JESUS, THE TRUTH IN THIS MODERN WORLD: HOW DO WE LIVE IT?
1. INTRODUCTION
The Bible contains the answers to questions about why we were born, our purpose in life, whether God exists and the potential of mankind - to name only a few of the subjects covered within this Book. Harold Rhodes in his article, “What is truth?” writes about Reagan who is heralded as one of America’s greatest leaders. He also believed that there is a divine plan for all of us. Other world leaders have said that they held the same belief. Former President, Ronald Reagan stated, “Americans yearn to explore life’s deepest truths.” He went on to say, “Within the covers of that single book [the Bible] are all the answers to all the problems that face us today, if we would only read and believe” (np).
Paul said to the Ephesians, “If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus…putting away lying, speaking every man truth with his neighbour,” reveals that Jesus is the truth and Christians should not lie (Ephesians 4, 21 - 25). Christ, as God, is the incarnation of truth. He personifies truth. Paul, begins his epistle to Titus, with the following statement:
Paul, a bond servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began” (Titus 1:1-2).
Philosophers and scientists have debated the issue of absolute truth for centuries. Moreover, many others have chosen to accept another philosophy, called situation ethics. Situation ethics is defined as “a theory of ethics according to which moral rules are not absolutely binding but may be modified in the light of specific situations” (Webster’s New World College Dictionary). Winston Churchill said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is” (np).
Many philosophers have tried to define truth and have come out with abstract definitions. Among them, I would like to only quote what the philosopher Nietzsche has mentioned in his papers. Nietzsche has proposed that an ancient, metaphysical belief in the divinity of Truth lies at the heart of and has served as the foundation for the entire subsequent Western intellectual tradition:
But you will have gathered what I am getting at, namely, that it is still a metaphysical faith on which our faith in science rests—that even we knowers of today, we godless anti-metaphysicians still take our fire too, from the flame lit by the thousand-year old faith, the Christian faith which was also Plato's faith, that God is Truth; that Truth is 'Divine'.
Michel Foucault seems to be somewhat confused when he tries to define truth. He tries to see truth as an "objective" quality. He prefers not to use the term truth itself but "Regimes of Truth". In his historical investigations he found truth to be something that was itself a part of, or embedded within, a given power structure. Truth for Foucault is also something that shifts through various episteme throughout history.
Truth in the Bible has an entirely different dimension. Truth is a concept and it comes from God. Christian doctrine is that there is only one God who has ever existed and exists anywhere, anyplace, anytime. There is no God formed before God; there will be no God formed after God (Isaiah 43:10). God doesn't even know of any other Gods (Isaiah 44:8). There is only one God in existence. Jesus Christ represents the common link between the God and the followers of on the earth yesterday, today and tomorrow. The following study on Jesus the truth is based on this link. It is hoped that through this study, readers will better understand the significance of Jesus and the importance of his message.
AW Tozer in his book, God’s Pursuit of Man, says that God is the truth celebrated in both the Old and New Testaments. ‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1, 1-3). He writes:
This is a truth that we take for granted so easily that we forget the significance of this in a Christian’s life. It is a truth known to everyone, a kind of common property of all religious persons, but for the very reason that it is so common it now has but little meaning for any of us. It has suffered the fate of which Coleridge writes: Truths, of all others the most awful and interesting, are too often considered as so true that they lose all the power of truth and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors (1-4).
Within Scripture there are gems that point to Christ. One of them is the Hebrew word translated into English as “truth” or “faithfulness.” One of the names for Jesus is the “Alpha and the Omega” (Revelation 1, 8; 22, 13). He is the first letter and the last letter of the Greek alphabet. If we were to translate this name back to Hebrew, we would say that He is the “Aleph and Tav,” which happen to be the first and last letters of the Hebrew word for ‘truth’ ‘emet’. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end of the alphabet and of all things. The word “emet” (truth) incorporates this all-encompassing aspect of Jesus for us (Crayton np).
In the New Testament, Jesus presents Himself as “the Truth” (John 14:6). That is one of His names when He returns (Revelation 19:11). In Greek literature, the words for truth are ‘aletheia, alethes, alethinos’ and they do not have the same personal and moral connotation. Rather, truth is intellectual. It is ‘the full or real state of affairs… As in judicial language the ‘aletheia’ is the actual state of affairs to be maintained against different statements, so historians use it to denote real events as distinct from myths, and philosophers to indicate real being in the absolute sense’.
In the New Testament these Greek words occur commonly, and bring with them both their OT and their classical and Hellenistic Greek meanings, so that it is often an extremely delicate matter to decide which nuance predominates. It is possible, however, to distinguish three broad senses in which the words are used, even though these may overlap.
