Bethany Bullet - May 26, 2009

“What is truth?”
–Pilate

“Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.”
–Abraham Lincoln

“You can’t handle the truth.”
–Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men

TRUTH is at the very heart of the Christian message. In his epistle, John writes regarding the truth of Christ. John is writing against the backdrop of the Gnostic movement which taught, among many false things, that truth was exclusively the property of those with secret knowledge and inner enlightenment. John steadfastly, painstakingly, and historically points out that the truth of the Gospel is anything but secret and internal. “The Word of life existed from the beginning. We have heard it. We have seen it. We observed and touched it. We are reporting to you about it. . .”
–1 John 1

Accordingly truth is not merely a series of statements but One who is incarnate. Jesus Christ is the truth. We, like those to whom the letter was first written, live in a world of competing truth claims. Included among these claims are claims regarding truth itself:

• Is it absolute?
• Is it relative?
  

The people of God have much to say about the truth claims of the world. However, John reminds us that our first, primary, and essential role is to introduce the truth as a Person; not to merely defend truth as information. Unless the world comes to know the truth of Jesus Christ, how can we expect them to understand the truth He teaches?

T-akes our

R-efuse

U-nites it

T-o

H-imself

Jesus Christ has taken the false notions of the world, our lies, and the true nature of our guilt and was forsaken by God, punished by heaven, suffered, and died as if it were His own sin.

T-ransfers His

R-ighteousness

U-nto us

T-hrough

H-ope

Through faith in Jesus’ work, God’s own righteousness and holiness is truly ours.