What is Truth?

(John 18:33-40)

This is a question that was posed some 2,000 years ago by Pontius Pilate when Jesus was brought before him. Pilate had asked Jesus some questions about whether He was a king, and Jesus replied in verse 37 saying,

“You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.”

Then Pilate utters these words that have echoed down the ages and still today demand an answer…What is truth? Today we will look at this in some detail and hopefully get a glimpse of the truth that comes through Jesus Christ.

The Truth Will Make You Free

One of the most often quoted verses in the New Testament, especially amongst Christians is John 8:31-32 which says,

31 Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

The truth will make you free is a verse that resounds throughout the Christian world, and is often quoted in the secular world as well.

But although so many Christians say these words, do they really know what this “truth”is that Jesus was referring to? Do they truly understand the level & depth of the truth and the freedom, for that is what it is, that Jesus was offering to mankind in these words?

Given that there are so many different opinions on Christianity among Christians, and there are so many different and often conflicting beliefs, one can only surmise that many Christians do NOT know the reality of this truth.

The reality of this truth is FREEDOM. If the truth will make you free, then Jesus was saying there is freedom in understanding the truth. The truth brings freedom. But freedom from what? And therein lies the confusion amongst Christians.

Free From What?

Why did Jesus come? In a nutshell He came to deal with sin. Man was separated from God because man, through Adam & Eve chose to sin rather than obey God.

But God gave man another chance by sending His only Son, Jesus Christ to be sacrificed so that we could be set free from sin and receive life.

When Jesus died he paved the way for mankind to be able to come to God and to stand before Him perfected through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”(John 1:29)

Jesus dealt with sin already as we see in Hebrews 9:28, “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

He is not coming back again to deal with sin because He already did that when He died. He became the perfect sacrifice for sin because He paid the ultimate price, death, which is the wages of sin, but without ever “earning the right”to die. Jesus did not sin but paid the penalty of a sinner. Jesus balanced the books between man and God for as all men die through the sin of Adam, so too all men can receive life through the obedience of Christ who died for us.

All mankind will take on the death of Adam because of sin. But all mankind has the offer to now take on the death of Christ to pay for sin BEFORE our physical death. When we take on Christ’s death NOW, we are removed from sin.

How do we take on Christ’s Death?

Today we can enter into the death of Christ through baptism. As Paul showed in Romans 6:3-7.

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
7 For he who has died is freed from sin.

When we are baptised we put on Christ’s death. We are baptised into the death of Christ and through baptism we die with Christ. We are united in death with Christ, and so as verse 7 says, “He who has died is freed from sin.”

This is part of the freedom that is in the truth when Jesus said, “The truth shall make you free.” The truth sets you free from sin. You are no longer in slavery to sin. Sin is dead to you because you are dead to sin, not because of what you do, but because of what Jesus did for you.

So what do you have to do? Just believe it, which is to have faith in the working of God. Just believe and KNOW that you are set free from sin and that sin no longer has any power over you.

As far as God is concerned, you are now a dead person through your faith in Jesus Christ, and if you are dead you are no longer a sinner because sin ends at death. Let me repeat that…SIN ENDS AT DEATH!

When you now look at what Paul said in Romans 6:10-11,

10 The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

This is how you must think. Do NOT think of yourself as a sinner because Jesus has already removed your sins. God does not see you as a sinner either because through faith you have died to sin with Christ and you now live to God. You MUST “…consider yourself dead to sin…”

Are You A Sinner?

No. You are not a sinner anymore IF you have faith that through your baptism you have died to sin in Jesus Christ.

Do you still call yourself a sinner? Most Christians do because they do not understand the truth of the freedom that Christ has ALREADY GIVEN THEM! Freedom from sin is not something to come after the Lord returns. He already dealt with sin. You already have this freedom NOW…if you have faith!

To make my point, let me ask this question. Will a sinner ever stand before God? I am reasonably sure most Christians will answer…No. The one thing that stands between man & God preventing man standing before Him is sin,”…since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”(Romans 3:23)

So are you a sinner? If you answer “Yes” then you condemn yourself to NEVER be able to stand before God! If you are a sinner you are separated from God as John wrote in 1 John 3:5-9.

5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
6 No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as he is righteous.
8 He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
9 No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.

Here again we see Jesus came to “take away sins”and yet when you call yourself a sinner you are bringing back those sins that the Lord already took away. We see also in these words that if you call yourself a sinner, you are not born of God, for no one born of God sins, but instead you are born of the devil. And once more we see here that no one who sins has seen or known God for they cannot see Him.

But when they are reborn through baptism into Jesus Christ, fully holding onto the freedom that comes through faith in what He did for us to release us from sin, THEN God’s nature can be created in them as new creations, and then they can stand before God in the knowledge that their sins are forgiven, taken away and behind them.

Now I am sure someone is going to ask or think…”What about when I mess up now? What if I tell one of those little white lies, or look at someone with lust or do one of the many things we weak humans do? Isn’t that sin?”

The Lord dealt with those situations too. He was not going to cleanse you of your past sin and leave you like that so that the very next time you messed up you would become unclean again. No…he dealt with the present and future as well and I would gladly discuss that further, but this post is already too long.

For those of you who truly want to know more about this, email me. My contact details are on my website and the blog. You should also look at the additional links to posts below here as they cover more on this topic.

The truth is about freedom from sin in all its many forms, whether past present or future. And when you understand how this works, the release and the relief you will feel is like nothing ever experienced by man…because it is a spiritual release. It is the TRUE freedom that is from God, through faith in Jesus Christ. Write to me and I will explain further. This is enough for now.

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The Great Commission Part 3
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Spreading The Gospel 2
Rise And Walk
Jesus Fulfilled Law
Its Not About The Law
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The Resurrection Of The Lord
Grace And Truth Came Through Jesus Christ
Jesus Came To Save Not To Condemn
Are You A Sinner
The Truth Will Make You Free
Satan Cast Out
Jesus Is The Way
If You Keep My Commandments
Why Jesus Died