Firstly, dependability, truthfulness, uprightness of character. This applies to God and to men alike. The use of the actual word ‘truth’ in this sense is not common, but the thought of a God who can be trusted to keep his word is implied throughout the New Testament.
Secondly, ‘Truth’ in the absolute sense of that which is real and complete as opposed to what is false and wanting. The Christian faith in particular is ‘the truth’. Jesus claimed that he is truth personified. He mediates the truth and the Holy Spirit leads men into it. The Holy Spirit is also known as the Spirit of Truth (John 6:17). So that Jesus’ disciples know it, do it, abide in it and their new birth as God’s children rests upon it. This truth is more than a creedal formula, it is God’s active word which must be obeyed.
Thirdly, the adjective ‘alethinos’ especially sometimes carries the ‘Platonic’ sense of something real as opposed to mere appearance or copy. The Christ is thus a minister of the true tabernacle in contrast with the shadows of the Levitical ritual. In clear allusion to the words of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus declares that he is the true bread and the true wine, that he is the eternal reality symbolized by the bread and wine. Similarly, the true worshippers are not so much sincere as real. Their worship is a real approach to God who is spirit, in contrast to the ritual which restricts God to Jerusalem or Mt Gerizim and which can at best symbolize and at worst distort him.
The word Tabernacle means “dwelling place” or “tent”. It permitted God’s people to draw near and worship Him, and at the same time illuminated and established the immeasurable scale of God’s holiness. The Tabernacle also represents the tangible presence of God. It demonstrates our need for not only earthly salvation, but the even greater need of spiritual salvation, in order to draw close to the Almighty God who created us, cares for us and loves us.
2. JESUS THE TRUTH
The topic “Jesus the Truth” can be comprised of two basic parts, the message and the person of Jesus Christ. Each one is inseparable from the other. In order to understand Jesus’ message, we must know who he was. However, for us to understand who he is, it is also necessary to identify and comprehend his message.
There are two possible avenues which may be taken to look into the identity of Jesus Christ and the content of his message. One is based on the historical record compiled by the modern historians and theologians from their writings and another one is the sayings of Jesus itself which was recorded specifically in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, especially in the gospel of John.
Irenaeus is considered by many the first systematic theologian of the Church. Being the first at something makes it is easy to ascribe to him the qualities of unerring thought and perfect insight. Irenaeus states in the 2nd century, Christ is “the invisible becoming visible” (Against Heresies, Bk 3, Ch 16). Irenaeus’ focus is that the Scripture proves that Christ is God, that there is one God, and that the Scriptures and Apostles only attest to there being one true God.
Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. Jesus is both God and man. He is fully God and fully man (Col. 2:9). He was in the form of God, emptied Himself, and became a man (Phil. 2:5-8). As the God man, He is the mediator (1 Tim. 2:5). Jesus was not created (John 1:1-3) but is the creator of all things (Col. 1:16-17).
Karl Rahner was the most prolific and influential Catholic theologian of the twentieth century. His work as a whole may be summarized as theological anthropology, correlating human experience and God's self-communication. O’Collins in his book, Christology: A Biblical Historical and Systematic Study of Jesus summarizes the theology of Karl Rahner:
The self-communication of God is crucial in Rahner's view: grace is not something other than God, not some celestial 'substance,' but God Himself. The event of Jesus Christ is, according to Rahner, the centre-point of the self-communication of God. God, insists Rahner, does not only communicate Himself from without; rather, grace is the constitutive element both of the objective reality of revelation (the incarnate Word) and the subjective principle… To announce then that ‘Wisdom was God and was made flesh’ could have been felt to suggest that ‘the Torah was God and was made flesh’ (325).
2.1. THE HISTORICAL JESUS
History has never known a person like Jesus. Scholars and realists have tried to search for a ‘historical Jesus’ and paint a real picture of the man, Jesus. This search may involve the 20th century philosophy of naturalism. For the last hundred years the Historical Jesus Movement has unearthed nothing that undermines the Gospel accounts says Dr. Simon Gathercole in his article, “The Historical Jesus” (np). In fact, historical accuracy, messianic prophecy, Christian persecution, and extra-biblical sources reveal the powerful substance and it is not mythology that is underlying the claim that the writers of the New Testament records are eye witnesses to the events. The New Testament writers, who were eye witnesses to the facts, give detailed geographic, political and cultural evidences and details that show that their record is true.
The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, who wrote a history of Judaism around AD 93, records the facts. After him came the Roman politicians, Pliny and Tacitus. From Tacitus it is strongly evident that Jesus was crucified while Pontius Pilate was the Roman Prefect in charge of Judea (AD 26-36) and Tiberius was emperor (AD 14-37). None of these historians questioned whether Jesus lived. They gave their opinions of his teaching, life style and also his followers.
