God is Truth
By Lucas Sharley
In John 18, Jesus tells Pilate, “In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of the truth listens to me.” And Pilate responds, “What is truth?” This is not a smart philosophical question. Pilate is dodging the issue. Jesus didn’t say, “I am truth.” He said, “I testify to THE truth.” And this is a different thing to say.
In one sense, it’s true that God is truth. He creates and defines us. His knowledge of us is reality; what God knows about us is the truest thing about us. But God isn’t the quality of things being true or false. That is a property of the universe; and God cannot be contained with-in the universe he has made.
God is not only truth, but the truth of salvation. And that’s truly good news.
Lucas Sharley
And it’s not entirely good news that God is truth. The truth about us isn’t pleasant. But God is not only truth but love—he sends Jesus to testify about THE TRUTH. The truth that makes us free. If you say, that is the house for me. You’re using ‘the’— definite article—to say that this is the best and final thing in the category of house. You were looking for this all along. Jesus came to talk about the final truth of the universe, the one that holds it all together: that God acts to rescue us in Jesus. This truth makes sense of everything. It shows us how God loves us while dealing with our sin. And the truth shows our end, our final purpose: to be with Jesus forever.
The truth lights up a world of broken mirrors and shadows. In this valley of the shadow of death, life can appear empty or pointless or cruel. Jesus shows us that the universe has a good purpose. At the centre of reality is the powerful love of God in Jesus Christ. This is the truth.
The truth defeats all lies—that this world is all there is; that this world means nothing; that God has abandoned us; that God doesn’t care about evil; that a human being is insignificant. Jesus shows that all these are false. If we look at him, we see the truth.
God is not only truth, but the truth of salvation. And that’s truly good news.
Lucas pastors the English congregation at Eight Mile Plains Methodist Church in Brisbane, QLD.