhere else. You may find other things, but the truth is in Him, and severed from Him it is nowhere else. It is remarkable that Scripture never calls the Father the truth, nor ever uses an expression of which Rationalism is exceedingly fond — that God is the truth. I grant that not a few divines say so too. They are not aware that they are rationalizing when they thus speak. No doubt they mean nothing wrong; but very surely they are wrong. Scripture is right, and nothing but Scripture is divinely authoritative. How comes it then that Scripture calls Jesus the truth? and why is it that neither God nor the Father is ever said to be the truth? The reason is this: God could not be said to be the truth because "the truth" means the expression of what a person or thing, is — the revelation of what it really is. The statement which reveals another fully and truly is the truth. Consequently God, being the self-subsisting One who alone can say I AM, has been pleased to reveal Himself, not in the written word only, but in and by One who is God and became man, and thus alone could be the expression of Himself to man. The truth means the expression of what God is, not merely the being of God. Hence the blessedness of revelation by the personal Word, the Son who when none saw God at any time declared Him the Father. Christ is called therefore in Scripture "the image of the invisible God."

When the fulness of time came and it pleased God to give a perfect revelation of Himself in Christ, then it could be said "We beheld His glory … full of grace and truth," (John 1:14), for truth is REALITY — the revelation of all that God is, with the consequent putting of everything into its right position in regard to Him. He who knows God as revealed in Christ, and is by that knowledge taken out of the mists of error, has been brought into the realm of truth.

The word of God is truth and right through the New Testament books "truth" is mentioned, yet the word occurs with special frequency in the Gospel and Epistles of the apostle John and in the first and second Epistles to Timothy. Inasmuch as these are amongst the latest of the New Testament writings, this shows us that when error began to raise its head within the church the Spirit of God began to emphasize "truth." In contrast with the error the "truth" aspect of Christianity was brought to the fore.

In the world-system truth is absent. There are to be found of course honest men who would not wilfully tell a lie, yet what marks the world is unreality, and apart from the revelation of God we speculate and grope in the dark but never arrive at the reality of things. When Pilate asked his question "What is truth?" (John 18:38), he evidently spoke in a cynical vein. As a Roman Governor, yet himself not above pandering to popular clamour and being perverted by monetary considerations, he knew only too well what went on beneath the surface.

Everything has its true nature, its true character, in the eyes of God. That is the truth. It is not that He is the truth. The truth is the right and perfect expression of that which a thing is (and, in an absolute way, of that which all things are), and of the relations in which it stands to other things, or in which all things stand towards each other. Thus God could not be the truth. He is not the expression of some other thing. Everything relates to Him. He is the centre of all true relationship, and of all moral obligation. Neither is God the measure of all things, for He is above all things; and nothing else can be so above them, or He would not be so. It is God become man; it is Christ, who is the truth, and the measure of all things. But all things have their true character in the eyes of God: and He judges righteously of all, whether morally or in power. He acts according to that judgment. He is just. He also knows evil perfectly, being Himself goodness, that it may be perfectly an abomination to Him, that He may repel it by His own nature. He is holy. Now the new man, created after the divine nature, is so in righteousness and holiness of truth. What a privilege! What a blessing! It is, as another apostle has said, to be "partakers of the divine nature." Adam had nothing of this.

"Truth" I hold to be definite, unchangeable, and perfectly revealed in the Scriptures. These are, as regards man, the only fountain and depository of truth. As to its essence and living embodiment, it is found alone in Him who said, "I AM THE TRUTH" — happily for us, "the way and the life" also. If others hold not this, it is their loss. They have not the anchor that can be trusted in the storm. Truth, I deny not, may be matter of long and hesitating and anxious enquiry. Because truth, which is but the expression of the mind of God though perfectedly revealed, is not at once, and of necessity, perfectly understood — not even by those who are called "wisdom's children," and are "born of God." "We know in part, and we prophesy in part." But truth itself in the Scriptures, is perfect, absolute, and unchangeable. There is much in the apprehension of this. It removes doubt from the pathway, and is the hinge of all true enquiry. It lays open the well, and how its living waters may be drawn. It points to the oracle, and the temper in which it must be consulted.

But I wish also to show that, while the church, as already referred to, is not and could not be the truth, any more than ministry, Scripture is the truth, as being not only its best source, but its only standard. Such is the blessedness of the Scripture God has given. It is the standard by which we can test every statement that is made by man. There, above all, it writes its own divine character. The written word is the truth even as Christ is. If Christ were not the truth, scripture would not be so in the same way in which it is. Christ personally — the written word as the standard of truth — is the test for everything that can be said or written now, in the hands of all that fear the Lord, whether it be those that minister or those that are ministered to. What an invaluable prize to have the perfect standard of truth, and not only a means of knowledge! This means we may have from one another. A man, woman, child, a tract even, it has been remarked, might be the medium of communicating the truth; but none of these is the standard: only the word of God is. Scripture has this character, and this because throughout Christ is its constant object, directly or indirectly, — Christ who is the truth.

The danger in one epistle is in reception, in the other in exclusion; the truth is the test in both cases. The Roman governor asked: “What is truth?” Had he been divinely taught he might have seen it personified in the Prisoner to whom the question was addressed, for Christ is the truth. In Him we learn all that God is in the full revelation of Himself; and in Him we learn what man is according to God’s eternal thought. The truth as to God, the truth as to man, the truth as to the Father and the Son, and the relationships in which believers stand with these Divine Persons; the truth as to righteousness, salvation, and eternal life; and the truth as to atonement, on the basis of which these blessings can alone be ours—all is known in the measure in which we know Christ, for He is the truth. The gospel is the word of truth, the Scriptures are the record of it, and the house of God upon earth is the pillar and base of it. The truth judges everything which is contrary to it, and becomes the test for all practical fellowship with one another in the midst of religious corruption; and hence the prominence given to it in these two short epistles.

But now all that God is, in His attributes and nature, has been declared, along with all the purposes of His love. Nothing has been kept back; so that John can tell the babes that they “know all things” (1 John 2:20). The depths of God, the depths of man, the depths of Satan—all have been sounded, and the moral foundations of every work, human, devilish, or divine, have come to light. “The present truth” does not differ at all from the truth that “shall be with us for ever” (2 John 2). We know that Christ is in us (John 14:20), and ever with us (Heb. 13:5); the Spirit of truth is also in us, and abides with us for ever (John 14:16-17), and so it is with regard to the truth itself, it is “in us, and shall be with us for ever” (2 John 2). Christ is the truth, the Spirit is the power by which it takes effect in our souls, and the Scripture is the God-given record of it, the means by which it is made known to us in word and doctrine.

It is set before us in Christ: He is the Truth. In Him we see God in manifestation: “He that has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Apart from Him nothing can be learned regarding the nature of God. “He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). Marvellous and blessed revelation!

"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).

Herein lies the transcendent value of Scripture. Senses cannot avail beyond what acts on them. Reason can give no more than conclusions or probabilities. Even to ascertain facts is beyond its province; still more, truth moral or spiritual. How can reason furnish man with what most deeply concerns his being and state, present and future? How, above all, make God known and enjoyed, served and worshipped, now and evermore? Reason cannot, ought not, to be a groundwork for souls in view of eternity; and it is only perverted thus by such as will not bow to Scripture. What must be, is one thing; what is, reasoning, which deals with inference, cannot discover. Now, truth is the making known what is; and this in divine things can only be by revelation. Facts rest on sense or testimony; supernatural facts on a testimony above man, even if through him. To be made known with divine authority for man's blessing, they must be revealed by God, as they are in the Bible. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.