Several scholars like Shaye D. Cohen, Maier, Köstenberger, Blainey, Keenar, Hoffman, Beir, McKnight, Dominic Crossan and Bart Erham have clearly shown that Jesus was a Galilean Jew, who was born between 7 and 2 BC and died 30–36 AD. Jesus spoke Aramaic and that he may have also spoken Hebrew and Greek. The languages spoken in Galilee and Judea during the 1st century include the Semitic Aramaic and Hebrew languages as well as Greek, with Aramaic being the predominant language. Most scholars agree that during the early part of the 1st century, Aramaic was the mother tongue of virtually all women in Galilee and Judea.
Jesus lived only in Galilee and Judea. Marcus Borg categorically rejects that there is any evidence that an adult Jesus travelled or studied outside Galilee and Judea, in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research edited by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight, and Marcus Borg writes that it is "without historical foundation"(303). John Dominic Crossan states that none of the theories presented to fill the 15–18-year gap between the early life of Jesus and the start of his ministry have been supported by modern scholarship. Most scholars in the third quest for the historical Jesus consider the crucifixion indisputable, as do Bart Ehrman, John Dominic Crossan and James Dunn (28-29).
"Our conclusion must be that Jesus came from Nazareth." writes Theissen and Annette in their book, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (165). Dr. Simon Gathercole in his article, “The Historical Jesus” mentions that:
It is also difficult to imagine why Christian writers would invent such a thoroughly Jewish saviour figure in a time and place – under the aegis of the Roman empire – where there was strong suspicion of Judaism (np).
Most historians emphatically agree that Jesus was crucified. Crossan in his book, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography conveys this point visibly when he writes that it is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus totally agree with the Christian accounts on that basic fact (145).
According to many historians, most of Jesus' teachings were intelligible and acceptable in terms of Second Temple Judaism; what set Christians apart from Jews was their faith in Christ as the resurrected Messiah. Josh McDowell in his book, More Than a Carpenter proves that Jesus is not ‘a liar, a lunatic, but our Lord’ (34-34). When looking at the same premise question, "Is Jesus God?", C.S. Lewis, a popular British theologian, stressed:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (40-41).
The gospels therefore really do tell the history of a living person, because they bring out the presence of the One past and the future of the One who has come. It is this that constitutes the unique character of the histories of Jesus in the gospels, compared with all the historicizations of his life. Jurgen Moltmann in his book, The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions mentions that”
His death is a historical event and makes him a historical person. But his raising is much more: it is eschatological. The eschatological moment of his raising from the dead must therefore also be understood as God's eternal moment (77).
Dych in his book, Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity that he had translated says that:
Rahner asserts that two points should be proven as historically credible - first, that Jesus saw himself "as the eschatological prophet, as the absolute and definitive saviour", and second, that the resurrection of Jesus is the absolute self-communication of God. There are several historical elements concerning Jesus' identity as a Jew and "radical reformer": his drastic behaviour in solidarity with social and religious outcasts based on his belief in God, his essential preaching "as a call to conversion", his gathering disciples, his hope for conversions of others, his acceptance of death on the cross "as the inevitable consequence of fidelity to his mission" (245 – 264).
2.2. JESUS, THE HOLY AND BLESSED TRUTH
Jesus said to the twelve disciples that He is the truth. This is no insignificant claim. Jesus is not saying that He is one form of truth; He is saying, ‘I am the truth’ (John 1:6). Jesus claims that is, the absolute truth." This leads us to the next vital step that Jesus claims to be the Lord Jesus Christ in human form, the only Son of God, and hence to be God. This is firmly a definite claim to deity. This Jesus who speaks in John 14: 6 is none other than God manifested in the flesh, in whom are hid all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
2.3. JESUS, THE REVEALED TRUTH
The Bible undoubtedly clarifies that Jesus Christ is the revealed truth. John writes,
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth… For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1: 17).
Here, John is referring to the Old Testament law. The Old Testament law that was revealed by Moses was only a partial revelation, and most certainly true. The law was given to display unto Israel the tabernacle which was only a shadow and ceremony, in a pictorial manner, of the full reality of the truth who was to come. Now that truth was ultimately Jesus Christ. Therefore, when we look at that law which was given to Moses by God is the shadow in the sense that Jesus Christ, the truth, is the substance of all there that is revealed.
2.4. JESUS, THE REDEEMING TRUTH
The Bible wants man to learn that when a person is revealed the absolute and revealed truth, the first thing that it makes him or her realise is that this is a predominantly solid truth. It tells a person the truth about himself or herself. It shows that man is, basically, a sinner. It says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Sin is a breach of the law of God. You have it there in an abstract kind of way. But then the Word of God makes it a little more expressive and precise. It says, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64: 6). The forcefulness of this verse is more graphic in the Hebrew Scriptures, where it says that: "All of our righteousnesses are as a blood-soaked menstrual rag". Isaiah reiterates this in the very beginning of his book when he writes:
Why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment" (Isaiah 1:5 - 6).
