The Magnitude Of The Importance Of Spiritual Truth

The Lord Jesus Christ said something extremely profound as He stood before His executioner Pontius Pilate two thousand years ago. The King of Kings could have said many things to that man standing in front of Him who was about to send Him to the cross, but this is primarily what He desired to say:
 

“To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” – John 18:37

 
Jesus came to testify to the truth. He did not come to do lots of miracles just to make everybody happy. He did various miracles to bear witness of – or testify – to the truth of his messiahship. He didn’t preach those sermons on the mount just to give people some nice rules to live by. He came to testify that He is the living word of God and He is the Universe’s lawgiver. He came to testify that men’s deeds are evil. He came to testify that men need a Savior, a divine Savior. He came to testify that He is that one and only Savior. He came to testify that without the shedding of blood there can be no atonement for our sins. He came to testify that He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He came to testify of the infinite holiness of God. He came to testify of the wickedness of mankind, that they would kill their own Savior when He came to visit them in the flesh (Matthew 17:12). And the truth of this testimony was graphically illustrated in Christ’s crucifixion. The crucifixion graphically illustrated the degree of depravity and sin and hatred of mankind towards their God, a God who would dare to hold men accountable for all their thoughts words and deeds of their lifetime.
 
So yes, Jesus came to testify to the truth and that is the one thing that mankind hates the most – especially when the truth is directed from God to the sinner. Spiritual light exposes the darkness in the hearts of men. They won’t come to the light lest their deeds should be reproved (John 3:19-20). So we see that truth is fundamentally the most important thing in life and in eternity and the most important thing to God. Please don’t misunderstand me. I think that God’s holiness certainly is truly an important attribute of God as are His other attributes such as mercy and justice. However, truth seems to be even more pivotal simply because Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). His word is truth (John 17:17). How could we depend on anything God revealed to man if God Himself did not embody absolute truth? The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) and with the help of Satan, man has been trying to alter and deny the truth from the beginning of human existence. But that, for man, is a losing battle because the God of all truth changeth not.
 
We need a God of truth simply because we are so easily deceived. Jesus called the Pharisees liars because it was their nature to lie (John 8:44-45). It is the nature of God to never lie. But it is the nature of sinful man to lie constantly, especially when it involves trying to hide his sins. And so it goes – truth is not subjective or relative or a matter of one man’s opinion versus another man’s opinion. The Truth from God’s perspective, which is the only truth that really matters, is absolute Biblical truth. And what this means for mankind is quite serious. The implications are monumentally serious. It means that not all religions are valid, not all religions are true, not all belief systems are true and in fact there can be no more than one single true view of God if truth is to have any real any meaning. And to be able to grasp the greatest degree of truth about God, we – the created – have to rely upon God – the Creator – to reveal the truth about Himself to us. Because we are so easily self-deceived, we need God to reveal the truth about our spiritual condition to us. Just because we may not like the truth about our sinfulness that God reveals to us – does not mean that we can safely ignore that truth.
 
A final note: Christians are walking on very dangerous ground when they put unity ahead of truth or when they do not couple unity with truth. Unity in truth is a good thing. Unity disregarding truth is a great evil. A church that boasts that they don’t let doctrine divide them may end up allowing serious heresy to take root. If truth matters to our Lord and God, to the point of speaking it even though it meant his execution, shouldn’t it matter to His children? — R.M. Kane
 

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth” – John 16:13

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