What Is Truth? by B. C. Haak

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 26, 1914

What Is Truth?

By B. C. Haak

B. C. HAAK

TRUTH is an important factor in the development of Christian character. Jesus said, "The truth shall make you free." Surely the desire of every child of God is to be free from sin. The only way this can be accomplished is by knowing the truth.

"What is truth?" was once asked of Jesus by Pilate. How much more is there room for this question now, when unbelief is filling the hearts and minds of people everywhere. Men will resort to almost anything rather than accept God's truth. They feel they must accept something to satisfy their hearts' longing, and error is the easier to obtain.

Is there, then, any solution to the above question? Everything depends upon a right answer. Is there anything that we can rely upon as a correct answer? Thank God, there is. The answer was spoken by Christ himself, and comes to us in a threefold application:—

First, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Jesus thus becomes the agent through whom we are made free. It is he who is waiting to take up his abode in every heart. But this he cannot do as long as sin is tolerated. It is necessary for us to get rid of sin, and thus be free.

Jesus also said, "Lo, I am with you alway," which is a promise of continued freedom, and power to resist. The Holy Spirit is also given us that we might be made free.

Another promise is, "I go to prepare a place for you. . . . I will come again, and receive you unto myself." From this we see that an important part of possessing the truth is to have a knowledge of Christ's second coming and be waiting for his return. It is impossible to live or teach all the truth without teaching the return of Christ. The world is full of those who claim to have and teach the truth, yet who miserably misinterpret this beautiful truth of Jesus' coming, and are spreading all sorts of erroneous doctrines to try to fill up the gap thus made. Truth cannot be treated in this way, but must be taught in its purity, unadulterated. The instruction of Jesus is, "Continue in my words."

Second, in the prayer of Christ, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, he said, "Thy word is truth." It would almost seem as if Jesus were contradicting himself, for he has just told us, "I am the way, the truth." Is there, then, more than one truth? John will clear this up for us if we will study the first chapter of his Gospel. There he says, "The Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." This can refer only to Christ, and thus the two statements of Jesus are in perfect harmony. There can be only one; the truth, the Word, is Christ, and can make us free. This is why the psalmist could say, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."

Jesus does not divide the word and say that only a part of it is the truth, but classes it all together. Thus it is that he could say, "In the volume of the book it is written of me." How, then, can any one teach the whole truth, which saves from sin, and discard a part of the blessed Word? They who do this are simply rejecting Christ, and yet all the time crying, "We want Christ; give us Christ and nothing else." What an awful delusion!

The third application of the truth is made by the psalmist. He said, "Thy law is the truth." Ps. 119: 142. In reading this wonderful chapter we find David using the terms law and word interchangeably. The Lord himself speaks of the law as his ten words. No wonder, then, that through the keeping of it, by God's grace, David was kept from sin and became wiser than the ancients. This will also be true of the one who keeps God's law today. He will not only be wiser than the ancients, but wiser than the modernists with all their learning. God's law teaches us true wisdom, which is the fear of the Lord, and knowledge, or understanding, which is to depart from evil.

There can still be only one truth, as in the case of the Word and Christ; so we must conclude that Jesus is also the law expressed in character. How could it be otherwise when the law is the very transcript of his character? Thus by having the law written in our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit, we can refrain from sin. We thus may be made free, which is in keeping with the first statement of Christ as noted above.

There are those who claim to love Christ, but hate the law and want nothing to do with it. But how can this condition exist when Jesus is the expression of the law? Satan would try to deceive us into thinking that this can be done, but according to God's Word, it is impossible. We must either accept both or reject both, for they are one and the same thing. By rejecting the law we remain in sin, and our reward will be death. No one can fully preach Christ and condemn God's law. It takes the whole truth—Jesus, the Word, and the law—to give us the gospel, "which is the power of God unto salvation." May God help us to appreciate his truth.