Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”  – John 18:37-39

So what precisely is truth according to the world?

According to Wikipedia, “Truth or verity is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.” My question would be, “What reality?” I’ve seen how facts can be manipulated to justify opinions and ideologies, and not as evidence for knowledge of the truth. Films have been made about “The Truth”, songs written, and philosophers have pondered it. Yet it is clear that there is no worldly consensus regarding what truth is. As an atheist, I searched for truth through evidence in science and history. Yet this I found. When you seek truth with all your heart, The Truth will reveal Himself to you wherever you are willing to receive Him. I have met so many other atheists whose hearts are hardened to any information outside what they want to know, that they are living in delusion, creating and changing their rules and standards of morality as they go. They revere their own deluded understanding as a superior intellect. To the one standing on the outside looking in, you can see the fallacies in their arguments and ideologies, desperately trying to convince everyone else and sometimes even themselves of their own mistaken views.

Rom 1:18-Rom 1:22 ESV

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,”

I was like these kinds of people. So instead of throwing rocks at them, I have compassion for the delusion that they are unknowingly enslaved by. We know that science, philosophy, idolatry, theology, and human opinion have been syncretised into a mixed world religion where we fight each other, throw rocks, condemn, and kill. And after I converted to faith in Jesus Christ, I saw these same unmistakable traits in church leadership and its members. Most Christian churches eventually begin to unravel after enough questioning about what is true and false. Sadly, many end up acting much like atheists. It is unfortunate, but that seems to be the reality. Just look at the Roman Catholic Church, Protestants, Lutherans, and others. They do not accept correction; they rather cause a schism and produce another denomination.

If it were not for a 16-year-old girl who proved Jesus to be God through what she could do rather than what she knew of Scripture, I would not have had a powerful encounter with Jesus. Through this experience, I have the evidence of the absolute Truth. Jesus is the Messiah. Through no other name than Jesus Christ are we saved. It is not your knowledge of Scripture that brings people to repentance; it is through the working of His Spirit, and by His power that one receives the evidence and substance of your faith. If you have an intellectual approach to God, you can be swayed to believe whatever intellectual argument sounds most plausible.

1Cor 2:3-1Cor 2:5 ESV

“And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

So, when I was born again through the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11), I went to church. And what I saw was old people acting like children in their understanding. No one could discern truth from a lie. No one studied the Scriptures to see if what was preached to them was really the truth. No, they went for the goosebumps…  The stir of the emotions and the hype of the rock band. And when you bring truth into the church, it usually ends up with you standing on the outside of the camp with slurs, opinions, and false accusations hurled back at you. You might have done this so many times that you know what is coming, but God keeps asking you to bring truth back to the church. Why? Because He loves us that much! The question is, do you love them that much? I have heard this teaching so many times, and yet it feels empty: “Just love them back to Christ.”

When we accept Jesus Christ as God the Son (not only as Son of God), we accept God the Father’s testimony about His only begotten Son (1 John 5:9-12 LSB). God being Yahweh, in three Persons as Father (Exodus 4:22; Isaiah 63:16; Deuteronomy 32:6;  2 Samuel 7:14), Son(Psalm 2:6-8,12 LSB; Proverbs 30:3-6 LSB; Isaiah 9:5-7 LSB; Isaiah 7:14-15 LSB; Genesis 19:24 LSB; Psalm 110:1,4 LSB; Zechariah 13:7 LSB; Isaiah 49:6-7 LSB), and Spirit(Genesis 1:2 LSB; Judges 3:10 LSB; Isaiah 63:10-11 LSB; Ezekiel 36:26-27 LSB; Joel 2:28-29 LSB). Jesus, Yehoshua, or Yeshua, we accept as the Word of God, the absolute truth. Why? Because Jesus is the One who claimed to be the Truth and proved that He is God through His resurrection. We know that He is THE TRUTH because of the evidence provided by eyewitnesses who wrote down what they saw, experienced, touched, and heard (1 John 1:1-4). And these witnesses died proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus Christ to Jew and Greek. The facts speak for themselves. For thousands of years, the Torah and the Gospels have been ridiculed, accused of being corrupted, and yet the evidence proves otherwise. From the Dead Sea Scrolls, we have proof that the uncorrupted manuscripts we read today are precisely the same as those the early Christians and the Hebrews were reading. Evidence of the corruption of the Quran is also freely available in their own documents and in historical manuscripts of Mohammed and his companions.

So facts matter to confirm truth. Eyewitness accounts matter to corroborate the facts. Yet the interpretation of these facts perverts the truth that Jesus taught. Jesus taught the true intent, the full meaning of the Torah, not to abolish it, but how to live out the Torah according to the intention of God. We as believers are commanded to follow the fulfilled Torah, not to abolish it or do away with it (Matthew 5:19-20). He tells His disciples to teach others what He taught them (Matthew 28:20 LSB).

John 5:18 ESV – According to Torah, Jesus did not break the Sabbath, but according to the Talmud (referred to as ordinances of men), He did. He also confirmed that He was equal to God in the way He addressed God as Egō Patēr (“My Father”), equating Himself to God.

