Scripture Reading: John 8:32
Nineteen hundred years ago, Pilate asked, "What is truth?" (John 18:38). Many people have also asked this question. We cannot explain the biblical meaning of truth according to our concept. We have to consider what truth is according to God's Word.
The word truth in Greek means "absolute reality." Hence, truth is not a theory but a reality. We do not know the theory behind many real things, yet we can touch the fact and the reality of them.
According to John 1:17, the law was given through Moses, while grace and reality came by Jesus Christ. Grace is not an attitude of God, but a work of God. Grace is the work that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, has accomplished for us. God's Son has been crucified on the cross and shed His blood to accomplish God's work of redemption. There is no need for us to do anything by ourselves. By trusting in Him, we are saved. Without the work of the cross, God had no way to dispense His grace to man. Through Moses, He was only able to give man the law. Grace comes to us only because of the work of the cross. Therefore, grace is the work of God. Both grace and reality are in the same verse. Grace came through Jesus Christ, and reality also came through Jesus Christ. When God gave the world His only begotten Son, He intended that He be reality as much as grace. Through the work of His Son, there was grace. Through the work of His Son, there was also reality. Without the work of the Lord Jesus, there could not be grace today. The Lord Jesus had to accomplish grace before this grace could be dispensed to man; millions of Christians believe this. The Lord Jesus also had to accomplish the reality before this reality could be dispensed to man. Ephesians 4:21 says, "The reality is in Jesus." God has accomplished the truth in the Lord Jesus. The truth is in Him; it is His work.
The Lord Jesus said, "I am...the reality" (John 14:6). The truth mentioned in the Bible refers to nothing other than the reality. What is reality? It is what we really are before God as a result of the Lord Jesus' accomplished work. This is truth, and this is reality. The Lord Jesus has shed His blood to redeem all those who belong to Him. This is a fact. Because of Him, I am a redeemed person before the Lord. This is the truth. The truth is what I am as a result of the facts accomplished in the Lord Jesus. I can only have the truth through the work that the Lord Jesus has accomplished. If the Lord Jesus had not worked, I would not have any truth or any reality before the Lord. I was a dead man and a sinner before God; I did not have any standing or anything before Him. But now, thank the Lord, through the work of the Lord Jesus, I have the reality before God; I have gained something solid and real. This real and solid thing is the fact that I am now a redeemed person. We must remember that the truth mentioned in the Bible is not doctrines preached on a platform, but a fact before the Lord. A doctrine is man's explanation of something, while the truth is what we have become in the eyes of God through the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus. Through the work of the Lord Jesus, God has made me another person. This is a truth; it is a reality. We must remember that in God's eyes, the work of Jesus Christ is finished. The truth is what we have become as a result of this work. Truth is Christ; it is the Lord Jesus Himself because all the realities are in Christ. All the facts that we have been speaking of are in Christ. We can say that two plus two equaling four is a truth, but it is not the truth that we are speaking of here. The truth that we are speaking of here is just Christ Himself.
Do we not have the truth already? Yes, but a question immediately arises. Why is there a vast difference in what we are before the Lord and what we are in the world? The work of the cross is finished, but we are still not victorious. The Lord Jesus has changed us into one kind of person, yet on earth we still appear as another kind of person. This means that our condition does not match the truth that we hold onto before God. This is our problem. We often do not know what the truth is. We come to God according to our own feelings and experiences rather than according to God's truth. We must realize that God's truth is contrary to our feelings and experiences. The one issue we have to resolve is which of the two is real. Is the Lord's accomplishment for us before God more real, or are our own feelings and experiences more real? Which of the two is more real? This is the question.
We are often bound because we do not see what is real, what is reality. Once we see the truth, the truth sets us free; it liberates us. Let us mention a few things to illustrate what it means for the truth to set us free.
