What is the Truth?

We remember God saying, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways. Isaiah 55:8. Still, we tend to think of God and His ways according to the ways of man. Our Bibles are written in man’s language, but just as His thoughts and ways are different from ours so also is His speech. Jesus said to the Pharisees, Why do you not understand My speech? It is because ye cannot hear My Word. John 8:43. After relating the Parable of the Sower, Jesus said, Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Matthew 13:9. And to the churches in the first two chapters of Revelation He said, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. Revelation 2:7. It takes a special ability that only comes from God to hear and understand His Word. It is not easy to learn how to hear what God is speaking. Therefore, man reads the Bible using his own reasoning according to his own ways, which are completely different from God’s, and the result is thousands of different religious groups with thousands of different interpretations. What is the truth?

John 14:6 Jesus said unto them, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes unto the Father but by Me.

Truth according to man is one thing, but according to God it is something else entirely. Any statement that is correct is a truth according to man, but to God only the Lord is Truth. So, you see, a word can have two different meanings. To God it has one meaning; to man it means something else. Jesus is not just a correct statement. He is the Truth, and Truth is Life – His Life. Just because someone makes a correct statement doesn’t mean he is speaking Truth according to God’s definition. More than that, just because a person is quoting Scripture doesn’t mean he is speaking Truth. I’ll explain that later. The Truth is anything spoken that has within it the Life, Spirit, and Presence of the Lord. It is Truth when He is in it. If He isn’t in it, it is not the Truth even if it is a correct fact. This is the Scriptural definition of Truth.

John 8:43-44 Why do you not understand My speech? It is because you cannot hear My Word.
44 You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the Truth, because there is no Truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The devil is the lie and the father of lies. Jesus is the Truth and the devil is the lie. That which carries the Life of Jesus Christ is the Truth. That which carries the presence of the devil is the lie. If the devil speaks a correct fact, it is still a lie because his nature is in it – he speaks of his own. What the Pharisees and scribes spoke were often correct facts, but not the Truth because the presence of the devil was in what they said instead of the Life of Christ.

Matthew 4:1-6 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterwards hungry.
3 And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds forth out of the mouth of God.
5 Then the devil takes Him up into the holy city, and sets Him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down; for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.

The devil spoke Scripture from Psalm 91:11-12, For He shall give His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways. They shall bear Thee up in their hands, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. Was the Scripture the devil quoted from the Psalms the Word of God? Was it the Truth? No, it was not. It came out of the devil’s mouth, and there is no Truth in him. When Scripture comes out of Christ, it is Truth and it is the Word of God. When Scripture comes out of the devil, it is not the Truth and it is not the Word of God. When Scripture comes out of a person, it may be the Truth and the Word of God or it may not be the Truth and the Word of God. Jesus is also the Life. If His Life is in you and what you are speaking is coming from that Life, then what you are speaking is The Truth and the Word of God, whether it is Scripture or not. Anything Jesus says whether it is Scripture or just words of communication is the Truth and it is the Word of God. Just because a person is speaking Scripture does not mean it is the Word of God.

I Corinthians 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed; and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.

“No man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed” is easy to understand. What about the next part of the verse? No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. Anyone can say the words “Jesus is the Lord.” The key is: What is the life in you speaking? The words you speak and what is emanating from you may be two different things. The words “Jesus is Lord” are only saying “Jesus is Lord” when the Holy Spirit is in you and in the words “Jesus is Lord.” If the Lord is not in you, you cannot say “Jesus is Lord.” It is what your life emanates that matters. If you are not in submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then speaking the words “Jesus is Lord” will mean nothing. If the Life of Jesus is not in you, neither will He be in the words you speak.

The difference is not whether you are a Christian or not but whether His Life is in you or not. And if His Life is in you, is the output of His Life from you consistent? It was not with Peter (Matthew 16:15-23). Jesus asked His disciple, “Whom do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus answered, “Blessed thou art, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father.” Peter had a revelation from the Father. God spoke through Him. Then later in the same chapter when Jesus spoke of His crucifixion in Jerusalem, Peter rebuked Him saying, “Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee.” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offense to Me; for your interests are not of God but of man.” Peter was a channel for the Word of God at one moment and shortly after a channel for Satan. So it is with many Christians. Don’t think too highly of yourself. You’re probably like the tree of knowledge of good and evil, a mixture of God and man. Neither be too down on yourself. Keep crying out for “Truth in the inward parts” (Psalm 51:6).

What is the Truth? Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” The Life is the Way, the Truth, and Jesus. The Way is the Life, the Truth, and Jesus. The Truth is the Way, the Life, and Jesus. The Truth is more than a correct statement. It is the Life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is also the Way, the progressive way into God, for no man cometh unto God but through Jesus Christ!

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