The Truth will set you free!
In Jesus’ discourse with Pilate, found in the Gospel of John, Jesus said to Pilate, … “everyone who is of the truth hears my voice”, to which Pilate replied What is truth? He then went through the process of setting about killing Jesus.
Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate *said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and *said to them, “I find no guilt in Him. John 18:37-38a
Pilate’s problem with truth was that it was inconvenient; rather than stand on principle and risk a riot, he would rather give the crowd what they wanted, even if it was an evil choice.
Today in the 21st century, we find ourselves in Pilate’s shoes, and rather than stand on the truth, we would rather give the crowd what they want. Let me explain this by commenting on facts.
Facts and understanding the world around us.
For this exercise, I am defining a fact as a “thing or event that is known and proven to be true”.
Facts are important to us; they form the basis of our learning and are the structure by which we accumulate knowledge. In all areas of learning, science, history, medicine, etc., facts play a key role in the way we understand the world around us. We gather facts, study the facts, and we formulate a hypothesis based on the facts. We test that hypothesis or theory against the continued study of the known facts, and we draw a conclusion. If the facts disprove the theory, we continue study and gather more facts, test new theories, and eventually, through this process, we understand more about the matter at hand because of our accumulation of facts and our testing of theories against those facts. That is how history is studied, and medical science makes advancements. Facts prove or disprove theories and help us to better see and understand the world around us.
We can see the importance of facts in the practice of law. Over the centuries, we have built a legal system that is fact-based and focused on finding out the truth of a matter and rewarding or penalising people according to the facts or evidence presented in court. We set rules of evidence gathering and rules by which that evidence can be presented in court.
When it comes to the legal process, accuracy is everything. The facts of the matter are presented to a court, together with the theories of what happened; the theories are tested against the facts, and a decision, or verdict, is made. If people lie to the court or tamper with the evidence, then they can be sent to jail for doing so. In our society, facts and truth matter. In our court system, we tell people, we want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and we mean it.
Alternative facts
I remember in 2017 I heard a person at a press conference talk about the “alternative facts” of a situation, and I wondered what they meant by “alternative facts”. There are only facts that will either support or disprove a theory or claim. It is a binary matter of true or false. Yes or No.
But it’s not just “alternative facts” that concern me; there are other aspects of people’s perceptions of truth that are just as worrying. Like the person who tells another, you have your truth, and I have mine. I perceive the world only through the framework of my personal truth, and my personal truth does not have to be based on facts. There is no absolute truth, no right and wrong, just unproven truth at a personal level.
There being alternative facts and untested personal truth is an extension of the Hindu idea that, as rivers end up in the sea, so all religions are basically the same and end up attaching us to some greater collective conscience. The idea is that you can choose whatever river you like, and it is all the same because it all ends up taking you to the same place. This dangerous idea is very prevalent in current Western thought.
With no absolute truth to guide them, some people base their worldview solely on untested theories and, in some cases, conspiracy theories rather than on proven facts. For example, some people believe that COVID was a conspiracy to get us all to take a vaccine that was really the “mark of the beast” in disguise. The internet is full of sites that preach this kind of stuff and offer no factual basis to support their allegations, just links to other conspiracy sites that make similar untested claims.
Then, there are the “flat earthers”, some of whom claim that the reason the people in America can’t see the Southern Cross in their night sky is not a horizon (that would suggest the earth has a curved surface), but rather that the Americans are just too far away to see it! Think about it, we are talking about stars that are 88+ light-years away from the Earth, not being seen from a flat Earth, or surface, because the people in America are 15,000 miles further north than the people in Australia. Really!!
Or how about the ones that say that the moon landing was faked? This conspiracy theory has a hard time explaining the presence of retroreflector mirrors on the moon, placed there by Apollo missions 11, 14 and 15 that scientists use to this day to bounce lasers from the Earth to the Moon. The presence of these mirrors makes it possible for scientists to measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon at any given time with millimetre precision.
A conspiracy theory is just another theory that needs to be tested by the known facts. The reluctance of conspiracy theorists to allow their theories to be tested by known facts should be worrying to us all. We only have facts and theories. The facts of the matter will only support or disprove the theories that we have.
As a Christian, I am so glad that the Bible and its history been put to the test of research and fact-checking for centuries, because time after time, archaeology and research prove the historicity of the Bible. Now, some things cannot be measured, such as the New Testament’s claim that Jesus is God incarnate; that is a matter of faith, but, if the historicity of the Bible is true, it gives us confidence that it’s non testable claims are also true. So, let’s look at what the Bible says about truth.
Jesus and the truth
Jesus had a lot to say about the truth. We do not have time here to explore all that He said on the subject, but I will make some comments about what He has said.
In John 8:32, Jesus associates truth with freedom. If you know the truth, the truth will set you free.
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:32
Freedom, according to Jesus, is about knowing the truth. And by implication, if we know the truth, we will live the truth.
There are a lot of conversations that are happening around us, and many ideas and theories are being planted into our minds. Not all of them are true. The internet has brought a revolution to how we live, but it has also given a voice to people who propagate ideas and lifestyles that are destructive to others because they are not based on the truth.
If you accept that ideas result in actions, and that by our actions we impact ourselves and others, then it must be important for us to guard what we allow ourselves to think about, and not to just accept it all as being good. The apostle Paul puts it this way,
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Philippians 4:8
We notice that the first item on Paul’s list of things to think about is “whatever is true”. Thinking about things we know to be true helps us to have the right actions and reactions toward others and the world around us.
