The God Who is Absolutely Truth

Deuteronomy 32:4, "He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He."

Psalm 31:5, “Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth”. (NKJV)

Isaiah 65:16, “so that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes.” 

John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” 

John 17:3, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

We live in a society where absolute truth is treated like a fairy tale, an outdated idea or even an insult to human intelligence. The one-word motto of our day is, “WHATEVER!” Believe whatever you want. Do whatever seems best to you. Live for whatever brings you pleasure, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. And of course, be tolerant. Don’t try to tell anyone that their whatever is wrong.

The Washington Post declared in an article in 2016, “It's official: Truth is dead. Facts are passe (no longer fashionable, i.e., out of date).” This statement was made based on the Oxford Dictionary’s decision to select for their international word of the year: “post-truth.” The official definition reads: relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.

Oprah Winfrey said in her lifetime-achievement-award acceptance speech at the 2018 Golden Globes, “What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have.” One columnist for The New York Times said that the concept of “your truth” is “the religious message with the most currency in American popular culture.”

But truth, in its essence, must be, and is, unchanging, absolute, and universal. It transcends time, culture, and personal opinion. In Christian theology, God is often described as the embodiment of these qualities. King Jesus declared in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." This statement from Jesus underscores the belief that truth is not merely a concept but a person - God Himself.

Truth, by Definition, Requires an Exclusive Truth-Giver

In spite of popular opinion, history hasn’t been a search for truth, but a war over who will be the ultimate Truth-Giver. Satan tempted our first parents in the Garden of Eden to be truth-makers. Decide for yourself what is true and what isn’t. Be your own god, determine good from evil. But man was made to think God’s thoughts after Him, i.e., to be a truth-receiver and an ethic-reflector, i.e., to reflect ethically or morally God’s moral character as God’s image-bearer.

To say that God is truth is to acknowledge that truth itself proceeds from the nature of God. While many things can have the truth, only one thing can be the truth, with that one thing being the Christian God Himself.

It is my opinion that the heart of the problems in America is failure to diagnose correctly and treat biblically, radically, and remedially, the deadly cavity of Truth Decay.

Until the people of God learn to deal with “truth decay” as they would with tooth decay, they will continue to mistake the cause and feel more rottenness in every level of society. If your tooth has an aching cavity, you don’t deny it, or sanitize it, or rationalize it, or wish for it to stop decaying and hurting. Instead, you deal with it fast and radically. As with tooth decay, the only way you deal with truth decay is to open up to the true Truth of the only True and living God and begin to follow His treatment plan.

There are numerous responses by typical American Christians who hear others asserting absolute truth.

John Dewey, the father of modern education said, “Absolutely no absolutes.”  To say that absolute truth does not exist is self-defeating. It is not possible to say with absolute certainty that absolute certainty does not exist. Someone who denies that absolute truth is knowable has just asserted, absolutely, that they know something.

Assertions about absolute truth from the one and only true God evokes responses like, “That was just your interpretation of the Bible.” “Who are you to judge that person?^” “Don’t you understand that you can do whatever you want just as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody?” ^“Everything is relative.^”

One man in speaking to a pastor said, “I think that anybody who holds to absolute truth is oppressive, intoler­ant, self-righteous, rigid, close-minded, and an arrogant know-it-all.”

Scripture references God as Truth directly in several places. For example, as we have already mentioned, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and He called the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). A more indirect affirmation that God is truth is Hebrews 6:18, which says that “it is impossible for God to lie.”

The Hebrew term for “truth” is emet, which means “truth,” “firmness,” “stability,” and “faithfulness.” The Greek word for “truth” is aletheia, which denotes “truth,” “sincerity,” “straightforwardness,” or “reality.” From these terms - and from other attributes of God that support His truthfulness such as His immutability (God cannot change), infinity, and simplicity (God cannot be partly anything) - we understand that God Himself is Absolute Truth and that truth will never change and can always be relied upon.

True Truth or Eternal Truth requires the God of the Bible! All religions and their gods cannot be true - they may contain some or a lot of truth, but only one can be true! Truth by definition excludes!

Without the True God of the Bible, there is no objective truth - only what's true for you. There is no reason for being; nothing is absolutely right or wrong; nothing has any more value or significance than anything else, and death ends it all!