John 5:38-47 ESV – Jesus states that whoever does not abide in the word of God the Father does not believe in God the Son. And that the Scriptures (Tanakh) bear witness about Him. How can we then throw the Tanakh away? The New Testament is found in it and confirmed by it!

John 7:19 ESV – The Jews did not keep the Torah; they kept the Talmud.

John 8:31-32 ESV – If you live in the word of God (Torah), you will be set free.

John 8:34 ESV – It is sin that keeps you in bondage, not the law of Moses.

John 8:39 ESV – Abraham’s children would do the works of Abraham (Gen 26:5 ESV)

According to the bible, God (Yahweh, not Allah or any other name of a god) is the source of absolute truth. Truth (Hebrew Emeth, Amen and Greek Alētheia) is described as a Person, the nature or the character of God, as something we should practice (an action), and a moral concept. Let’s dive into these descriptions.

Truth as a Person

The pinnacle of the concept of truth is in the person of Jesus Christ, not in any philosophy or manmade ordinances and laws. The gospel culminates in the identity of WHO Truth is. The fruit thereof is to follow in the ways of the Truth, and walk as He walked through the same empowerment He was endowed with, and then delegated His authority to those who imitate Him through love and obedience to the Spirit of truth.

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

Psalms 31:5 LSB – Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O Yahweh, God of truth.

John 17:17 ESV – Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Psalms 25:5 LSB – Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; In You I hope all the day.

Psalms 119:142 LSB – Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.

1John 5:6 ESV – This is he who came by water and blood–Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

John 16:13 ESV – 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.

James 1:18 ESV – Of his own will he (the Father) brought us forth by the word of truth (Jesus), that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Truth is the nature or the character of God

Truth is not only the factual evidence or information, but also the very essence of God’s nature and attributes of His character. God is the source of truth, the final standard of truth; His word is true and will not return without being completed.

Isaiah 65:16 LSB – Because he who is blessed in the earth Will be blessed by the God of truth, And he who swears in the earth Will swear by the God of truth; Because the former distresses are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My sight!

John 1:14 ESV – 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.

Hebrews 6:18 ESV – so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

Titus 1:2 ESV – in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

Numbers 23:19 LSB – “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?

Psalms 119:160 LSB – The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments is everlasting.

Truth as an action and standard of conduct

Truth is not just an idea or knowledge you attain, but a standard of conduct that you should act upon and live out daily. The Greek word alētheia, used to describe truth, describes a reality that is solid, binding, and consistently produces the fruit (works) of who you are in God the Father through Jesus Christ.

1John 1:6 ESV – If we say we have fellowship with him (Jesus) while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

1John 3:18 ESV – Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

3John 1:4 ESV – I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

John 3:21 ESV – But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

James 1:22 ESV – But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

2John 1:6 ESV – And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

Psalms 26:3 LSB – For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth.

Psalms 86:11 LSB – Teach me Your way, O Yahweh; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.

Zechariah 8:16 LSB – These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates.

1 John 1:5-10 LSB – This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Truth as a moral concept

Truth defines integrity, righteousness, and consistency between your spirit man and your works, in other words, the fruit of your faith. Biblical truth is an objective moral standard grounded in the unchanging, faithful, consistent nature of God. This moral standard is not only in “the letter” of the truth, that is, the factual accuracy for an absolute moral standard, but also in “the spirit” of truth, meaning the intent of the truth in one’s inner being. For example, you may be able to follow the whole law of God perfectly, and yet still harbour hatred, unforgiveness, jealousy, lust, deception, and hypocrisy in your heart. So yes, the fulfilled law has its function in righteous living, and it can never replace God’s sanctification through obedience to the Holy Spirit, which is the standard for practicing the righteousness you have become through the work of Jesus.

Psalms 15:1-3 LSB – A Psalm of David. O Yahweh, who may sojourn in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy mountain? He who walks blamelessly, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend;…

Moral truth is often linked to integrity (tom or tummah in Hebrew), which implies being undivided or whole. There is security in applying biblical moral truth to your everyday life.

Pro 10:8-11 LSB – The wise of heart will receive commandments, But an ignorant fool of [loose] lips will be ruined. He who walks in integrity walks securely, But he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. He who winks the eye causes pain, And an ignorant fool of [loose] lips will be ruined. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, But the mouth of the wicked covers up violence.

God also commands moral truth from us. It is an outflow, product, or fruit of those who follow the voice of the Holy Spirit, i.e., the sons of God (Romans 8:7-8, 14). The application of this law of God in the Ten Commandments, in its fulfillment in Jesus, extends to all areas of communication.

Exo 20:16 LSB – (When you obey the Holy Spirit the automatic result will be that) “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Ephesians 4:25 ESV – Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Zechariah 8:16 LSB – ‘These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates.

Proverbs 12:22 LSB – Lying lips are an abomination to Yahweh, But doers of faithfulness are His delight.

