We’ve been looking at how knowing facts does not necessarily mean we know the truth. As I said last time, truth, in the deepest sense, is when we not only know the facts but understand their meaning and significance.
One definition from the Oxford Dictionary says that truth is “That which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.” The truth I’m talking about is how we know reality. This truth transcends human thoughts and reveals divine intentionality. And how we know divine intentionality is found in a Person—Jesus Christ.
6Jesus explained, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with me. To know me is to know my Father too.” (John 14:6 TPT *)
How is Jesus the truth? I believe this is so in two main ways:
- Jesus is the truth about God.
- Jesus is the truth about us.
Let’s look at these briefly.
Jesus Christ is the truth about God
Whatever is like Jesus is like God; whatever is not like Jesus is not like God. Jesus is the interpretative lens by which we understand God. He is our guide when we read Scripture. (see Matt.11:27; John 1:1-2, 18; 14:7; Heb.1:3).
Here’s how the Mirror Translation describes Him:
1:18 Until this moment God remained invisible to man; now the authentic begotten son, the blueprint of man’s design who represents the innermost being of God, the son who is in the bosom of the father, brings him into full view! He is the official authority qualified to announce God! He is our guide who accurately declares and interprets the invisible God within us. (John 1:18 MIRROR *)
And this verse leads us to the second way we know truth.
Jesus Christ is the truth about YOU
We also see in the verse above that Jesus is “the blueprint of man’s design….” What does this mean for us? It means that Jesus is what we were meant to be as human beings. The problem is, while we were born in the image of God (Gen.1:26), that image was marred and so God had to do something to restore us to our original design. This is the ultimate purpose for our redemption.
As I shared in “Incarnation is about Restoration,” using early church father Athanasius’s analogy, God doesn’t throw away the canvas (humankind). He becomes one of us and sits for a new painting. This is the glorious news of the cross: Jesus came to restore us to the truth about who we really are!
1:15 In Him the image and likeness of God is made visible in human life in order that every one may recognize their true origin in Him. He is the first-born of every creature. (Col.1:15 MIRROR *)
There’s a lot more I could say about this, but will leave it here. Jesus Christ is our “blueprint design;we understand God and ourselves through Him and in Him.
9 For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].
10 And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and power]. (Col.2:9-10 AMP *)
“…as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17b NKJV *)
The bottom line is this: we can know facts but Jesus said it’s this truth—this reality—that will make us free. When we enter into a cooperative process with Jesus through His Spirit we’re progressively being restored to our original design and divine intent (2 Cor.3:18).
“If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.” (John 8:32 MESSAGE *)
In My Father's House 
The bottom line is this: we can know facts but Jesus said it’s this truth—this reality—that will make us free. When we enter into a cooperative process with Jesus through His Spirit we’re progressively being restored to our original design and divine intent (2 Cor.3:18).
After 48 Years as a believer I am just beginning to understand and experience this reality 😂
I hear you. I took me a long time to shed the religious facsimile of following Jesus for the real thing. And it is an experiential reality, full of love, joy, hope, peace, that’s transformational! I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Amen, Mel. The personhood of Jesus also helps to give us the parameters in which to process truth. A lot of people wrestle with the Old testament, the alleged God of wrath so to speak, and also with their own abuse issues. If we can look to Jesus, take note of God in human form, in a way we can all relate too, what we will find is a God of mercy, love, and truth, who gave His very life to protect us.
Those cheesy bracelets from long ago, WWJD, as a way of changing your mindset, can be useful and full of surprises. What would Jesus Do? Why, he’d march right into the temple and start throwing chairs about…..:)
People wrestle with the God of the Old Testament because they’re not letting Jesus explain it to them. As Jesus said, no one knew God before Him. People like Moses, David, and the prophets caught glimpses. They wrote down their experience with God from their pagan-like (from our 21st century view) and primitive perspective. Jesus came to tell us what God was really like. Bad theology comes from reading the Old Testament indiscriminately, as if Jesus never happened.
On WWJD, Jesus gave nothing but grace and mercy to those whose hearts were open, no matter how marginalized by society they might be; those who weren’t open or gracious and thought they knew better got the whip. 🙂
Here’s an interesting article Mel, that touches on some of the issues you’ve already addressed, the search for meaning and what is “truth,” Just thought you might like it.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/jordan-peterson-crisis-of-meaning-western-civilization/
Interesting article. I give Peterson points for addressing the cultural elephant in the room…the crisis of meaning in Western civilization. But I don’t think he has a grasp on the answer, which makes him a bit reticent to go further than he does. But at least he’s asking the questions nobody seems to want to acknowledge.
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Hello again Mel. It’s been awhile since I was here last. Thought I’d pop over for some brief entertainment. You know, I’m feeling this “acquaintence” is a bit lop-sided one way. I feel like I’m doing all the work. LOL 😉
Anyway, I have a big contention with this:
#1) Where does this “transcending truth” originate exactly? (Hint: it isn’t John 14:6)
#2) Is this “transcending truth” inclusive or exclusive?
#3) How many humans have license to understand and teach this “transcending truth” and are there tests to be given to false teachers? 🙂
I find most all of these claims here to be overly vague and when one actually DIGS into the historical context of your vague generalities to verify, nothing actually adds up correctly. I’ve done the necessary verifying legwork for this for more than 20-years. So I ask here.
