What is Truth? How do we know it? what is Evidence? What can we Trust in?
The Bible is Truth and Jesus is Truth. John 5:17-47
17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work. 18 For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner. 20 For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and greater works than these will he show him, that ye may marvel. 21 For as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. 22 For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son; 23 that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that sent him. 24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life. 25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. 26 For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself: 27 and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man. 28 Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, 29 and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment. 30 I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
32 It is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. 33 Ye have sent unto John, and he hath borne witness unto the truth. 34 But the witness which I receive is not from man: howbeit I say these things, that ye may be saved. 35 He was the lamp that burneth and shineth; and ye were willing to rejoice for a season in his light.
36 But the witness which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father hath given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. 37 And the Father that sent me, he hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form. 38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he sent, him ye believe not.
39 Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; 40 and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life. 41 I receive not glory from men. 42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in yourselves. 43 I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. 44 How can ye believe, who receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only God ye seek not? 45 Think not that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, on whom ye have set your hope. 46 For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
This is a passage where Jesus comes up to the most diligent bible students of His time and says that they are as dead wrong as people who don’t believe in the bible at all, and that they are as deaf to what God is saying as people who are absolutely skeptical of the bible. He comes after people with a high classic orthodox view of the scripture and smacks them down. The scripture is about how God speaks to us.
Leading up to this part of the story Jesus had worked a miracle, healing a paralyzed man, but he does it on the sabbath. So the religious leaders come to Him, the scribes and the teachers of the law, and they say ‘why have you done this on the sabbath?’ His answers to them include claims that were so shocking to them about being equal to God that they wanted all the more to kill Him.
Jesus in verse 31 is then saying yea! I am equal with God but I don’t need you to believe me on the basis of the words coming out of my mouth. He wanted to give testimony to this claim, testimony being evidence, and He knew that in their system of jurist prudence one testimony is not enough to establish a case. E.G. If you make the claim and there are no other eye witnesses, your testimony is not valid, you need at least two. So Jesus submits to the law of evidence and He goes on to say that as crazy as this claim may be God has spoken to you and has given you lots of evidence and God has not left you without a witness. He goes on to name three kinds of evidence. And these are the same kinds of evidence that any of us have.
- Human evidence - John the Baptist “a burning an shining light”
- personal evidence from people whose lives are radiant
- Empirical evidence - The Father has given me the Work (Jesus’ life being the work).
- Evidence that they can see.
- Scriptural evidence - The Bible, in this case the Old Testament is the witness.
Scripture is a divine not human book. When Jesus uses human testimony He points to John, when He points to God as testifying on His behalf he talks about scripture and scripture being what Moses said about Him. If scripture was not from God Jesus wouldn’t cite in when trying to build credibility. Moses wrote it so yes it is written by a person but what Moses said was the Fathers testimony.
Jesus as quotes God in Matthew 19:4, Jesus says
“Haven’t you read?,” He replied, “That He who created them in the beginning made them male and female, and He also said For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two will become one flesh.”
If you go back to that quote from Genesis 2:24 you notice that God didn’t say that but it was the writer who made the comment. So Jesus is quoting the Old Testament as if God said it. Just like He did with Moses’ words saying Moses wrote this but it is the Father’s testimony.
2 Peter 1:20-21, “First of all you should know this: no prophecy of Scripture come from one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead but the Holy Spirit, men spoke from God.”
John 6:37 “The Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me. You have not heard His voice at any time, and you haven’t seen His form.” Jesus says this yet He tells us we have Gods testimony. That is because the words of scripture are His words.
Earlier in 1 Peter 1:16-19 “We did not follow a cleverly contrived myth when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, a voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him! An we heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with Him on the holy mountain. And we have the word of prophecy made more sure.You will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in the dismal place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”
This is amazing because Peter is saying we heard a voice! and we saw a vision! but we have something more sure then that. That which is more sure is the words of the Prophets that are in the scripture. They have this incredible truth of the scripture because as he said ‘they are not mens words of God but Gods words written by men.’ and His word is more trustworthy then any vision or voice that they will ever hear.
Paul in Galatians 1:6-9 “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the Grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel-- not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the gospel of Christ. But even if we or a angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we said before, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
This is amazing because when I was young I would think okay I have the bible which is nice but if only I had a voice or a vision then I would surly know this is true. I have since come to see that we have Peter, Paul, and Jesus all saying you don’t need a voice or a vision because you have got something better! YOU HAVE SCRIPTURE!!!
If I have a voice or a vision there are three possible sources for seeing or hearing them.
- Human source- Making it up, or hallucinating on drugs, or whatever..
- Supernatural Evil Source - From the Enemy
- Divine Source - Truly From God
So one in three chances is that it is actually God. But when I open a scripture there is only one source that I know it is coming from and there no risk involved trying to know whether this is of God or not.
For example: If we were together and thousands of people are with us in a room and then a great angel of light comes down and we all look around and realize everyone is seeing it and it is not just us, then this angel begins to speak and says “this is the truth!” If anybody is thinking in themselves ‘finally!’ Then they are not listening to what Jesus Christ said. Paul says if something of that nature were to happen then somebody should stand up and say “Umm... Excuse me! Do you believe the scripture that says ‘you can only be justified in Gods sight not through the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ?”
If the Angel says “NO!” Then so what, throw the angel out because we have something better then some voice or this angel who doesn’t preach the same gospel!
If we think we can have a personal relationship with God, or Jesus Christ and not believe in the complete authority of the scripture, then we are wrong. If we think that any part of the scripture is not the Word of God we then make ourselves free to accept or reject whatever we don’t agree with or find hard to swallow. We make His Word subjective to our understanding or our desires. Thus the conversation with God is turned off and we don’t listen to what he says but what we want. How do we know what he said? The Scripture. It is the place where Jesus Himself quotes God.