Without moral truth you will not inherit everlasting life. So this becomes a salvation issue among those who claim to believe in Jesus Christ.

Revelation 21:7–8 ESV – The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Revelation 22:14–15 ESV – Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Personal encounter

Jesus is the Truth. But before we are able to cultivate a relationship with Him, we must encounter Truth first, get to know Who He is, and how He wants us to love Him. An encounter happens when you yield your own ways, abilities, intellect, and philosophies to the unseen Spirit of Truth who is waiting for you to invite Him in. Open the door of your heart, and let go of the spirit of control keeping you captive through your carnal mentality and sin consciousness. When you surrender the good, the bad, and the ugly, your successes, and your failures, and expose everything in the Light that enlightens everyone who believes, you will encounter Truth, Grace, Mercy, and Love in one Person. That Person is Jesus Christ. He alone has made atonement for you, your history, your present state, and even the errors you might commit in the future. He alone is worthy of honour. That is undeserved grace, freely given to everyone who believes in Him and receives Him as God the Son, God the redeemer.

“He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” – Isaiah 53:4

When we love the Truth, we will keep His commandments, not according to our own ability or insights, but empowered by the Holy Spirit, led by the Spirit of the Most High, yielded to His voice in us as believers.

John 14:15-17 ESV – “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 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.

To stand in relationship with Jesus is to stand in relationship with Father God. Jesus will manifest Himself to you when you love Him (The Truth); in other words, you will SEE Jesus!

John 14:21-26 ESV – Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Love is not just a feeling, an emotion; it is active, a fruit of the Spirit of truth produced when you walk in the Holy Spirit. To abide in love is to make your home in love, to live in love constantly.

John 15:9-15 ESV – As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Change in identity

When you accept the testimony of the Father about Jesus, you receive the testimony of Christ. Now God becomes our Father. This implies the following

1. We are brothers of Jesus the man – Romans 8:29
2. We are born into the same lineage as Jesus – 1 John 2:29, 1 John 3:9, 1 John 5:4, Galatians 3:7, 
3. We are a different, brand new creature, not the old human anymore, but something totally different – 2 Corinthians 5:16-18, Philippians 3:21, Romans 8:11, 8:29-30, Galatians 6:15.
4. You have become part of Israel – Ephesians 2:12-22, Galatians 6:16, Romans 9:6-8.

In conclusion, to love the Truth is to embrace the fullness of what God has revealed in Jesus Christ—where grace, righteousness, and salvation are inseparably united.

Grace

Grace is the undeserved gift through which we encounter the Truth as a Person in Jesus Christ, not by our own merit or intellect, but through the revealed power and mercy of the Father. It is this Spirit of grace that draws us out of darkness, softens our hearts, and invites us into a living relationship with God as a Father.

Zechariah 12:10 LSB – “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

Hebrews 10:29 ESV – How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

Righteousness

From this grace flows righteousness—not merely as an external standard of conduct, but as a transformed life produced by the Holy Spirit. True righteousness is not achieved through human effort or by adherence to the letter of the law alone. True righteousness is also practiced through obedience to the Spirit, aligning both heart and actions with the nature and character of God. It is the visible fruit of a life that abides in the Truth. It is not a question of either the law or the Spirit, but rather the practice of and obedience to both law and Spirit. From the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in us, we receive the ability that was formerly impossible to live out the righteousness of God in obedience to the law of God written down by Moses.

John 16:8–12 ESV – And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

 The Holy Spirit can do in you and to you what you will never be able to achieve in your own ability or effort.

Romans 8:7–11 ESV – For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Obeying the law is not sin, nor is it legalism; it is obedience. Legalism is when you strive to obey the law to achieve righteousness. When you do this, you have rejected the grace of God through Christ. It is not that we must obey to be righteous, but rather that we love Him, therefore we want to obey because we have been made righteous through unmerited favour.

Romans 7:12, 14, 16, 22, 25 ESV – So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. … For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. … Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. … For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, … Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:6 ESV – But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Through the power of grace, we have been empowered to live out our righteousness in fulfilling the law of God (Christ). The Holy Spirit empowers us with His supernatural ability to do what is impossible for carnal man.

Romans 6:12, 14–19 ESV – Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. … For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

Now we are no longer sin-conscious, but rather conscious about our righteousness in Christ.

Romans 8:29–30 ESV – For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Salvation

Finally, salvation is the ultimate outcome of both grace received and righteousness lived out.

Ephesians 2:4–10 ESV – But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

It is found in no one else but Jesus Christ, the embodiment of Truth, who redeems, sanctifies, and restores.

2 Corinthians 5:16–17, 21 ESV – From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. … For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Salvation is not only a future promise but a present reality for those who walk in the light, love the Truth, and remain faithful to His voice.

Matthew 24:12–14 ESV – And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Revelation 22:11–14 ESV – Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

Psalm 119:142 LSB – Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.

Therefore, to truly love is to love the Truth—by receiving His grace, walking in His righteousness according to His Law, and holding firmly to the salvation He has freely given.