Also, I noticed after reading all of this post that the ONLY support you give for YOUR premises are strictly within the 4th-century CE canonical New Testament and/or from strictly (biased) later sources of Christian Church Fathers, e.g. Athanasius. There are an increasing amount of truly INDEPENDENT sources of this time-period, starting with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and those into the 3rd, 4th, and early 5th centuries… that simply do NOT corroborate your hypotheses or elaborations here. Your approach hardly comes across as fair.
If there are INDEPENDENT sources corroborating your position, please provide them, ESPECIALLY those within Second Temple Judaism/Messianism… the seed of Jesus’ Reform Movement. Keep in mind that you and I have debated this before and of which you severely lack the knowledge of its historicity and impacts upon the time-period. And this shortcoming is further exaccerbated due to the constant absence of the heavy Greco-Roman influences upon this time-period — a very significant template that must be overlayed/included in all discussions of 1st-century Jerusalem. Period. These two components are also undeniable “truths” in the entire equation and should never be (intentionally) left out.
Thanks.
LOL! Sorry, not interested in talking to people who aren’t open in the least bit to anything other than their own thoughts. You forget that I know you now. And I’m not interesting in engaging with your insulting and condescending attitude and whatever you think is true about the Bible. You repeat these same things about the Bible every time you come here as if they are dogmatically true, which is quite ironic considering your subjectivism. The thing you don’t seem to get is that I actually DO know the arguments you speak of very well. They are well-worn arguments, and as I told you before, quite debatable and too tedious to unravel here. Frankly, it’s all quite boring to me. I will just sum it up by what Walter Wink once said, the state of modern biblical historical criticism is bankrupt. And he was no evangelical fundamentalist. Besides, you only care about your own thoughts so it’s pointless to argue with you. But have fun believing whatever you want.
Ah, good then. At least we both agree that you are entitled to that personal opinion and your posts, and so by default you fairly give me (or not? LOL) my personal opinions and knowing on this highly convoluted subject. So I’ll conclude with this…
What is the oldest COMPLETE New Testament available today, its age, and how different is it than its many later cousins by the copyists and Church Fathers? Research it yourself. But here’s the fast-track answer:
Codex Vaticanus c. 300 – 325 CE
Codex Sinaiticus c. 330 – 360 CE
Mark 16:8 is last verse in both these Codices as opposed to many later, changing versions of the Greek New Testament.
3rd-century Clement of Alexandria and Origen are unaware of the circulation of any extra verses; furthermore Eusebius and Jerome attest that the passage was absent from almost all Greek copies of Mark around the various synagogues and homes. The language and writing-style of the Greek in the later passages is clearly not of Mark, and it is quite evident that what the forger(s) did was librally take sections of the endings of Matthew, Luke, and John (written later than Mark) and simply create a retro-fitted retro-grade ending. This Roman hijacking and borrowing of foreign mythologies/religions is a well established sociopolitical habit throughout all of Rome’s Republic and early Imperial Age.
Obvious Conclusion: the veracity of the 4th-century CE canonical Greek (not Jewish) New Testament is nowhere close to being established as any verifiable “truth.” However, blind “faith” is a completely different psychological argument and HUMAN condition. Transcendency has nothing to do with it and is another highly individualized HUMAN definition, conditon, and most definitely not an “exclusive” truth in the least.
As James Tabor correctly concludes:
And here I’m only pointing out ONE out of MANY problems and failures of “Holy Scriptures.” But blind-faith is truly an addiction and hard to rehabilitate from when indoctrinated for several years. The human brain is indeed gullible to magic shows. 😉
Haha. Right. You couldn’t resist could you. Had to give your shop-worn anti-Christian spiel again, and then you quote James Tabor! LOL! But thanks for wonderfully making my point. Got to love your opinions projected as certitudes. Nothing like anti-Christian dogma! Good luck with that.
So what’s your point, what’s your counter? Do you have any independent sources to corroborate anything you presume here?
Ha! A bit funny, but my point, my counter is that I never chat with anyone who types “obvious conclusion” in bold letters. Had an awesome teacher once who said that’s a tell, a dead giveaway that someone is selling ideology and attempting to bypass your critical thinking skills. Our modern world right now is just plagued by the cult of “obvious conclusions.” The truth beneath that lie being, if it were truly “obvious” there would be no need to try to force feed you the “conclusion.” I mean, obviously. 🙂
Exactly. The hypocrisy and irony is astounding. 😏
Great article Mel its an eye opener.
Christ-Messiah Jesus-Yeshua is the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE!! Hallelujah and Maranatha!!
Love ❤ Always and Shalom ( Peace ), YSIC \o/
Kristi Ann
It really is that simple, to this day, His wisdom is unbeatable, blessings
Yes it is. 🙂 Blessings to you as well.
Therefore we are all called to be His disciples in truth! There is no truth that overtakes God’s – nothing! Thank you for this post! Would love for you to check out my posts as well, Mr. Wild! Blessings!
Thanks for stopping by. Will check out your blog when I get a chance. Blessings.