If we accept the lies that we are told on them, we will find it easier to accept other lies propagated to us from other sources. What we believe affects our actions and reactions to others. Proverbs 23:7 tells us that as a person thinks in their heart, so they are.
Where lies have been propagated in people’s lives, it does not take long for disaster to follow. We can see this from history.
Hitler’s final solution.
It is a known fact that Hitler hated the Jews and wanted to exterminate them. However, the Nazis did not just execute 6 million Jews the minute they had power; such actions would have created sympathy for the Jews and caused unwanted resistance from the German people. The Nazis needed to make mass murder palatable to the wider population.
Hitler came into power in January 1933. The first killing camps that signified the beginning of Hitler’s final solution, opened in December 1941. So, from 1933 onwards, the Nazis laid a foundation through their propaganda ministry, accusing the Jews of all kinds of evil. They labelled them as “German haters” and spread the ideas of hatred and distrust for the Jews. Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass) occurred in November 1938 and was the antisemitic riot that caused the windows of Jewish synagogues and businesses to be broken, Jewish homes, hospitals and schools to be ransacked, and 30,000 Jewish men to be arrested.
The Nazis planted the idea in the minds of the German people that the Jews were very sick people, and the most humane thing they could do was euthanise them. Even when they were comfortable moving forward with the final solution, they were still secretive about the details of what they were doing.
Before the final solution was activated, the Nazis had already established a state-run euthanasia program in which chronically sick people were euthanised. All they had to do to justify “the final solution” was to broaden the categories and definitions of those who needed to die. They did this by seeding people’s minds with ideas that would justify their actions. What people were thinking lessened resistance and thus made it easier for the Nazis work towards their goal of eradicating all the Jews in Europe. What we think helps to shape what we believe and determines our actions and reactions.
Thinking about truth
Thinking about the truth sets us free. However, Jesus is saying here that if we know the truth, think about the truth, accept and practice the truth, we will be set free from the lies and the confusion that the other messages around us bring into our lives. That is why Paul, in Romans 12:2, tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We need to think about the truth and set our minds free from the values and propaganda that the world brings our way. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2
There is around us a raging battle for the control of our minds and the minds of our children, and it centres around thinking about what is true. We are told that binary thinking is not cool anymore, and that answers to complex questions are not as simple as yes and no, male and female, right and wrong. Recently, laws in Australia have been passed that will make it very hard for me to express any views that are binary in nature about certain issues and lifestyles. However, those laws cannot stop me from thinking otherwise, from believing otherwise and from praying otherwise.
I believe in absolutes. I believe in God. I believe that what the Bible says about Him is true. He is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Holy, Kind, Compassionate and Just. I also believe that sin is in the world, and that Jesus came to die to save us from sin.
What is sin?
Sometimes, when I am lecturing, I ask the students, “What is sin”? Usually, they give me a list.
Lying
Stealing
Adultery
Murder etc.
But, whilst these are sinful acts, it does not tell us what sin actually is.
Sin-cancer
I have a brother named Robert, and he died from cancer in 1986. He had an advanced melanoma, and he went to his doctor. The doctor ran tests and told him he had cancer. They tried to surgically treat him, but it was too late. He died; he was 27 years old.
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. Romans 7:19-20
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Romans 7:24
When you believe in Absolutes, and you see Jesus on the cross, and you accept the reality that He is God suffering for your sins. The reality hits home that Jesus not only paid for our sins, but he broke the power of sin in our lives and made it possible for us to live a holy life before Him. Because Jesus died for us, we can now say no to sin.
Again, Paul says it this way.
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, Romans 8:3
The phrase “He condemned sin in the flesh” always worried me, until I did some research on it. What this phrase actually means is “God subdued, overcame, and deprived sin of its power in the lives of those who accept the sacrificial death of Jesus.”
Jesus removes the “sin-cancer” in us. He heals and restores the places where it had been and gives us the power to say no to the actions of sin. We still have to grapple with sin every day, and our default position is to choose sin, so we find ourselves still coming to God to ask forgiveness for new offences. But knowing that the power of sin is broken does help us to say no to the devil, and easier to follow Jesus every day. That is part of the truth that sets us free. We need to think about it!
I am the truth
In closing, let’s look at what Jesus said about himself.
Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6
Here, Jesus makes a clear statement that there is no other way to God except through Him. This is an exclusive statement; Jesus did not say
I am A truth, or
I am the CLOSEST truth, or
I am the PREFERRED truth,
He said I am THE truth.
Jesus is saying, if you want to be saved, if you want forgiveness of all your sins, if you want eternal life, then there is no other way, and truth that will bring you life other than Me. I am THE TRUTH, THE WAY and THE LIFE.
If you want forgiveness and eternal life, then only Jesus can help you. Here, Jesus is challenging us with the reality that truth is a person, not a concept! When we hold on to Jesus, we hold on to the truth. When we listen to His words in the scriptures, we listen to the truth. Jesus is the truth that sets us free.
So, we have covered a lot of ground here. What next? If the truth is important to you, then Jesus needs to be important to you.
Change your focus, accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, read the truth, think about the truth, live the truth and live your life forever with Him.
