We live in a culture where “truth” is up for grabs. Whereas once respected sources of truth are labeled “fake news,” bloggers, podcasts, talk radio hosts, and other user-generated content all claim to speak “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” A couple of years ago, Harvard fellow and prolific journalist Heidi Legg, wrote an opinion piece for USA Today. In “Have you heard the news? But who owns what you’re hearing and reading? We need to know” (May 14, 2021), she wrote that over 3000 outlets call themselves “newsrooms in America,” and the “truth” they publish is owned by about “175 companies.” This may be alarming, but the dilemma is certainly not unique. Indeed, the serpent first planted the seeds of doubt in our first parents, when he said, “Has God indeed said?” (Gen 3:1). Since then, human relationships at all levels have been marred by intentional lies, half-truths, shades of truth, and sincere, but sincerely wrong, claims of truth. To squelch the fight over truth, some have ignorantly acquiesced to the lie, “You have your truth and I have mine.” Others, like the Roman governor before whom Jesus stood, have given up altogether, replying, “What is truth?” (John 18:38).
Courts of law, however, are necessarily governed by a standard of truth. Blind to unchecked truth claims, various lines of evidence are put forth and multiple witnesses corroborate the facts of a case before an unbiased verdict is reached and judgment rendered. In such settings, the law of God required truth and exacted severe punishments against false witnesses (E 20:16; 23:1-3, 6-8; Deut 19:15-21). Jesus Himself warned that our words will either commend or condemn us on the day of judgment (Matt 12:36-37) and James even advised against being a teacher, “knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment” (James 3:1). “Truth” squares with reality and those claiming to be its mouthpiece will someday stand before the God of truth to meet His delightful smile or dreaded frown (2 Tim 2:15).
The term “truth” (Gk. ἀλήθεια alētheia) dominates the fourth book of the New Testament. Appearing in John’s gospel (25x), more than any other book of the Bible, outside the Psalms (34x), the author claims that Jesus Christ was filled with truth (1:14), that truth came through Jesus Christ (1:18), that He told and bore witness to the truth (8:40, 45; 18:37), and even that Jesus is “the truth” itself (14:6) – the very embodiment of all that is true, factual, accurate, right, exact, etc. Anyone searching for truth reaches the end of his quest when he meets Jesus.
This very issue came to a legal head in John 5. The matter started when Jesus healed a man who had been lame for almost four decades. Daily he lay by a pool of water purported to hold healing power, but he was never helped. There the man sat day after day, barely getting along in life – lonely and despairing of hope. But “Jesus,” the evangelist recounts, “saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition for a long time” (v. 6). Rhetorically, the omniscient Christ asked if he wanted to be made well, and then said “Rise, take up your bed and walk” (v. 6), to which the man immediately responded!
All would have been OK, except that Jesus healed on the Sabbath and told the man to carry his belongings on the Sabbath. These restrictions were part of Rabbinic tradition, not the law of God. The Jewish leadership, therefore, sought to kill Jesus for His work (v. 16), and when He claimed to be the Son of God, essentially equal with God, they sought all the more to destroy Him (v. 18). But Jesus responded by laying out five lines of evidence and witness testimony to His person. The law of God called for at least two witnesses (Deut 17:6-7; 19:15); Jesus more than doubled that requirement. In the first instance, John the Baptist whom the Jews esteemed to be a prophet of God witnessed the truth of Jesus (vv. 31-35). The miracles of Jesus, such as the recent healing of the lame man (vv. 1-9) were testimony enough of Jesus being the prophesied Messiah of Israel (cf. Is 35:6). God the Father, He said, was also a witness to His person. At Jesus’ baptism, His Father in heaven asserted, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matt 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; cf. John 12:28). Indeed, John later writes that the one who does not believe Jesus is the Son of God has made God a liar (1 John 5:10). In addition to these witnesses, Jesus challenged His detractors to search the Scriptures for “these,” He said, “are they which testify of Me” (v. 39). Moses, in whom they trusted also “wrote about Me,” Jesus concludes (v. 46-47). So, neither the Jews nor anyone else for that matter has a case against Jesus Christ. There is just too much evidence, too much testimony, too much “truth” to overcome if one refuses to believe Him for who He is.
At the heart of the account (vv. 22-30), Jesus made the most startling claim of all that those who hear His word and believe in God who sent Him will have everlasting life, whereas those who don’t will be condemned. I urge you, dear reader, to consider the claims of the One who claimed to be the truth. Many have trusted Him for their eternal life and have found the truth. Your own search for truth will be satisfied when you meet Him.
