What is Truth?

“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

John 8:32

When Jesus stood before Pilate at his trial before his death, Pilate states "So you are a King?" The charge against him was one of treason. That charged carried with it the death penalty.

Jesus answered:

"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."

So Pilate asks a follow up question: "What is Truth?" There is no answer given in scripture to that question. However, after this interaction Pilate goes out to the crowd and says, "I find no crime in him".

The reason that there is no spoken answer is that Jesus is Truth incarnate. For the Christian, "truth" is not an abstract like a mathematical equation. 1 + 1 = 2. The scientist would say that this is truth. It is repeatable, demonstrable and verifiable. But, the empirical way of looking at life is not how we live our lives. We make decisions daily on the basis of faith. When we write a check we believe that the money will be in our bank account when the check reaches the bank. That is an act of faith. In the same way, how do we do know that something actually happened? In our criminal law, we have to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that a person committed a criminal act before one can be punished as a criminal. Yet, unfortunately, some innocent people are convicted; and, many who are guilty go free. How do we ever "know" something is true?

There is within each of us a "filter" that we develop by experience that we use daily to tell if something is true or not. Sometimes we are fooled; and, we learn by those experiences that not everything is always as it seems. In fact, we learn the hard way that the unseen things are more important than what is seen. How does one measure virtue? How can one tell if someone loves them? What demonstrates integrity?

Jesus made a bold claim. He said in John 14:6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. " Jesus claims to be God in the flesh. That claim either makes him a mad man; or, he is whom he claimed to be. John tells us in the first chapter of his book that the "Word of God" which spoke the world into existence was made flesh. The reason Jesus could not give Pilate any further answer is that Pilate was looking at Truth incarnate. While I don't think he "saw" Jesus as the Messiah; he did come to the conclusion that Jesus was "not guilty". His internal filter was resonating with God's eternal truth which stood before him. Yet, because of his "fear", he was manipulated by the powers of his time to condemn an innocent man to death by crucifixion.

Every day we each live our lives making life and death decisions on the basis of what we think is "truth"? What is the basis of the internal filter we each use? Ultimately, it is each's person's conscience. The problem is that a person's individual filter can become warped and out of sync with ultimate truth. When that happens, bad decisions are made that have eternal and irreparable consequences. We, in essence, miss the mark. The Bible calls this "sin". There is a standard by which we will all be judged someday. That standard is God's truth. For the Christian, truth is not an abstract; but, a personality. It is the personality revealed in scripture about Jesus Christ. Thus, the standard by which Christians are to be judged is "What would Jesus do?" That answer is "truth".