So, where and how does the healing of these sores come from? The Old Testament points towards a person in the New Testament and convincingly proves that Jesus Christ is the saving truth of God and spiritual and physical healing comes from him. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4: 10). The spiritual death that came into this world because of Adam as a punishment for disobeying God can be rectified and man can once more reconcile himself with God only by the saving truth, Jesus Christ. In John 17: 17, Jesus prays, ‘Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.’ It is only through Jesus, the saving truth that we are once again given a spiritual life and connection to God. The Triune God is the God of truth, infinite, eternal, unchangeable truth. He cannot lie neither can He deny Himself. Jesus Christ is the saving truth. As divine, Christ is universally present, actively influencing the mediation of redemption to all (325). For committed disciples, truth is practical and something to be done faithfully; for worshippers, God is the Truth to be praised and adored. Thus, truth comes across, respectively, as corresponding, cohering, disclosing, or to be practised and adored (O’Collins 12).
2.5. JESUS, THE ABSOLUTE OR COMPLETE TRUTH
Jesus Christ is the exclusive truth. Relativism, reduces the power of absolute truth. Relativism is the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute. It says that there are no absolutes; there are only opinions in a sense, and that every one of those views or opinions is equally valid. If we take that philosophy of relativism and apply it in a religious sense, they come up with that old proverb that religions are merely different roads that lead to the top of the same mountain and there sits God waiting to receive whoever comes by any of these roads. It doesn't matter if these roads or these ways deliberately contradict each other. It doesn't matter in which path each religion points to, but they all end up in the same place. According to our title Jesus says, "I am the truth" not a truth or any truth (John 14: 6). God is not interested in playing somewhat relativistic games. Jesus is the truth to the exclusion of everything else that pretends to be the truth. Jesus says, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Jesus Christ is the exclusive truth.
2.6. JESUS, THE COMPREHENSIVE TRUTH
Jesus says, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life" (John 14: 6). Christ gives the commission unto His disciples and He says, "Take this exclusive message and teach it to every creature under heaven. Jesus gives the disciples a great commission: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16, 15-16).
The apostle Paul, writes very clearly that: "…there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all" (Colossians 3:11). The Greeks sought after wisdom. They had an intellectual elite; they had a different kind of culture. Yet, the Lord Jesus Christ in the church at Ephesus brings Jew and Gentile together. He makes peace by the blood of His cross, and His enemies are reconciled. This is the truth that can unite the world, the universal truth.
3. CONCLUSION
The truth is important not because it is simply true. It is important because truth is what defines whom and what we believe. The truth of Christianity does not rest on the actions of its adherents. Rather, it rests on the reality of Jesus Christ. The fact that He rose from the dead to demonstrate His deity (Rom. 1:4) and confirm His promise of eternal life for those who receive Him as Lord and Saviour (Rom. 10:9). Jesus is the clearest and most important revelation from God. He is truth (John 14:6). Jesus is God Himself. When on earth, He walked among people and He talked directly to them. But Jesus is not God’s only revelation. During the three years of His ministry on earth, He communicated everything God wants us to know. So, God sent apostles to strengthen us and grant us additional revelation. However, like Jesus, the apostles walked this earth for a short time. Thus, it is necessary for both Jesus’ and the apostles’ teachings to be recorded and preserved. This is the purpose of the Bible.
Truth comes from somewhere. Truth doesn’t materialize out of thin air, but originates in God himself. Lawson continues:
Theologically, truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God. Truth is the self-disclosure of God Himself. It is what it is because God declares it so and made it so. All truth must be defined in terms of God, whose very nature is truth.
Truth is an intrinsic part of the character of God. Truth is not simply a description of what is real, but is anchored in God’s personality, attributes, and nature. You and I cannot escape our skin. In the same way, God cannot escape what is true. It is the fundamental part of his being. Therefore, God determines what truth is. He defines what up is, where the bottom of the ocean is, where we came from, and where we are going when we die. All other methods of learning whether in the sciences or in theology is an attempt to discover what is plain as day to the God who created everything (Genesis 1:1) and upholds the universe by his word (Hebrews 1:3).
One can finally recognise, that if we are ever to find truth, or if we are ever to understand truth in its proper context, we will never do it outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, because our Lord Jesus Christ is the very originator of truth. He is the One who is the centre of all truth and all reality and to seek truth is to seek Jesus because Jesus Christ is the divine truth. Paul showed how the spirit of Christ could provide all people a way to worship God - the God who had beforehand been worshipped only by Jews, although Jews claimed that he was the one and only God of all. According to historian Shaye J.D. Cohen, "Early Christianity ceased to be a Jewish sect when it ceased to observe Jewish practices” (168).