We cannot say I want to know Jesus Christ’ but not accept his view of scripture. The scripture was the lynchpin on which Jesus’ entire life was based. He is constantly saying “It is written...” “It is written...” How does He deal with temptation in the desert? He keeps saying “It is written....” When people were about to come and get Him in the garden and peter starts to take out his sword Jesus says ‘Peter stop, I could call for legions of angels if I wanted to but how would the scripture be fulfilled?’ He is always mindful of scripture. Again when he was carrying the cross and sees the women mourning in the book of Luke He turns to them and quotes Hs 10:8.Then even while dying on the cross dying He says ‘My God My God why have you forsaken Me’ which is a quote from Psalm 22.
If we say we want Jesus but we don’t think the scripture is perfect; what we are really saying is I want a Jesus that I can make up. We cannot have Jesus Christ and then deny the very basis of His greatness and the very basis of His life. Jesus is saying that scripture is testimony and testimony is personal. Jesus is saying this is the truth, the whole truth, so help me God.
Jesus is also telling us here (John chapter 6) that even though these men have the scripture, the very Word of God, they are as deaf to what God is saying as if they didn’t know God at all. The people He is telling this to are the people who have the “right view” and He is not criticizing their view of scripture but rather their use of scripture. Honestly if you have the right scripture but you don’t have the right use of scripture then in reality you don’t have the scripture. So He tells them they are totally missing it.
‘You so diligently study the scripture because you think that by them you posses eternal life.’ Note He is not saying you study them to find in them how to posses eternal life but rather He is saying that they think it is their study of scripture and their knowledge of scripture that is how they are going to get favor of God.
Jesus says the Scripture testifies of Me. John kept saying that I am not the one but that he was bearing witness to the One. If we don’t read every passage, every story, every law as pointing to bear witness to Jesus then we are lost. For example the story of Joseph:
Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. He was betrayed sold into a life of misery and suffering but he triumphs through. Why..? Because he trust in God. Then he ends up ascending to the right hand of the throne and is essentially the prime minister of Egypt. As a result when his brothers are dying of a famine he is able to use his power his authority and his money to save them.
How do we read that history? What is that about? Do we draw from that a ‘principle’ that if we believe in God we can do anything? and if I try hard enough I can learn to forgive..?
If we read the story as pointing to itself in that way, then the passage is an end and not a means to something else. This story is to be used to say of itself as John the Baptist says about himself ‘I am not the one! I am pointing to someone else.’
There was an even greater Joseph. Who was sold and betrayed by the people who should have loved Him. And he brought about their redemption not just in spite of His suffering but through His suffering. And now He is seated at the right Hand of the Father.
Until we see ourselves as the recipient of what Jesus Christ has done as the true Joseph then we will never have the melted heart needed to forgive other people. If the story of Joseph is an end in itself then it will crush us, but if it points to Jesus we are liberated by it and every part of the bible is the same. Every part of the bible is saying if you think you can obey me you are crazy! Every part of the bible is John the Baptist saying I am not the one! there is someone greater. As Paul puts it ‘the law is a school master to bring us to Jesus.’ If we think we can obey the law if we try hard enough then we are not even listening to the law because the law is screaming at us saying I AM NOT THE ONE, I AM POINTING TO SOMETHING BEYOND MYSELF! If we look to the law as an end and not as the means as leading us to the need of the savior then we are lost, no matter how much we know that the scripture is the infallible word of God, we are still lost.
So how can we read scripture right? How can we hear it?
If we don’t see every story, every character, every passage, every law as pointing to Jesus...
- Isaac but the true son of laughter of grace is Jesus
- Joshua but the true general of the host of the army of the Lord is Jesus
- Moses striking the rock so that it opens up and the people drink of its water so that they do not die but Jesus is the rock who was beaten and because of it living waters pour out of Him!
Until we see every passage of scripture about Him and not about us. Until we read the scripture not for information but for formation. Until we read the scripture to meet Him and learn about Him. We have missed it.
Some people might say they like to take the scripture symbolically and not literally, but Jesus said I came from the fathers hand to do my work. He did not to give good advice, He came to save us.
The Gospel is not that we do good things and offer them to God, but that God has sent Jesus Christ to live the perfect life for us and then it is offered to us.
The Gospel is not to “Rise up and live a divine life” no, not at all. The gospel is Jesus Christ a divine being came down and lived a human life, and because He did that for us when we unite with Him we are accepted.
If we don’t believe the story is true, then in that case what we really believe in is a lot of nice principles that we have to live up to. We can read the bible as either all about us, Isaac is about us, Joshua is about us, Moses is about us, or we can read it as all being about Him. Is it about Us or Him? If we read it and think it is all about us we will be mechanical, ridged, we will miss the point and there wont be any real internal character change. If it is all about Him, then the love of God will dwell on us.
If we don’t share Jesus’ view of the scripture then we need to learn how to give it authority over us. Even in the areas we don’t want to hear because if we don’t how will He ever heal you? We can say I don’t like that the scripture says this or that about this or that but what is going to happen?
When our hearts are broken and we feel like a failure and the bible says when our hearts condemn us God is greater then our hearts but how can God come in and give us hope and give use love unless we give the bible authority over us to tell us the good things? If we don’t let God have the authority over us to tell us the bad things then how will he ever heal us? We need to come to Him and we need to say this is the Truth.
The Word of the Lord shows Us the Lord of the Word.