We will begin with salvation. Suppose someone hears the gospel and realizes that the Lord Jesus has died on the cross and shed His blood to forgive his sins. He believes in the Son of God for the forgiveness of his sins, and he receives the Lord into him. When others ask whether he belongs to the Lord, he says, "Yes." He is bursting with joy within. However, three or five months later, he may feel a little sick, and troubles and difficulties may arise in his family. Then his joy is gone; it seems as if joy has departed far from him. He feels as if he is no longer saved and is no longer a child of God. If others ask him whether he is a Christian and whether he is saved, he may answer, "I am quite bothered. I have lost my former joy. I do not know where the Lord Jesus is anymore. I do not know what to say about this." What would you say to him at this time? If you know God's truth, you would tell him, "You may feel that you are not saved, but in fact you are saved. In reality you are saved."
From what side are you looking at the matter? If you look at it from his side, you may feel that he is not yet saved. But if you look at it from the side of the Lord's work, you will say, "Brother, there is no change; you are still saved. You are saved when you feel hot, and you are still saved when you feel cold. Your feeling may change, but the work the Lord has accomplished for you and what God has given you will never change. You have to look at it from His end." The Lord says, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." When a man's eyes are opened to see that he has obtained reality and truth before God through the work of the Lord, he will be free and he will be liberated. We must remember that we are not freed according to our feeling. Only one thing frees us: the reality which is before God.
There was a brother who had definitely repented to the Lord and was a regenerated believer. After awhile, however, his inward feelings became different; he felt quite grievous, and he thought that he would surely perish. Another brother came along and said to him, "How do you know that you are going to perish?" He said, "I am not the same as before. I feel cold within. Neither my prayer nor my reading of the Bible is doing me any good." The other brother said, "That is the condition on your side, but let us consider a few questions from God's side. Has the work of the Lord Jesus been discounted?" "No." "Has the Lord's work changed from what it was before?" "No." "Has His work been annulled before God as if the new covenant were dissolved?" "No." "All right, we are sure that there is no change on His side. Therefore, according to truth and according to reality, you have not become unsaved before God. What has changed is your own feeling. You may feel that you are saved, and you may feel that you are not saved, but when God says that you are saved, will He change? You have to remember that salvation is a question of truth; it is not a question of feeling." When he heard this, he responded with tears, "It does not matter how confident I am; whatever I say or feel means nothing. If God says that I am saved, then I am saved." This is the truth setting us free. Spiritual reality liberates a man from his own feelings; it frees him.
Let us go one step further to see how the truth sets us free. God's Word shows us that when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He bore our sins, regenerated us, and saved us. God's Word also shows us that when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He put us into the Lord Jesus, and our old man was crucified with Him. The Lord's death was not the death of an individual; it was a corporate death. When He died on the cross, we died in Him also. Through His accomplishment, we became dead. This is truth, and this is reality.
However, before we see this truth, we are bound. When we look at ourselves, we still find our temper. When we touch our feelings, we still find our weaknesses. All the undesirable things we have from head to toe are still with us. The question now is: Are our experiences and feelings more real, or is the Lord's work more real? Many people are weeping as if nothing is more real than their bondage. But God's Word shows us that only one thing is real, that is, the accomplishments of His Son Jesus. Our old man is crucified with the Lord. This is truth. If we do not see this truth, we will become a slave to our temper and will be bound by our experience and feelings. What can set us free? Only the truth can set us free. Only reality can set us free. If we live by our feelings and experiences, we will fail again and again. But if we see the fact of our crucifixion with the Lord, we will be set free.