1. INTRODUCTION
The Bible contains the answers to questions about why we were born, our purpose in life, whether God exists and the potential of mankind - to name only a few of the subjects covered within this Book. Harold Rhodes in his article, “What is truth?” writes about Reagan who is heralded as one of America’s greatest leaders. He also believed that there is a divine plan for all of us. Other world leaders have said that they held the same belief. Former President, Ronald Reagan stated, “Americans yearn to explore life’s deepest truths.” He went on to say, “Within the covers of that single book [the Bible] are all the answers to all the problems that face us today, if we would only read and believe” (np).
Paul said to the Ephesians, “If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus…putting away lying, speaking every man truth with his neighbour,” reveals that Jesus is the truth and Christians should not lie (Ephesians 4, 21 - 25). Christ, as God, is the incarnation of truth. He personifies truth. Paul, begins his epistle to Titus, with the following statement:
Paul, a bond servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began” (Titus 1:1-2).
Philosophers and scientists have debated the issue of absolute truth for centuries. Moreover, many others have chosen to accept another philosophy, called situation ethics. Situation ethics is defined as “a theory of ethics according to which moral rules are not absolutely binding but may be modified in the light of specific situations” (Webster’s New World College Dictionary). Winston Churchill said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is” (np).
Many philosophers have tried to define truth and have come out with abstract definitions. Among them, I would like to only quote what the philosopher Nietzsche has mentioned in his papers. Nietzsche has proposed that an ancient, metaphysical belief in the divinity of Truth lies at the heart of and has served as the foundation for the entire subsequent Western intellectual tradition:
But you will have gathered what I am getting at, namely, that it is still a metaphysical faith on which our faith in science rests—that even we knowers of today, we godless anti-metaphysicians still take our fire too, from the flame lit by the thousand-year old faith, the Christian faith which was also Plato's faith, that God is Truth; that Truth is 'Divine'.
Michel Foucault seems to be somewhat confused when he tries to define truth. He tries to see truth as an "objective" quality. He prefers not to use the term truth itself but "Regimes of Truth". In his historical investigations he found truth to be something that was itself a part of, or embedded within, a given power structure. Truth for Foucault is also something that shifts through various episteme throughout history.
Truth in the Bible has an entirely different dimension. Truth is a concept and it comes from God. Christian doctrine is that there is only one God who has ever existed and exists anywhere, anyplace, anytime. There is no God formed before God; there will be no God formed after God (Isaiah 43:10). God doesn't even know of any other Gods (Isaiah 44:8). There is only one God in existence. Jesus Christ represents the common link between the God and the followers of on the earth yesterday, today and tomorrow. The following study on Jesus the truth is based on this link. It is hoped that through this study, readers will better understand the significance of Jesus and the importance of his message.
AW Tozer in his book, God’s Pursuit of Man, says that God is the truth celebrated in both the Old and New Testaments. ‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1, 1-3). He writes:
This is a truth that we take for granted so easily that we forget the significance of this in a Christian’s life. It is a truth known to everyone, a kind of common property of all religious persons, but for the very reason that it is so common it now has but little meaning for any of us. It has suffered the fate of which Coleridge writes: Truths, of all others the most awful and interesting, are too often considered as so true that they lose all the power of truth and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors (1-4).
Within Scripture there are gems that point to Christ. One of them is the Hebrew word translated into English as “truth” or “faithfulness.” One of the names for Jesus is the “Alpha and the Omega” (Revelation 1, 8; 22, 13). He is the first letter and the last letter of the Greek alphabet. If we were to translate this name back to Hebrew, we would say that He is the “Aleph and Tav,” which happen to be the first and last letters of the Hebrew word for ‘truth’ ‘emet’. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end of the alphabet and of all things. The word “emet” (truth) incorporates this all-encompassing aspect of Jesus for us (Crayton np).
In the New Testament, Jesus presents Himself as “the Truth” (John 14:6). That is one of His names when He returns (Revelation 19:11). In Greek literature, the words for truth are ‘aletheia, alethes, alethinos’ and they do not have the same personal and moral connotation. Rather, truth is intellectual. It is ‘the full or real state of affairs… As in judicial language the ‘aletheia’ is the actual state of affairs to be maintained against different statements, so historians use it to denote real events as distinct from myths, and philosophers to indicate real being in the absolute sense’.
In the New Testament these Greek words occur commonly, and bring with them both their OT and their classical and Hellenistic Greek meanings, so that it is often an extremely delicate matter to decide which nuance predominates. It is possible, however, to distinguish three broad senses in which the words are used, even though these may overlap.
Firstly, dependability, truthfulness, uprightness of character. This applies to God and to men alike. The use of the actual word ‘truth’ in this sense is not common, but the thought of a God who can be trusted to keep his word is implied throughout the New Testament.
