"The Testimony of Truth"

… “Pontius Pilate entered the judgment hall again”… (Jn. 18:33). There before him was Jesus, the presumed convict from Galilee. In the midst of a tornado of accusations, Jesus stood silent, faultless, guiltless…silent. As the prosecution pressed for the death penalty, his only rebuttal was a claim of the witness of truth. “What is truth?” thundered Pilate as he stormed out of the room (Jn. 18:37-38). This is the cynical spirit that pervades our relativistic age. It implies that truth cannot be known, or does not even exist. The love for the truth is its only antidote, and will be costly in this hour.

Contrary to popular opinion, truth is absolute. God has dropped a plumbline of absolute truth down from heaven—Jesus Christ. Relativism contends, “that may be true for you, but not for me…it all depends on how you look at it…nothing is black and white…” However, the universe does not approximately hold together in partial perfection because there is nothing approximate or partial about God (Jas. 1:18, Ps. 19). Jesus is not approximately true or partially right. Think of that! Jesus Christ is absolute…absolutely holy, absolutely right, and absolutely true. The spirit of the age and worldly wisdom constantly try to undo absolutes and obscure the truth, creating a gray haze of convenience to justify personal desires and actions. Nevertheless, common sense and conscience add their agreement to the “testimony of truth.” There is nothing relative about stop signs, poison warning labels, or a question on a mathematics exam.

In Jesus Christ, the light of absolute truth was seen and heard. There at the hall of judgment, the Gabatha Pavement…Jesus took the judgment seat and trumpeted truth in a sin-shattering silence. Yes, in quietness and confidence, Jesus “published the name of the Lord…a God of Truth and without iniquity, just and right is He” (Dt. 32:3-4). Then, in the face of relativism, the citadel for Adamic rebellion, a standard was raised. As a plumbline, Jesus became God’s sovereign instrument of separation and judgment (Mt. 3:12, 13:91, Acts 17:30-31). Everything becomes black and white as the Spirit and Word agree, separating light and darkness, right and wrong, truth and Lies.

“What is truth?” Pontius Pilate never asked a more important question. The man Christ Jesus, born to bear witness to the truth, had spoken loud and clear. He need not answer to absurd accusations, for the truth He held was self-evident and exposed all lies. He need not speak up, because to utter a single truth would have been to obscure the living truth that He was (Jn. 1:14, 7:18, 14:6). If Pilate, or any other judge and skeptic could not see the truth before him, then nothing he might have heard could have saved him (Lk. 16:31).

May God the Father open our eyes to see the truth that is ever before us; and kindle anew a love for the truth, which alone saves us from perishing in this deceptive age of relativism (2 Thes. 2:10). May the Lord Jesus Christ inspire us to seek and obey the truth, that God’s house would testify to the world as “the pillar and ground of truth” (1Tim. 3:15). May the Spirit of Truth lead us in the will and way of God; for therein are we established in the present truth, revealing the life that is the light of men (2 Pet. 1:12). May we desire truth in our inward parts (Ps 51:6) that God’s glory may be seen as all grows dim before the rising daystar, the coming sun of righteousness.

“I believe that in the end the truth will conquer.” --John Wycliffe

“The Generation that strips itself of every impure motivation and loves Christ for His sake will usher in a mighty visitation from heaven! Such ones will see the risen and glorious Jesus!”

--David Smithers