life giving truth
We live in a day in which many people doubt the very idea of Truth. There are some who would tell you that there is no sure way to really know anything for certain. Lots of people live by the mantra, “what’s true for me is true for me, and what’s true for you is true for you.” They have a strong belief in personal truth, but serious skepticism toward absolute, overarching truth claims.
As followers of Christ, we acknowledge that Jesus himself made many truth claims, and at the center of them all was the statement he made in John 14:6 when he said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Jesus not only believed in absolute truth, he professed himself to be at the center of absolute, life-giving truth.
To be a Christ-follower, then, is not only to believe in the idea of truth, it is to believe in a person who claimed to be the Truth. Fundamentally, when we say that we value life-giving truth”, what we’re saying is that we value Jesus as our source of Truth. He is ultimate reality.
When the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus about how they were to grow and mature in their faith, he told them it would happen by “speaking the truth in love” to one another (Eph.4:15). Their growth would correlate with being reminded of–and being shaped by–the truth. A few verses later in the same passage, Paul explicitly says, “the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21). So what he was ultimately saying was that the Ephesians would grow in their faith as they spoke Jesus to each other. Another way of saying this is to say that the way Christians grow is by reminding one another of the gospel: the good news of who Jesus is, what he has done for us, and how he taught us to live as his disciples.
Loving Truth is Jesus-centered. The most loving thing that we can do for one another, for ourselves, and for our city is to center our lives on the person, work, and teachings of Jesus.
In John 6, there’s a fascinating scene where Jesus has basically just scandalized and offended an entire crowd of people by telling them that he is true bread come down from heaven, and that instead of coming to him to have their bellies fed again, because he had just performed a miracle by multiplying bread and feeding a huge crowd of people, that they should instead feast on his flesh and drink his blood. The crowd is put off by Jesus’ grotesque language, and they all leave. Turning to his disciples, Jesus asks them, “Are you going to leave too?” They reply, “Where else would we go? You have the words of eternal life."
As disciples of Jesus, we confess…
“Jesus, life-giving truth is found in you.
Even if what you say is hard...
Even if what you say is offensive…
Even if what you say is counter-cultural…
You have the words of eternal life.”
As the time drew near for his suffering and death, Jesus began to warn his disciples that he would soon be leaving them, but he encouraged them that when he went away, he would send the Counselor, who he called the Spirit of Truth, to guide them and help them.
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.” John 14:26
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth...He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-14
Jesus–who was the Truth and who had the words of eternal life–sent the Spirit of Truth to empower his disciples to remember all he taught them, and to guide them into all truth, so that they might testify to the truth.
Jesus told the disciples, “When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father— the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father— he will testify about me. You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.” John 15:26-27
The apostle Peter summarizes in 2 Peter 1 that they (the disciples) were eyewitnesses of Jesus who prophesied about him under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:20-21 says, “No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
We believe the Bible that we possess is a collection of Holy Spirit guided writings about Jesus. They accurately reflect Jesus’ life, ministry, and teachings because the Spirit of God helped Jesus’ disciples remember what he said and taught them so that they could testify about him.
So the primary way that we value life-giving truth is by valuing the Bible. The scriptures are how we center our lives upon Jesus, and upon the truth.