Secondly, ‘Truth’ in the absolute sense of that which is real and complete as opposed to what is false and wanting. The Christian faith in particular is ‘the truth’. Jesus claimed that he is truth personified. He mediates the truth and the Holy Spirit leads men into it. The Holy Spirit is also known as the Spirit of Truth (John 6:17). So that Jesus’ disciples know it, do it, abide in it and their new birth as God’s children rests upon it. This truth is more than a creedal formula, it is God’s active word which must be obeyed.
Thirdly, the adjective ‘alethinos’ especially sometimes carries the ‘Platonic’ sense of something real as opposed to mere appearance or copy. The Christ is thus a minister of the true tabernacle in contrast with the shadows of the Levitical ritual. In clear allusion to the words of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus declares that he is the true bread and the true wine, that he is the eternal reality symbolized by the bread and wine. Similarly, the true worshippers are not so much sincere as real. Their worship is a real approach to God who is spirit, in contrast to the ritual which restricts God to Jerusalem or Mt Gerizim and which can at best symbolize and at worst distort him.
The word Tabernacle means “dwelling place” or “tent”. It permitted God’s people to draw near and worship Him, and at the same time illuminated and established the immeasurable scale of God’s holiness. The Tabernacle also represents the tangible presence of God. It demonstrates our need for not only earthly salvation, but the even greater need of spiritual salvation, in order to draw close to the Almighty God who created us, cares for us and loves us.
2. JESUS THE TRUTH
The topic “Jesus the Truth” can be comprised of two basic parts, the message and the person of Jesus Christ. Each one is inseparable from the other. In order to understand Jesus’ message, we must know who he was. However, for us to understand who he is, it is also necessary to identify and comprehend his message.
There are two possible avenues which may be taken to look into the identity of Jesus Christ and the content of his message. One is based on the historical record compiled by the modern historians and theologians from their writings and another one is the sayings of Jesus itself which was recorded specifically in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, especially in the gospel of John.
Irenaeus is considered by many the first systematic theologian of the Church. Being the first at something makes it is easy to ascribe to him the qualities of unerring thought and perfect insight. Irenaeus states in the 2nd century, Christ is “the invisible becoming visible” (Against Heresies, Bk 3, Ch 16). Irenaeus’ focus is that the Scripture proves that Christ is God, that there is one God, and that the Scriptures and Apostles only attest to there being one true God.
Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. Jesus is both God and man. He is fully God and fully man (Col. 2:9). He was in the form of God, emptied Himself, and became a man (Phil. 2:5-8). As the God man, He is the mediator (1 Tim. 2:5). Jesus was not created (John 1:1-3) but is the creator of all things (Col. 1:16-17).
Karl Rahner was the most prolific and influential Catholic theologian of the twentieth century. His work as a whole may be summarized as theological anthropology, correlating human experience and God's self-communication. O’Collins in his book, Christology: A Biblical Historical and Systematic Study of Jesus summarizes the theology of Karl Rahner:
The self-communication of God is crucial in Rahner's view: grace is not something other than God, not some celestial 'substance,' but God Himself. The event of Jesus Christ is, according to Rahner, the centre-point of the self-communication of God. God, insists Rahner, does not only communicate Himself from without; rather, grace is the constitutive element both of the objective reality of revelation (the incarnate Word) and the subjective principle… To announce then that ‘Wisdom was God and was made flesh’ could have been felt to suggest that ‘the Torah was God and was made flesh’ (325).
2.1. THE HISTORICAL JESUS
History has never known a person like Jesus. Scholars and realists have tried to search for a ‘historical Jesus’ and paint a real picture of the man, Jesus. This search may involve the 20th century philosophy of naturalism. For the last hundred years the Historical Jesus Movement has unearthed nothing that undermines the Gospel accounts says Dr. Simon Gathercole in his article, “The Historical Jesus” (np). In fact, historical accuracy, messianic prophecy, Christian persecution, and extra-biblical sources reveal the powerful substance and it is not mythology that is underlying the claim that the writers of the New Testament records are eye witnesses to the events. The New Testament writers, who were eye witnesses to the facts, give detailed geographic, political and cultural evidences and details that show that their record is true.
The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, who wrote a history of Judaism around AD 93, records the facts. After him came the Roman politicians, Pliny and Tacitus. From Tacitus it is strongly evident that Jesus was crucified while Pontius Pilate was the Roman Prefect in charge of Judea (AD 26-36) and Tiberius was emperor (AD 14-37). None of these historians questioned whether Jesus lived. They gave their opinions of his teaching, life style and also his followers.