1. God the Father is the Origination of all Truth - John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Truth comes from somewhere. It doesn’t materialize out of thin air but originates in God himself. Theologically, truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God.

God is the author, source, and determiner of truth. Saying that God is truth extends beyond Him being truthful to declaring that truth itself finds its very source in His nature. Other things can be truthful, but only God Himself is truth. Truth flows out of His very nature.

Everything God says is true, and his Word is the final standard of truth. Truth is the self-disclosure of God Himself. It is what it is because God declares it so and made it so. All truth must be defined in terms of God, whose very nature is truth.

Truth is fastened to the character of God. Truth is not simply a description of what is real, but is anchored in God’s personality, attributes, and nature. Because God is truth, he determines what truth is.

2. God the Son is the Incarnation of Truth - John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

This word “truth” is used by Jesus 22 times in John and only 4 times by Him in the other gospels. He is the truth of God that sets free.

Truth is far more than a moral guide. When Jesus declared, “I am the truth” in John 14:6, he didn’t say He would show the truth or teach the truth or model the truth. He is The Truth - truth personified. He is the source of all truth, the embodiment of truth and therefore the reference point for evaluating all truth-claims.

Truth is not to be found in a philosophy, or a set of proposed statements, but in a personal being – God – and Jesus is the full, final and forever revelation of God. Jesus is not just a truth-teller – He is the Truth.  Jesus is the founder and framer of all revealed truth. He is the center and circumference, the core and crown, the sum and the substance, and the fount and the fullness of all truth.

3. God the Holy Spirit is the Revelation of Truth - John 14:17, “even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

4. God’s Word is the Inscription of Truth - John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

The Bible, the Word of God, the book of truth, the guiding light to mankind for 3,500 years, is the most translated book (over 1,900 languages) and the best seller of all time (more than 500,000,000 copies printed each year).

Pilate asked Jesus in Jn 18:38, "What is truth?" What is it?

The Oxford Dictionary of Current English Usage tells us that the quality or state of being true can refer to being: 1. In accordance with fact or reality 2. Genuine; rightly or strictly so called 3. Faithful 4. Accurately conforming to (a type or standard) 5. Correctly positioned or balanced; upright, level   6. Exact, accurate (a true copy).

Truth is reality, certainty, reliability, veracity, and authority.

 God Is Truth

What does this mean? This means there is absolute genuineness, accurateness, and faithfulness in God. It means that what God knows agrees perfectly with what God is. He is divinely self-consistent. He is real, genuine, true to His nature.  The God of the Bible is Absolutely Truth. The truth of God is the guarantee of reality, the stability of existence, the foundation of certainty. God is Real, reliable, dependable, and faithful. Men can discover scientific facts and truths in history only because God is truth and is the source of all truth.

Man has rejected the God of Truth for the Lie of the Father of all Liars - the Devil. As a result, carnal, natural-minded man pits his reasoning about truth against God's revelation of truth. This causes man to prefer to confess that he came from primordial slime rather than from purposeful design from God's hand. It makes him prouder of relatives who were apes than of God who would be his Father.

The cause of all our problems in the world today is from the gaping cavity of "Truth-decay!"

Truth is Personal and not Merely Propositional - John. 14:6; 1:14,17

Truth is not to be found in a philosophy or a set of proposed statements, but in a personal being - God - and Jesus is the full, final and forever revelation of God. Truth is more than a sum of right answers, it is more than a knowledge of a lot of facts. It is not something to have but something to be. God's desire is not merely to inform us, but to transform us, not to fill us with truths, but to make us true.

Truth is Absolute and not Relative

Deut. 32:4, "All his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. Ps 31:5, "Thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth."

Past generations of Americans viewed God as the basis of truth and morality. Not anymore. A new study in 2020 shows that most Americans reject any absolute boundaries regarding their morality, with a majority - 58% of adults surveyed - believing instead that moral truth is up to the individual to decide.

Perhaps most stunning, this latest research shows a rejection of God’s truth and absolute moral standards by American Christians, those seen as most likely to hold traditional standards of morality. Evangelicals, defined as believing the Bible to be the true, reliable word of God, are just as likely to reject absolute moral truth (46%) as to accept its existence (48%). And only a minority of born-again Christians - 43% - still embrace absolute truth.

