When Truth Has a Face

Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Then he walked out of the room. It’s the most famous question in the history of philosophy, and Pilate asks it while looking truth in the face. The answer was standing in front of him, bound and bleeding, and Pilate turned around and left. Today, countless people ask the same question: What is truth? How do we answer? Do we answer with a list? A set of doctrines? Or, with a Person? Jesus said: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Today, we’ll focus on this statement and something John said in John 1.

1. The Room Where He Said It

   1. John 14:6: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

   2. What Jesus Did Not Say: “I will teach you the truth.” or, “I will point you toward life.”

      1. I am the truth.

      2. He claims to be the thing himself.

   3. 14:6: No one comes to the Father except through me.

      1. The exclusivity isn’t a wall built to keep people out.

      2. It’s an open door with a universal invitation. The only condition is “through me.”

2. The Word Became Flesh

   1. John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

   2. John 1:3: All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.

   3. John 1:14: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

      1. The eternal truth of God took on skin and bone — fingernails and a heart

      2. “Dwelt” literally means he pitched his tent with us.

      3. Truth is Personal. Knowing it is a relationship.

3. Grace and Truth Came Through Him

   1. John 1:16-17: Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

   2. What arrived when He came?

      1. 1:17: grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

      2. Together. Full of both. Not a careful balance.

   3. Watch how He does it in John 8.

      1. 8:11: “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”

      2. He doesn’t trade one for the other.

   4. This is the Gospel

      1. The cross is where grace and truth meet without either one giving an inch.

         1. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

         2. This is why no one comes to the Father but through Him.

   5. The gospel is Jesus.

      1. 1:16: Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness,…

4. As We Close…

   1. When the world asks you, “What is truth?” you can give a better answer than a list. You can give the answer Jesus gave.

   2. Hold grace and truth together, because the One you follow does.

   3. You cannot stay neutral about Jesus. Which direction are you moving?