The truth, which makes known things as they truly are, is revealed by God for the direction and blessing of His creatures, and where the truth is received by faith into the heart it forms truth in the inward parts. If there is truth in the inward parts the whole life will be affected by it, giving character to the thoughts, feelings, desires, motives and exercises, so as to direct the steps in the ways of God for His pleasure. Alas! it is possible to be mentally acquainted with the truth, the heart and conscience being unaffected with what the mind knows, and such can “hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18), with grave consequences for themselves, for with the privilege of acquaintance with the truth there is a commensurate responsibility for which all will have to give account at the judgment seat of God.
The Truth in the Old Testament
Not until the coming into the world of the Son of God could there be the full revelation of the truth, but from earliest times parts of the truth were revealed to men. Adam knew the place that God had given to him in relation to the lower creation, and Cain and Abel had learned that approach to God could only be on the ground of sacrifice. God gave His covenant to Noah in connection with the earth, made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and established His law with Israel through Moses, making Himself known as Almighty to Abraham and the patriarchs, and as Jehovah to Moses and Israel. Abraham’s servant knew the favoured place in which Abraham stood to God, for he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not left destitute my master of His mercy and His truth” (Gen. 24:27). Jacob was also aware of his place of privilege, saying, “O God of my father Abraham…If am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant” (Gen. 32:9-10).
In these things there is the positive revelation of God, all that He speaks regarding Himself, His ways with men and with those He brings into His favour, and all that is foretold concerning His purpose for the blessing of Israel and the nations of the earth in a day not yet come. How great is the contrast of this divine truth with all the falsehood to be found in the traditional lore of men, in which elements of truth have been corrupted so as to make the truth unrecognisable, and this apart from all that has sprung from the imagination of hearts and minds at enmity with God and under the influence of the god of this world, who “abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).
To Moses on Mount Sinai God made Himself known as “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Ex. 34:6). David said to the Lord, “Lead me in Thy truth,” and “all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies” (Psalm 25:5, 10), and many references to truth and the truth are to be found in the Psalms and the Proverbs, the last exhortation concerning the truth in this latter book being, “Buy the truth, and sell it not” (23:23), an exhortation so much needed by all saints in these last days. The prophets also have much to say on this subject, Isaiah writing, “truth is fallen in the street…yea, truth fails; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey” (Isa. 59:14-15), depicting the conditions among the people of God in his day, and also in ours.
The Truth in John’s Gospel
John Baptist, in speaking of Jesus, “bare witness to the truth” (John 5:33), but Jesus could say, “I am…the truth” (John 14:6), for in His own Person He was the expression of all that God is, and of all that was in the heart and mind of God for the blessing of men. The law that was given by Moses showed what God was in His judgment of evil, for “our God is a consuming fire,” but “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:14–17). Those who followed Jesus, as true disciples, would know the truth, and the truth would set them at liberty (John 8:31–36), free from the yoke of the law and from the bondage of sin and Satan, and free to worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). Although the Son of God was the truth, and spoke the truth for the blessing of men, there were those who refused Him and rejected His words (John 8:45-46). Such did not practise the truth, and therefore did not come to the light (John 3:21).
Speaking to His disciples the Lord Jesus said, “I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you” (John 16:7). Here was the revelation of what now subsists in Christianity: the Son of God as Man would be in heaven, and the Holy Spirit, a divine Person, would be on earth with the disciples of the Son of God. On earth, the Holy Spirit would be the “Spirit of truth,” who would dwell with the disciples and be in them (14:16-17). Coming from the Father, the Spirit of truth would bear witness to the glorified Son of God (15:26), would guide them into all truth, showing the disciples coming things, and glorify the Son by opening out to them the heavenly glories into which He was about to enter (John 16:13–15).
Before Pilate the Lord Jesus confessed the good confession, saying, “Thou sayest that I am a king,” then He added, “and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth” (John 18:37). John Baptist, in bearing witness to the Son, bore witness to the truth, but the Son had come to bear witness to the truth in making God known, and in telling out the Father’s grace. Jesus then said, “Every one that is of the truth hears my voice.” Those who heard the voice of the Son of God had divine life in them, communicated by Him who is the truth, and so were constituted as being of the truth. These wonderful words were lost on Pilate. He had not the divine capacity to receive them, so in his confusion, and as seeking to cover it, he answered the Lord with the words that manifest the ignorance of the most learned, and the greatest of this world, “What is truth?”