Relativism is logically impossible and morally unthinkable. If nothing is true, nothing is immoral. No murdering of babies, not rape or robbery, not the Holocaust, not the purges of Stalin, not the Revolution of Mao that killed as many as 60 million, not the terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center - nothing. If everything is relative, then might makes right, and power to determine it ultimately ends up at the end of a gun barrel.

Truth does not change over time. Truth does not change when knowledge increases. Truth does not change when we move from wrong to right. It is self contradictory to make an absolute truth claim that absolute truth does not exist.

True Truth is Knowable only by Revelation – (Read 1 Cors 2:9‑14; 1 Jn 2:27)

The words of Jesus in Jn 8:32, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” have been taken from their context and used to stir people to pursue knowledge of all kinds with the believe that knowledge will set them free. This search for facts has uncovered tons of truths but can never come to the knowledge of the Truth. That's the reason man is convinced that education is the Messiah.

In his light, we shall see the light. We come to understand that the knowledge of the glory of God is gained in the face of Jesus Christ. Looking unto Jesus is the way of life. 2 Cor 4:6, "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Truth is Objectively Revealed, but Subjectively Appropriated

Eph 4:15, "Let our lives lovingly express truth in all things - speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly." We are not to pray, "Lord, give me more truth, but Lord, make me true! We are to believe the truth; walk in the truth; to worship God in truth; speak the truth in love; to rejoice in the truth. You should want truth to drop into your heart like a plumbline, revealing and righting every inconsistency, removing every falsehood and deception.

Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. God's purpose for you is freedom. His method of freedom is truth. His revelation of truth is Jesus Christ. Freedom is a life controlled by truth and motivated by love.

Psalm 51:6, “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.”  Father God desires that his children be continuously speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly!

The lifestyle of a disciple can be summed up in three ways: Walking in the Way of the Lord; Believing in the Truth of the Lord; Living in the Life of the Lord. He is the way to tread in, the truth to trust in, and the life to treasure. Christ's work as the way brings man to God. Christ’s word as the truth brings God to man. Christ's will as the life brings God to live in man. 

The joy of Living a God-Centered Life means that we trust in God because He is trustworthy. We depend upon Him because He is dependable. We have faith in God because He is faithful. We believe in God because He has revealed Himself as Truth through His Word. God is the God of truth (Ps. 31:5). He is faithful in all his dealings. His promises are sure; for He cannot lie. (Read Numbers. 23:19; I Sam 15:29; Ps 89:35; Titus 1:2, Heb 6:17, 18). He judges according to truth, that is, according to the way things really are, and not on the basis of outward appearance (read Romans 2:2). And those who trust Him wholly find Him wholly True.

Question? Is the way you're living, the things you're saying and doing based on the truth? Is the True God in control of your heart? Do you realize that your deeds will be accounted for on the judgment day before the God of truth? Are you truthful in your marriage relationship, or with your children? Are you truthful in your work and business life?

The God of Truth is requires that we refuse falsehood, deceit and ungodliness; that we daily gird our loins about with Truth.

The God who is Absolutely Truth is the God of the Christian faith and the Only Way to Life!

John 17:3, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Former Hindu, Steve Kumar illustrates why Christianity is unique and the only way to God; "As a Hindu I was drowning in a large lake. I didn't know how to swim. Hindu religious leaders and gurus came by and gave me lectures on how to swim. Confucius taught, “You should have fol­lowed my teaching and then you would never have fallen."

“Allah wills whatsoever he wills.” Mohammed advised, Buddha came by and said, “It’s all an illusion in the mind, change your mind and you will change the problem.”

Krishna came along and said, “It’s your karma that you have fallen into the lake. You deserve it.”

Then God came down from heaven in the person of His Son -Jesus Christ. He did not give a lecture or some good advice. He said, “I have come to seek and to save those who are lost,” and he came right into the lake and lifted me out of it and changed my life and put a new song in my heart. The song writer captured my sentiment when he wrote, “From sink­ing sand He lifted me, with tender hands He lifted me. From shades of night to plains of light. Oh, praise His name, He lifted me.” I now understand the experience of the psalmist when he said: “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth; Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD” (Psalm 40:1-3).