God's Word is Truth

Rev. Richard A. Bolland

as published in the Pagosa Springs Sun Newspaper

            Truth and the Gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be excluded from one another.  Indeed, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No none comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14:6)  Sometimes in the discipline of theology we speak of the various attributes of God.  We learn from Holy Scripture that God is all-powerful, all-knowledgeable, all-present, and the like.  Also we learn from Scripture that God is love, compassion, grace, perfectly just, and utterly righteous (perfect).  But we fail to understand the nature of God if we only think that He possesses these characteristics.  Rather, it is necessary to comprehend that God IS the very characteristics which describe Him. 

            Therefore, it is necessary to know that whatever wisdom, whatever compassion, whatever power, whatever knowledge, and whatever justice exists in the world, it is God who is the source of it all.  This is especially true of truth itself.  Once Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judea during the time of Christ, asked Jesus a question.  It was a very good question that is often asked by all of us.  Pilate asked, “What is truth?”  Now, in the context of the conversation Pilate was having with Jesus, Pilate might well have been sarcastic but it is difficult to know for certain.  The irony of Pilate’s question was the very one he was conversing with and looking at was truth incarnate…truth in the flesh!  The Governor was looking at truth itself, and demanding to know what truth was! 

            That still happens today!  God has graciously revealed Himself to humanity through the Word of God, the Holy Bible.  He used mere men to write the words and paragraphs He wanted written by verbal inspiration.  In II Timothy 3:14-16, St. Paul writes:  “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  Likewise, in II Peter 1:19-21, St. Peter writes:  “And we have the Word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place…Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.  For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 

            Despite such clear passages that the Bible is God’s Word, not man’s word, people will insist as they read it that they may ignore any sections with which they choose to disagree.  Thomas Jefferson, this nation’s third President, held this same faulty view of the Scriptures.  Sitting down with a copy of the Bible and a pair of scissors,  Jefferson simply cut out those portions of God’s Word he didn’t happen to like and keep what appealed to him.  Today, many do precisely the same thing.  Tragically, this renders the whole of Scripture useless.  Frankly, if you can’t trust all of it, then you can’t trust any of it!  If we insist on picking and choosing which parts of Holy Scripture are God’s Word and which parts aren’t, then we make ourselves out to be God and insist on putting words in His mouth! 

            Naturally, sinfully, mankind likes nothing better than to assume the authority that God holds to Himself.  That is, in fact, the sin of our first parents in the Garden of Eden.  In choosing to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they not only disobeyed God’s direct command, they chose to be their own authority and in so doing, rejected the authority of God.  This violated not only the command of God, but the very relationship that was supposed to exist between man and God.  It also violated the very nature of God.  Scripture writes:  “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”  In the fall of Adam and Eve truth itself became a victim.  That is why men reject the truth when they read it in Scripture.  Like Pilate, staring truth in the face, we ask, “What is truth?”. 

            Fortunately, God’s one and only Son, Jesus Christ became flesh and lived, suffered, died, and rose to life precisely so that we might be able to see and know the truth!  Suffering our penalty for sin, dieing in our place, and rising victoriously from the grave; our sins are forgiven completely as, by His grace, we are translated from death to eternal life! 

            What is truth?  Jesus Christ is very truth of very truth!  Listen to His Word and live!