Truth
The first postmodern, Pilate, aired the arrogant inquiry, "What is truth?" The answer was then given in the crucifixion of the Truth. Truth is not a set of rules to be obeyed, mysteries to be known or evidences to be mastered, but Christ, by whom we know and are known. Truth is not discovered, it is revealed in relationship to both the head and the heart. Therefore, Truth is not something merely known or proclaimed but Someone experienced, tasted and seen as the Psalmist says, by grace, faith and presence that not merely knows the Truth but loves Him.
Truth holds hands with mercy since we must humbly confess that Truth was a gift of God revealed to us by grace and believed by faith. A relationship with the Truth births humble mercy. Truth without humility has not taken root in the soil of the heart. Humility without Truth has not taken root in the soil of the head.
Truth comes from the Father through the Son and is revealed by the Spirit. It does not come solely by reason, evidence, experience, or tradition. Neither progress, science, technology, nor anything else, nor anyone tied to life under the sun, can unearth it.
Truth brings freedom. To be free is to gratefully live up to obligation. To be free is to be a slave who at last is bought by a master who loves him. To be free is to no longer be alone in exile, alienated and teary-eyed, wandering without an emotional kinship. Truth is everlasting and births within everlasting life to them who believe the true Truth.
Truth is the object. We are merely subjects to be studied by the Truth. Truth is not whom we study, it is before whom our wicked hearts are laid naked to consummate with grace and redemption. It is when we fall into the modern pit of pride and see Truth as the subject to be studied by our objective selves that we run the risk of building the tower of Babel in our mind. Only the Truth is objective and we are His subjective subjects.
Truth brings confrontation. Truth cannot tolerate sin, error or pride. Truth is a hammer that both builds and breaks.
Truth lives in the light. For this reason we both love and hate the Truth. We love it because He cleanses and renews us in His light. But, we also hate the Truth because in His light our sin and depravity is laid, unmasked and unexcused, to our shame, humility and redemption. In light of the Truth our darkness appears most black and vile and our redemption appears most gracious and amazing.
Truth causes us to worship. Truth bends our knee, bows our head and lifts our heart to sing to Him who is seeking worshippers. Truth that does not result in doxology is in the end a well-disguised idolatry that worships those things that God has said or done rather than who He is.
Truth brings courage in the face of opposition. The face of Truth is most persuasive to the fearful, frightened, finite friend of the Father. For better and for worse we are wed to the Truth, in sickness and health, until death do us part. In the raging sea of opposition and corrupting compromise it is the voice of Truth which again whispers, " . . .take courage, it is I, do not be afraid." And those who live not just by or for, but in the Truth, are a courageous people whose blood has fertilized fallow ground.
Truth makes a man appear mad. Only the man who knows the Truth is sane, all others are mad. However, it is the madman who stands alone in exile seeing and speaking the Truth. He is a threat to the lies, liars, and their father who is not in heaven and is therefore categorized, marginalized and trivialized by the truly mad majority. To stand in Truth is to often stand alone as, and with, the madman.
Truth is the way, truth and life. All else is not the way, and lies that lead to death. Truth is by definition the exclusive and narrow way. Truth has few friends, and fewer lovers, and still fewer children.
It is Truth which brings meaning to life, the beauty of redemption and forms a community. This truth comes by the Word of God and the Word of God. Together they form the secret. Truth is a person who tells a Truth story that begins before Genesis and concludes after Revelation. In knowing Him and His story, we know the Truth about all else and are keepers of His open secret story which is so big that it swallows all stories, including our own, as His.