Several scholars like Shaye D. Cohen, Maier, Köstenberger, Blainey, Keenar, Hoffman, Beir, McKnight, Dominic Crossan and Bart Erham have clearly shown that Jesus was a Galilean Jew, who was born between 7 and 2 BC and died 30–36 AD. Jesus spoke Aramaic and that he may have also spoken Hebrew and Greek. The languages spoken in Galilee and Judea during the 1st century include the Semitic Aramaic and Hebrew languages as well as Greek, with Aramaic being the predominant language. Most scholars agree that during the early part of the 1st century, Aramaic was the mother tongue of virtually all women in Galilee and Judea.
Jesus lived only in Galilee and Judea. Marcus Borg categorically rejects that there is any evidence that an adult Jesus travelled or studied outside Galilee and Judea, in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research edited by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight, and Marcus Borg writes that it is "without historical foundation"(303). John Dominic Crossan states that none of the theories presented to fill the 15–18-year gap between the early life of Jesus and the start of his ministry have been supported by modern scholarship. Most scholars in the third quest for the historical Jesus consider the crucifixion indisputable, as do Bart Ehrman, John Dominic Crossan and James Dunn (28-29).
"Our conclusion must be that Jesus came from Nazareth." writes Theissen and Annette in their book, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (165). Dr. Simon Gathercole in his article, “The Historical Jesus” mentions that:
It is also difficult to imagine why Christian writers would invent such a thoroughly Jewish saviour figure in a time and place – under the aegis of the Roman empire – where there was strong suspicion of Judaism (np).
Most historians emphatically agree that Jesus was crucified. Crossan in his book, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography conveys this point visibly when he writes that it is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus totally agree with the Christian accounts on that basic fact (145).
According to many historians, most of Jesus' teachings were intelligible and acceptable in terms of Second Temple Judaism; what set Christians apart from Jews was their faith in Christ as the resurrected Messiah. Josh McDowell in his book, More Than a Carpenter proves that Jesus is not ‘a liar, a lunatic, but our Lord’ (34-34). When looking at the same premise question, "Is Jesus God?", C.S. Lewis, a popular British theologian, stressed:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (40-41).
The gospels therefore really do tell the history of a living person, because they bring out the presence of the One past and the future of the One who has come. It is this that constitutes the unique character of the histories of Jesus in the gospels, compared with all the historicizations of his life. Jurgen Moltmann in his book, The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions mentions that”
His death is a historical event and makes him a historical person. But his raising is much more: it is eschatological. The eschatological moment of his raising from the dead must therefore also be understood as God's eternal moment (77).
Dych in his book, Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity that he had translated says that:
Rahner asserts that two points should be proven as historically credible - first, that Jesus saw himself "as the eschatological prophet, as the absolute and definitive saviour", and second, that the resurrection of Jesus is the absolute self-communication of God. There are several historical elements concerning Jesus' identity as a Jew and "radical reformer": his drastic behaviour in solidarity with social and religious outcasts based on his belief in God, his essential preaching "as a call to conversion", his gathering disciples, his hope for conversions of others, his acceptance of death on the cross "as the inevitable consequence of fidelity to his mission" (245 – 264).
2.2. JESUS, THE HOLY AND BLESSED TRUTH
Jesus said to the twelve disciples that He is the truth. This is no insignificant claim. Jesus is not saying that He is one form of truth; He is saying, ‘I am the truth’ (John 1:6). Jesus claims that is, the absolute truth." This leads us to the next vital step that Jesus claims to be the Lord Jesus Christ in human form, the only Son of God, and hence to be God. This is firmly a definite claim to deity. This Jesus who speaks in John 14: 6 is none other than God manifested in the flesh, in whom are hid all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
2.3. JESUS, THE REVEALED TRUTH
The Bible undoubtedly clarifies that Jesus Christ is the revealed truth. John writes,
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth… For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1: 17).
Here, John is referring to the Old Testament law. The Old Testament law that was revealed by Moses was only a partial revelation, and most certainly true. The law was given to display unto Israel the tabernacle which was only a shadow and ceremony, in a pictorial manner, of the full reality of the truth who was to come. Now that truth was ultimately Jesus Christ. Therefore, when we look at that law which was given to Moses by God is the shadow in the sense that Jesus Christ, the truth, is the substance of all there that is revealed.
2.4. JESUS, THE REDEEMING TRUTH
The Bible wants man to learn that when a person is revealed the absolute and revealed truth, the first thing that it makes him or her realise is that this is a predominantly solid truth. It tells a person the truth about himself or herself. It shows that man is, basically, a sinner. It says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Sin is a breach of the law of God. You have it there in an abstract kind of way. But then the Word of God makes it a little more expressive and precise. It says, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64: 6). The forcefulness of this verse is more graphic in the Hebrew Scriptures, where it says that: "All of our righteousnesses are as a blood-soaked menstrual rag". Isaiah reiterates this in the very beginning of his book when he writes:
Why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment" (Isaiah 1:5 - 6).
