“What is truth?” That is what Pilate said during the trial of Jesus, and Jesus was standing right in front of him.
Jesus said earlier in His ministry:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him. John 14:6-7
Pilate didn’t recognize truth when Truth was standing in front of him. Skepticism abounds today. You hear the comment, “To each their own,” implying that truth can’t be known, so we are left to our own personal truth.
The only sin is speaking against someone else’s truth. You have a right to do what you want but it is hateful to challenge what someone else thinks.
Jesus states that truth exists for everyone and the penalty of not following truth is not knowing the Father. Implied in Jesus’s lacking knowledge of God statements… no relationship with God; no peace or happiness.
The “no truth” mongers of our age – professors in universities, celebrities who speak as self-important prophets, and even your neighbor – too easily claim no truth while Jesus stands in front of them.
Why don’t people know Jesus? Why can’t people see truth?
John 14:6-7 uses theological sophistication in the Greek language to define truth and explain how we get it. Read Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Nietzsche, and all the philosophers of the world. They all fail in comparison to what Jesus says.
Let me contribute to the ages-long discussion on truth from Jesus to Pilate to the philosophers, to nincompoop media stars, and ultimately to you. Below is an OGV translation of John 14:6-7:
I am the truth from which you find your way in life. My relationship with the Father reveals Him to you! If you follow me, experience me, know me, you will understand the truth about the Father and from that understanding, develop a relationship with Him. The relationship that I have with the Father, you can have too.
In the Greek of John 14:7, there are two words for knowing. English uses just one word “know,” while the Greek in John uses two words – “ginosko” and “oida.” “Ginosko” is personal while “oida” is technical.
Like knowing about gravity and then falling off a roof. Technical facts along with experience. Gravity = fact; falling = ouch!
The intertwining of these two Greek words explains that to know truth you must have both facts and relationship. Pilate did not have this relationship so did not see truth. A developing relationship with Jesus allows the truth of God to be revealed to you in a life of abundance.
If you deny truth and have never experienced Christ by faith, then without truth you are lost.
Doing your own thing sounds like a lot of fun, “Wow, let’s sin and sin even more.”
Then while partying on the roof of your lusts, you fall off. Proverbs teaches that lacking revelation, you cast off restraint (Proverbs 28:19).
An entire culture (and you?) dancing on a roof, falling off one by one, getting mad at God for gravity, and continuing to party!
Better to say, “I see Jesus; He is truth!”