Let God Be True (1)

“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” John 17.17

Let God be true!
We live in a day when it is increasingly unfashionable to believe in anything so worn-out and discredited as truth.

It is simply considered so outré to have to fuss with truth. Claim to have the truth about anything, and you’re likely to be denounced, vilified, or condemned. The only truth these days is whatever is true for me. We should all just follow our feelings, and make lots of room for others to follow their feelings, too. Yeah.

Truth for most people is something that generates from within them, something, if not absolute, then at least absolutely personal, and not the sort of thing that others ought to be passing judgment on, least of all, God. Truth is something you feel, something you’re really sincere about, and therefore something you know deep inside. Who can dispute that?

Christians are not immune from this delusion. We like to think that we are people of the truth, but increasingly, we reserve the right to pick and choose which truth we will embrace. Truths that we find uncomfortable or inconvenient we feel we have a right to avoid. Among these would be included such long-standing – but apparently now outmoded – Christian notions of truth such as repentance and sin, the Law and fear and wrath of God, holiness, and the like. These we may acknowledge in some way, as a certain measure of truth, but we insist on scrubbing them down to fit our comfort level, and thus, we denude them of all real truth so that we can put them on according to our own interests, needs, or tastes.

Truth as we like it, you see.
God’s Word, however, is unfazed by all such tinkering. Unbelievers and believers alike may feel perfectly justified in redefining truth to fit the temper of the times and the tendencies of sinful human hearts, but this does not at all affect the revelation of God and the truth about Him, us, and the world. As the Apostle Paul abruptly put it, “Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.” (Rom. 3.4)

God’s Word is Truth
Unless we want to challenge or correct Jesus, we must contend with His uncomplicated declaration concerning the Word of God: The Word of God is truth. What the Scriptures, the Word of God, say about things is, simply put, the way things are, and the way we must learn to deal with them. Truth is not generated from within us, nor realized in some social consensus expressing the temper of the times. Truth exists in God, is declared by God, sustained by God, and acted on and enforced by God.

This is true, in the first instance, concerning God Himself. In the Scriptures God reveals Himself. He tells us what He’s like, what kind of Being He is, and that there is no other being like Him anywhere. He makes known His will to us, especially as that relates to everything we need to know about life, salvation, and being accountable to Him. Jesus said that the truth of God in Scripture has power to sanctify those who believe in Him.

That is, the truth of God, about God, and from God, which is revealed in the Word ofGod, can exert a formative influence over our lives, shaping us, from the inside out, so that we increasingly take on the character, convictions, and concerns of the very Son of God, Jesus Christ. We can become people in whom the truth of God takes shape and comes to expression in time.

But this doesn’t just happen. If we want to be sanctified by the truth of Scripture, so that we express the truth of God, we must submit to God’s Word, not merely read or agree with it. We must come under the Scriptures, not rummage through them as if we were selecting clothing from some rich man’s wardrobe, taking what we like and passing up the rest. All Scripture is profitable to transform us into the good works image of Jesus Christ, wrote the Apostle Paul (2 Tim. 3.15-17), and unless we bring our minds, hearts, consciences, words, and deeds under Scripture – rather than presuming to be masters over the Word – we will not gain the benefit God intends for us.

We will not, that is, know the truth of God, which sets us free from the lies of sin and self.

Instead, presuming to judge God and even to correct Him where we consider His Word to be, shall we say, inconvenient, we will ultimately be shown to be liars, pounding and roaring like hapless waves against the immovable Rock of the truth of God.

And like those waves, we will be shattered, scattered, and broken by the very truth which God intends as a means to free us from our foolish notions of “truth”, so that we might have power to become more like Jesus Christ.

For reflection
1.  How do people you see each day understand the concept of truth? Ask a few of them.

2.  Why are strong feelings and sincerity not reliable barometers for discerning the truth of any matter?

3.  Jesus said that those who know Him would know the truth that sets them free (Jn. 8.32). Free from what? For what?

Next steps – Conversation: In what sense do your Christian friends understand Jesus’ statement, “Your Word is Truth”? Ask a few of them. Do their answers indicate that they have placed themselves under Scripture or over it?

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, Let God Be True, is available as a free PDF download, suitable for individual or group use (click here).

Help us discover the state of people’s understanding of God’s truth. Watch the brief video explaining our Understanding the Bible Questionnaire (click here). Then download the Questionnaire and begin using it with the people in your Personal Mission Field. Be sure to come back to the website and record the answers you receive. We’ll update you from time to time on what we’re learning. Get an overview of the truth of the Christian worldview by registering for our free, online course One in Twelve: An Introduction to Christian Worldview (click here).

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.