Jesus Christ Is The Truth

Daily Reading Plan: Matthew 19:13-14
 
Jesus loves the little children – all the children of the world. It’s a song, but it’s also an important truth. So today pray for the children in your community – especially those for whom school was their safe place and the place where they had food. Pray that they will be safe and fed while our schools are closed.  And pray for our children’s ministry leaders as they seek innovative ways to connect with the children in our community and the children who may be watching our worship services online.

Jesus Christ Is The Truth
 
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

So what is truth? Is it what I want it to be? Is it what works for me? Is it relative, or is it absolute? Have you ever been in a discussion with someone who told you that if a certain belief works for you, then it’s fine for you to believe it; but it’s not for them, and you shouldn’t try to impose it on them? In other words, what should really matter is what squarely lines up with their preferences about what reality should be, not with what might actually correspond with objective reality.

Such a view might deny the existence of the God revealed in the Bible because it’s argued if God was all powerful and all loving, then how could He ever allow all the pain and suffering that we experience. Some may also argue that there is no hell because a loving God would never allow such suffering among His creation. Others might agree that not everyone goes to heaven, but those who don’t must be annihilated since everlasting punishment would be too harsh of a punishment from a loving God.

Believing in something because we want it to be true does not make it true. The Bible says the Jews were zealous for God, but their zeal was not based on knowledge (Romans 10:2). They wanted to rely on their own righteousness to save themselves rather than rely on the righteousness that comes from God by way of Christ.

Jesus claims to be the only way to God. That truth claim seems awfully narrow-minded to the modern mind. After all, don’t we know some very “good and moral” people who do not share our own faith in Jesus Christ, but who seem to live admirable lives? Did they find another way to win God’s favor? Not only is Christ’s claim of exclusivity repulsive to unbelievers, it may also be hard for some believers to accept as being literally true.

But God tells us, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8). Though we do not always read in the Bible what we want to read, we need to approach God’s Word with humility, knowing that the Holy Spirit’s illumination of the Word in our hearts may often follow our willingness to believe the hard sayings it contains.

When Jesus was on trial before Pontius Pilate, Jesus said, “…for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18: 37).

No matter what the world tells you, or what seems hard for you to accept, embrace Jesus Christ for all He has done for you and all He claims to be. For this will glorify God.
 
By Jim Connell