Truth is more about morals than knowledge

Even though Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32) truth is far more than knowing facts, or even believing something is true. Truth gives freedom only when it is known and lived out. 

Jesus words were questioned by those who heard them. They claimed to be free from any sort of slavery, assuming Jesus meant physical bondage, but Jesus said:

Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father. (John 8:34–38)

This is such a loaded answer. First truth: all who sin are slaves to sin. Because sin is defined as doing our own thing instead of obeying God (see Isaiah 53:6), sin is not mere immoral acts. It includes all of life that is apart from faith in the Lord and doing His will. 

Second truth: a slave need not remain a slave. By faith in Christ, sinners can become members of God’s family, sons and daughters. And those who believe live in the ‘house’ of God forever. 

Third truth: salvation through faith in Christ sets sinners free from the penalty and power of sin. Doing my own thing is no longer my task-master. I am able to put aside my ideas, weaknesses, even strengths, and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to direct all that I do. I’m free from cravings, indecision, human effort, and the driving force of ‘I want what I want when I want it’ so that I can love God. 

Fourth truth: no matter my heritage or the fact that I read the Bible, truth is about my attitude toward Jesus. I am not a Jew, yet I could know the words of God’s book. However, if those words go in one ear and out the other, it shows a heart in slavery. True freedom is being transformed in not only how I think but how I talk and live.

Fifth truth: involves listening to God and not the lies of Satan. The Bible says that those who are set free are aware of his devices. That means I recognize and am set free from the bondage of lies, even though that involves a choice to believe what God says and not listen to the Liar. 
Piper says that to love God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is to love the truth. I cannot separate God from truth. This is who He is and what defines Him. He is not like humans. He is the source of a truth-driven life.

Piper also says that to not love truth is eternally suicidal — based on this:

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Indifference to the truth is a mark of spiritual death. It involves taking pleasure in sin, revealing that the alternative of truth is immorality and wickedness, not merely falsehood. Again, loving and believing the truth with my whole heart is a matter of eternal life rather mere knowledge.

PRAY: Jesus, the world seems filled with those who have abandoned truth (You) for the lies of Satan and the folly of sin. If I focus on this, heaviness threatens. But another reality drives away darkness and hopelessness, the reality that You are the way, the truth, and the life. And You have come into my life to set me free, from sin but also from doubt and all fear. I can still choose to do my own thing, but that cannot compare to the wonder of living in truth. Your grace is humbling and not at all deserved — yet fills my heart and life with great joy and thanksgiving.

Truth sets me free . . .

 

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 1:13)

Yesterday this quote showed up in social media: “Truth is true, even if no one believes it. A lie is a lie, even if everyone believes it.” I don’t know who said it, but I say amen!

Today’s devotional begins with: “The gospel is true because Jesus is true, not simply because Christians believe in Him.” Again, I say amen!

MacArthur also makes this statement: “Believing a lie doesn’t make it true. Conversely, failing to believe the truth doesn’t make it a lie.” Belief does not determine truth and denying truth does not change its validity or make it go away. Suppose my house is on fire and my neighbor rushes in to tell me. Saying ‘No, it is not on fire’ will not put out the fire or make it not so.

The NT calls the gospel “the message of truth” and the OT says it too. For example: “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.” (Psalm 119:160)

Jesus is truth, “ . . . I am the way, and the truth, and the life . . . .” And the Holy Spirit is truth and “ . . . will guide you into all the truth . . . .” so people will “know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Again, Jesus says, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” and He prays, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 14:6; 16:13; 8:32; 4:24; 17:17)

A frightened horse refuses to leave its burning barn and must be blindfolded and led to safety. Those who hear the gospel are blindfolded already and reject the truth that their lives are in eternal danger. They oppose it or redefine it, or say it may be true for others, but not for them. But instead of being led out of danger with a blindfold, the Lord Jesus came “into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46) He knew that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

The gospel is true because Jesus is true. He proved it in His life, His death, and most significantly in His resurrection. He “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.” (Romans 1:4) Failing to believe the truth does not make it a lie, it simply makes a person blind to the reality of that truth!

Lord God, You gave me truth when You gave me Jesus. I am girded with truth — it is my protection from danger and strength in my weakness. Those who are deaf and blind to You need to hear truth. May You grant me opportunities to proclaim it with humility, wisdom, and loving boldness.

MORE: Read John’s gospel and mark all verses about truth. Read 1 Corinthians 15:1–11 and Acts 17:30–31. Look for the key elements of the gospel and for the relationship between Christ’s resurrection and God’s judgment on sinners. Pray for others who need to be set free from the sin that holds them in unbelief.

 

Convinced

 

READ John 5-10

These chapters from the Gospel of John repeat principles that ground my faith. My heart bursts with joy reading these truths. I am certain of so many things because Jesus said them!

Jesus said, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you” (John 5:14) and I know that sin brings undesirable things into my life.

He said, “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (5:22–24) I know that cults who claim to worship God but ignore Jesus are not honoring God at all.

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (5:30) tells me that seeking the will of God gives me the ability to rightly evaluate what I hear. Without Christ, I cannot be sure of anything. This uncertainty is increased when I try to impress others: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (5:44) Jesus later adds, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” (7:17) Obedience brings clarity.

Jesus gives priorities for life: believe in Him, seek His will rather than temporary stuff . . .

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you . . . .” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (6:26–29)

I also know that the salvation of others is primarily God’s work: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him . . . .” (6:44) and as they are drawn, they must come to Him realizing that sin is the big issue and so is His identity! He says, “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” (8:24)

In that last verse, the word “he” is not in the original language. Jesus later repeated this claim: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” And those who heard Him “picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” (8:58–59, compare to God identifying Himself to Moses in Exodus 3:14) For this claim and for all that He did, the Jews thought He was lying, but I am firmly convinced that Jesus is God in human flesh.

From experience and the words of Jesus, I am also convinced that sin is a slave driver. My only freedom is knowing the truth and living by it. Satan lies to deceive and sometimes knocks me down, but Jesus picks me up . . . 

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free . . . . everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin . . . . So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (8:31–36) “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (10:10) “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (10:27–30)

If something nasty happens to me, God uses it for good. Romans 8:28-29 define that good as transforming me to be more like Jesus. From John 9:1-3, I also am convinced that nasty stuff is not always brought on by my sin. Sometimes it happens because God has a plan. When Jesus saw a man blind from birth, his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

My mom used to say, “We must need it, or we would not be getting it.” This expresses a belief in the goodness and sovereignty of God. Jesus used her words and John’s Gospel to convince me. Whatever God says is true.