Let us consider another matter: the victory of the Lord Jesus. There was a brother who was under Satan's attacks for a few months in body and in mind. He tried all he could to pray and resist them. He even exhausted himself in prayer and resistance. Yet for three months straight, despite his resistance and prayer, he was still under the attack. One night he prayed to the Lord, "I cannot resist any longer. My power of resistance is exhausted. I cannot pray anymore, my strength to pray is gone. Lord, show me where the root of the problem lies." God opened his eyes and gave him a word. He had heard that word before, but when he had heard it previously, it was like seeing men as trees. Now he became clear. The word was: "Is Satan worth such resistance from us?" He had never before thought that one could be wrong for resisting Satan. On that day, he saw the reality. What is the reality? The reality is that the Lord Jesus has overcome. When we are joined to Him, we also overcome. It is not that the Lord Jesus is about to overcome, and we cheer Him on. The truth is that He has overcome. It is not that Satan will be defeated, and we pray for the Lord to defeat him. Thank and praise the Lord that Satan is already defeated. It is done; it is not something to be done. Once that brother saw this truth, the attacks stopped. Everything became quiet, and all the problems were over. This is the reality setting men free. This is the truth setting us free.
In order to see the truth, we need God's enlightening. Psalm 43:3 says, "Send forth Your light and Your truth." What is the purpose of God's light? It is for enlightening the truth. This is very important. We know God's truth through the light. Truth does not come from the preaching of the word; it comes from God's light. Today if you ask the brothers and sisters, "Have you died in Christ?", many will say, "I am dead. Yet I do not know why it is not producing any effect on me." This is because they have only heard the doctrine; they have not seen the truth. Whoever sees the reality has received the light. A brother said that when God opened his eyes to see Romans 6, he saw Ephesians 6 as well. He saw that his death was a fact, the Lord's victory was a fact, and his participation in the Lord's victory was also a fact. In the past, he was only hoping for it; now he knew that he had it. In the past he was only hoping that the Lord would overcome; now he could praise the Lord for having overcome. He testified that this way of living was totally different from his former way of living. Formerly, everything was in the way of yearning and hope. Now everything was reality. He was no longer trying to grasp onto something; everything was in his hands already. When the light comes, a person has to jump up and say, "It is finished!"
Every Christian has been enlightened at least once when he was saved. When a person is saved, he sees that he does not have to hope to be saved or hope to receive eternal life. He does not have to hope to receive these things in the future. Instead, he thanks and praises God for accomplishing all these things in Christ. Once the light shines on the truth, a person becomes a Christian. Every Christian becomes a Christian through the light shining on the truth. All spiritual realities come through the shining of the light upon the truth.
Therefore, when a truth is being preached without the accompanying shining of the light, it becomes a doctrine. When truth is preached, and God's light is upon it, the truth becomes revelation. To receive a revelation is to receive the truth. Those who receive a doctrine are merely filled with ideas in their mind. Only those who have received a revelation receive reality and life.
When God's light shines, the Holy Spirit brings us into the spiritual reality of what the light shines on. On the one hand, there is the Spirit of truth; the Comforter is the Spirit of truth. On the other hand, there is the Bible, which is the word of truth. There are first the facts of truth — the things that God has accomplished in Christ. When the Bible tells us these facts of truth, and we believe in the words of truth, the Holy Spirit brings us into the truth itself, that is, into the spiritual reality itself. The Lord Jesus is the reality, and God brings us into the reality through His Spirit. In this way, we no longer have a doctrine or a theory; we do not have to live in our feelings or our experiences anymore; instead, we can live in Christ's accomplished facts.
Hence, the main question is whether or not we have revelation. When we have revelation, we will not think of our own experiences or our own feelings. We will believe that everything on God's side is real. Many Christians consider that their old man is still living, that it is a reality. They dare not believe that they were crucified with Christ. But if they see the revelation, they will change. The revelation will show them that their old man is surely and undeniably dead. We must remember that only those who receive the revelation of the Holy Spirit enter into the reality. The Holy Spirit gives us revelation and shows us what is real before we can ascertain what is real and what is not.
When God accomplishes something and we see what He has accomplished, we have the real experience. Praise and thank the Lord, when we see what God has accomplished and when we say yes to whatever God has said yes to, we have the real experience. May the Lord open our eyes to see the truth. If we truly see the truth, the truth will set us free. Our liberation comes from the truth. Our freedom comes from the truth. We should all seek after the truth, which means that we should all seek after reality. May God lead us into all reality.