Pilate’s question, so often asked before and since, shows that the world is utterly ignorant of the truth, and this because it is ignorant of the true God. Even the leaders of Israel, who had an intellectual knowledge of God and His ways, were ignorant of the truth, and this they showed by rejecting the One in whom there was the knowledge of God. After His testimony to the world, to Israel and to its leaders, the Son of God was compelled to say, “O righteous Father, the world has not known Thee: but I have known Thee” (John 17:25). What an opportunity Pilate missed! He asked, “What is truth?” and there before his eyes was Him who had said, “I am…the truth.” Such is man in his greatness! Such is the world in its ignorance of God and His truth!
The Truth in Ephesians
It is “the word of truth” that comes in the Gospel that when received brings blessing to the soul (Eph. 1:13); the same word that brings the truth to set apart the saints of God to do His will (John 17:17, 19). We have been brought into divine blessing that Christ might be the object before us in our path through this world, and of Him, and the things that centre in Him, God would have us to be learning. To have learned the Christ is to have received into the heart something of what the Spirit of God has made known of the Son of God in heaven, and of what centres in Him as the Man of God’s purpose (Eph. 4:20).
In the Gospel we have heard the Christ (Eph. 4:21; 2:17), and we have “been taught by (or in) Him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21). Paul then, by the Spirit, tells us what the truth that is in Jesus is. There are three parts to it; first, “your having put off according to the former conversation the old man which corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts;” secondly, “and being renewed in the spirit of your mind;” and thirdly, “and your having put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful rightfulness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22–24).
There was nothing of the old man in Jesus, and God showed what He thought of the old man when, in the cross of Christ, He crucified him, that sin in its totality might be destroyed (Rom. 6:6). In accepting the truth of Christianity, even if not understanding the full import of it, we said, “Amen” to what God did, we rejected the “old man,” the man after the flesh, that God exposed in all his wickedness and finished with at the cross. Having put off the old man, we are to “put away lying” (Eph. 4:25), and every other feature that characterized the old man with whom we have finished in the acceptance of the Christ of God.
We have also professed in the acceptance of Christ to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, to be thinking of entirely different things, and be thinking in an entirely different way, the mind that marked Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5) delighting our hearts, and being the example that we rejoice in, insofar as it marked Him in this world. What meekness, gentleness, lowliness and holiness marked the Lord in this world; and the spirit of His mind should mark the Christian as following Him, as having Jesus for our Lord and Master.
As Christians we belong to Christ, and have put on Christ, yea, have put on the new man. This new man is a new creation, a new kind of man altogether, without a trait of the first man, be he Jew or Gentile. Every trait of this new man belongs to Christ: they are the lovely features that were seen in Jesus in this world, and which gave infinite pleasure to His God and Father. Such is God’s delight in Jesus that He has now formed in a new creation a man in whom all these precious features are found, and shall be found for all eternity.
Having part in this new creation it surely becomes us to put away lying, and “speak every man truth with his neighbour” (Eph. 4:25), and to speak (or hold) “the truth in love” so as to grow up to Christ, our Head in heaven, in all the beauteous features that were once seen in Him in this world, and now are seen in Him at God’s right hand. As being “light in the Lord” (Eph. 5:8) we are to walk “as children of light,” manifesting the “fruit of the light,” which is “in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (verse 9). How great is the contrast between the life formerly lived in ignorance of God and the life we are called upon to live as knowing God, speaking truth, holding the truth in love, and manifesting truth in a walk well-pleasing to God.
In the conflict of good over evil, and as having to meet the rulers of the darkness of this world, God has provided His saints with His whole armour, not having any confidence in ourselves or in the weapons of man’s warfare, but being “strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” (Eph. 6:10–12). We are to stand for God in this evil day, and to withstand the assaults of the enemy, whether they be wiles of fiery darts, and having done all we are to stand, never taking off one part of this divinely given panoply.
The first part of the armour covers the loins, and they are to be girt about with truth, and there will be no strength for the conflict if there is no truth in the inward parts. There must be within the spiritual state that will affect every inward spring, that will protect our every feeling, thought and desire if we are to meet the onslaught of a wily and determined foe. Occupation with the Lord and with all that God has revealed of His eternal purpose in Christ, will give us the inward state, the inward strength, to fortify us against all that the enemy can bring against us. With truth in the inward part and all that God has provided in the other parts of the armour, we are well able, through Christ, to stand and withstand in the day of trial.
The Truth in John’s Epistles
Each of John’s three epistles has a good deal to say regarding truth. The children of God practise the truth, the truth is in them, they know the truth, they love in truth, they are of the truth, they walk in truth, and are fellow-workers with the truth. They know that no lie is of the truth, they know the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error, and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who is the truth, bringing into their hearts the truth that is seen objectively in the Son of God. What a rich, blessed and eternal portion belongs to us as having the truth.
R. 16.5.70