What Is Truth?

I have asked that question in different ways for years.

What is true?

What should I believe?

What does God want me to do?

How do I know that I am walking in His will?

Pilate asked Jesus a version of the same question:

“What is truth?”

—John 18:38

But what strikes me now is what happened immediately before Pilate asked it.

Pilate had asked Jesus whether He was a king.

Jesus answered:

“For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate asked, “What is truth?”

And yet the One standing before him had already said:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

—John 14:6

The question, then, is not merely philosophical.

Truth is not only something to define.

Nor is truth detached from what God has spoken and revealed. But in Jesus Christ, truth confronts me in a Person.

Jesus Christ does not merely teach truth. He bears witness to the truth, speaks what He has heard from the Father, reveals the Father, and declares Himself to be the Truth.

That changes the question.

It is no longer only:

Do I know what is true?

It becomes:

Do I know Him?

Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus keeps bringing together hearing His voice, believing Him, abiding in His Word, obeying what He says, and following Him.

He tells those who believed Him:

“If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

—John 8:31–32

Belief is not presented as a momentary agreement that leaves the rest of life untouched.

Jesus speaks of remaining.

Abiding.

Staying in His Word.

And then He connects truth with freedom.

But the freedom He describes is not merely political, psychological, or circumstantial.

He says:

“Everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin.”

And then:

“If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

John 8 moves from remaining in Jesus’ Word, to knowing the truth, to freedom—and then reveals the deeper bondage as slavery to sin.

The truth Jesus makes known is inseparable from Him, and the freedom He speaks of is ultimately freedom the Son Himself gives—from slavery to sin.

That means I can know many correct things about God and still need to ask whether I am actually living under the rule of Christ.

This became even sharper in John 5.

Jesus told men who searched the Scriptures:

“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me. Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.”

That is sobering.

It is possible to search Scripture and still refuse to come to Christ.

It is possible to study the witness and resist the One to whom the witness points.

This brings me to something I have already been learning:

Let the Word search me.

I should search the Scriptures carefully. I should study context, ask questions, compare Scripture with Scripture, and seek to understand what God has actually said.

But I must not stop there.

Scripture bears witness to Christ.

As God searches me through His Word, He exposes the unbelief, desires, and intentions of my heart. And as Scripture bears witness to Christ, it directs me away from myself and toward the One in whom there is life.

If my study fills my mind with information but does not increasingly bring me to Christ, correct my desires, reshape my thinking, deepen my trust, and move me toward obedience, something has gone wrong.

John 10 presses this further.

Jesus says of His sheep:

“The sheep hear his voice.”

And:

“The sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”

Later He says:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

There is something deeply personal here.

The Shepherd knows His sheep.

He calls them by name.

They hear Him.

They follow Him.

He gives them eternal life, and no one can snatch them from His hand.

Their security rests not in the perfection of their following, but in the power and faithfulness of the Shepherd who knows them and keeps them.

Truth, then, is not merely something placed before me for intellectual examination.

Truth calls me.

But hearing the Shepherd’s voice does not mean treating every inward impression as though it came from Christ. In John’s Gospel, the Shepherd makes Himself known through His words and works. His sheep receive Him, believe what He says, and follow Him. His voice will never contradict the truth He has revealed.

The question is whether I receive the Shepherd revealed in Scripture and follow where His Word leads.

Jesus says a stranger’s voice will not have the same claim upon His sheep.

That forces another question upon me:

What voices am I actually following?

The voice of Christ?

The voice of culture?

The voice of fear?

The voice of ambition?

The voice of pride?

The voice of comfort?

My own understanding?

If I say Christ is my Shepherd, then His voice must increasingly become the voice that governs my life.

In John 14, Jesus tells His disciples:

“Believe in God. Believe also in me.”

Then:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Truth is not detached from the Father.

Jesus reveals the Father.

When Philip says, “Lord, show us the Father,” Jesus answers:

“He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

The Father is made known through the Son.

And then Jesus says:

“If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Truth does not terminate in recognition.

It moves toward obedience.

If I say I love Jesus while continually resisting what He has said, something is disordered.

Love listens.

Love trusts.

Love obeys.

Not to earn His love.

Not to make myself acceptable to God.

But because the One who loved me and laid down His life for me is my King.

And He does not leave His people alone in this.

Immediately after speaking about obedience, Jesus promises the Helper:

“I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.”

Here the pattern becomes clearer.

Truth is grounded in God.

The Father is true.

His Word is truth.

Truth is revealed in the Son.

Jesus bears witness to the truth and declares:

“I am…the truth.”

Truth is made known and witnessed by the Spirit.

He is the Spirit of truth.

The Spirit does not draw attention away from the Son or bring a message independent of Him. He bears witness to Christ, glorifies Christ, and brings Christ’s words to remembrance.

Truth is not an abstract possession that I can hold apart from God.

The Father reveals.

The Son makes the Father known.

The Spirit bears witness to the Son.

And I am called to receive that revelation by faith.

Jesus also told those who claimed Abraham as their father:

“If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.”

Abraham heard God.

Abraham believed God.

And his faith bore fruit in obedience.

Faith was the root.

Works were the fruit.

Jesus’ opponents possessed Abraham’s physical lineage but did not share Abraham’s response to God. When the truth of God stood before them in Christ, they resisted Him.

That is a warning to me.

Christian language is not enough.

Biblical knowledge is not enough.

Religious activity is not enough.

The question is whether I believe God when He speaks—and whether that belief bears fruit.

Jesus says:

“He who is of God hears the words of God.”

Before Pilate, He says:

“Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate answers:

“What is truth?”

And then he goes back outside.

That may be one of the most sobering moments in the Gospel.

The question was standing before the Answer.

Truth was speaking.

And Pilate did not remain to listen.

I do not want to do the same thing in a more religious form.

I do not want to open the Bible, ask God for direction, gather information, close the book, and continue unchanged.

I do not want to search the Scriptures while refusing to come to Christ.

I do not want to hear His voice without following.

I do not want to call Him Lord while protecting areas of my life from His command.

So perhaps “What is truth?” is not finally answered only by a definition.

Scripture gives me something more demanding.

Truth is grounded in the true God.

The Father has revealed Himself through the Son.

Jesus Christ is the Truth.

The Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

The Scriptures bear witness to Christ.

Those who are of the truth hear His voice.

Those who hear Him are called to believe.

Those who believe are called to abide.

Those who abide are called to obey.

Those who belong to the Shepherd follow Him.

And in Him is life.

So the question I need to carry is no longer merely:

Do I know what is true?

It is:

Do I know the One who is Truth?

Do I hear His voice in what He has revealed?

Do I believe His Word?

Do I abide in it?

Do I obey Him?

Do I follow Him?

Because if Jesus is the Truth, then truth is not merely something I am called to understand.

The One who is Truth calls me to follow Him.