So, where and how does the healing of these sores come from? The Old Testament points towards a person in the New Testament and convincingly proves that Jesus Christ is the saving truth of God and spiritual and physical healing comes from him. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4: 10). The spiritual death that came into this world because of Adam as a punishment for disobeying God can be rectified and man can once more reconcile himself with God only by the saving truth, Jesus Christ. In John 17: 17, Jesus prays, ‘Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.’ It is only through Jesus, the saving truth that we are once again given a spiritual life and connection to God. The Triune God is the God of truth, infinite, eternal, unchangeable truth. He cannot lie neither can He deny Himself. Jesus Christ is the saving truth. As divine, Christ is universally present, actively influencing the mediation of redemption to all (325). For committed disciples, truth is practical and something to be done faithfully; for worshippers, God is the Truth to be praised and adored. Thus, truth comes across, respectively, as corresponding, cohering, disclosing, or to be practised and adored (O’Collins 12).
2.5. JESUS, THE ABSOLUTE OR COMPLETE TRUTH
Jesus Christ is the exclusive truth. Relativism, reduces the power of absolute truth. Relativism is the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute. It says that there are no absolutes; there are only opinions in a sense, and that every one of those views or opinions is equally valid. If we take that philosophy of relativism and apply it in a religious sense, they come up with that old proverb that religions are merely different roads that lead to the top of the same mountain and there sits God waiting to receive whoever comes by any of these roads. It doesn't matter if these roads or these ways deliberately contradict each other. It doesn't matter in which path each religion points to, but they all end up in the same place. According to our title Jesus says, "I am the truth" not a truth or any truth (John 14: 6). God is not interested in playing somewhat relativistic games. Jesus is the truth to the exclusion of everything else that pretends to be the truth. Jesus says, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Jesus Christ is the exclusive truth.
2.6. JESUS, THE COMPREHENSIVE TRUTH
Jesus says, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life" (John 14: 6). Christ gives the commission unto His disciples and He says, "Take this exclusive message and teach it to every creature under heaven. Jesus gives the disciples a great commission: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16, 15-16).
The apostle Paul, writes very clearly that: "…there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all" (Colossians 3:11). The Greeks sought after wisdom. They had an intellectual elite; they had a different kind of culture. Yet, the Lord Jesus Christ in the church at Ephesus brings Jew and Gentile together. He makes peace by the blood of His cross, and His enemies are reconciled. This is the truth that can unite the world, the universal truth.
3. CONCLUSION
The truth is important not because it is simply true. It is important because truth is what defines whom and what we believe. The truth of Christianity does not rest on the actions of its adherents. Rather, it rests on the reality of Jesus Christ. The fact that He rose from the dead to demonstrate His deity (Rom. 1:4) and confirm His promise of eternal life for those who receive Him as Lord and Saviour (Rom. 10:9). Jesus is the clearest and most important revelation from God. He is truth (John 14:6). Jesus is God Himself. When on earth, He walked among people and He talked directly to them. But Jesus is not God’s only revelation. During the three years of His ministry on earth, He communicated everything God wants us to know. So, God sent apostles to strengthen us and grant us additional revelation. However, like Jesus, the apostles walked this earth for a short time. Thus, it is necessary for both Jesus’ and the apostles’ teachings to be recorded and preserved. This is the purpose of the Bible.
Truth comes from somewhere. Truth doesn’t materialize out of thin air, but originates in God himself. Lawson continues:
Theologically, truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God. Truth is the self-disclosure of God Himself. It is what it is because God declares it so and made it so. All truth must be defined in terms of God, whose very nature is truth.
Truth is an intrinsic part of the character of God. Truth is not simply a description of what is real, but is anchored in God’s personality, attributes, and nature. You and I cannot escape our skin. In the same way, God cannot escape what is true. It is the fundamental part of his being. Therefore, God determines what truth is. He defines what up is, where the bottom of the ocean is, where we came from, and where we are going when we die. All other methods of learning whether in the sciences or in theology is an attempt to discover what is plain as day to the God who created everything (Genesis 1:1) and upholds the universe by his word (Hebrews 1:3).
One can finally recognise, that if we are ever to find truth, or if we are ever to understand truth in its proper context, we will never do it outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, because our Lord Jesus Christ is the very originator of truth. He is the One who is the centre of all truth and all reality and to seek truth is to seek Jesus because Jesus Christ is the divine truth. Paul showed how the spirit of Christ could provide all people a way to worship God - the God who had beforehand been worshipped only by Jews, although Jews claimed that he was the one and only God of all. According to historian Shaye J.D. Cohen, "Early Christianity ceased to be a Jewish sect when it ceased to observe Jewish practices” (168).
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