What is Truth?

   By Jerry McCorkle

Check out the 60-Second Theology video on this topic! 

Pontius Pilate once asked this famous question: “What is truth?”

Truth has been defined as “that which corresponds to reality.” 

I guess, at the end of life, the most important thing is that we had the truth—the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Jesus, in John 14:6, makes a very bold claim. 

Jesus told him,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” — John 14:6 (CSB)

What He is actually saying is that He is truth for everyone. (We would call this absolute truth.) Josh McDowell defines absolute truth as truth that is true for all people, at all times, and in all places.

So what about Jesus, the one who claims to be truth? 

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis made the argument for Jesus’ deity and claims with this famous statement: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.” 

In other words, Lewis was saying that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or He really is Lord.

A liar is one option—whereby He purposely deceives people, telling them He is the only way and that the only way to avoid Hell is by coming to Him. 

The second option is that He is a lunatic—a crazy man. He has a Messiah complex. He is deluded. He thinks He is God.

The last option is that He is Lord. He is exactly who He said He was.

Jesus would prove that He is Lord of all creation by what we celebrate every Easter: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb.

So when the Lord of Creation says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” then we had better believe Him when He tells us that no one can come to the Father except through Him.