What Is Truth?
What Is Truth?
Bro Lim Chan Khoon | 29 March 2026 | John 18 : 37 – 38
What is truth?
It is one of the oldest and most contested questions in human history. Pilate asked it of Jesus standing before him, and walked away without waiting for the answer. Philosophers have argued over it for millennia. In our own age, people speak freely of "my truth" and "your truth", as though truth itself were a personal preference — something each individual gets to define for themselves.
But the Bible does not leave this question unanswered.
And the answer it gives changes everything.
Truth Is God's Word
Jesus Himself settles the question with a single, clear declaration in His prayer to the Father:
John 17:17
"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."
Your word is truth. God's Word is the absolute standard — the fixed, unchanging reference point by which all things are measured.
Jeremiah 10:23
"O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps."
It is not in man to direct his own steps. This is a recognition of human limitation. We are finite, we are partial, we are biased by our desires and our fears.
Proverbs 14:12
" There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death."
What seems right to a man may ultimately lead to death. That is why we need a higher authority to set the standard for our lives and give us true direction. We need a higher standard for right and wrong, for it is not in man to direct his own steps. Therefore, we must not look to man, but to God and God's Word. And it is not merely a guide for this life — it is the measure by which all of us will one day be judged:
John 12:48
"He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day."
Psalms 96:13
"Before the LORD. For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth."
He shall judge the peoples with His truth. Not with our truth. Not with what we decided or determined is acceptable. With His truth. The standard is absolute. The standard is settled. And it is found entirely in His Word.
Now that we have established what is truth – God’s word is Truth and God’s commandments and instructions. The next question is where do we get this truth?
The answer brings us to one of the most breathtaking declarations in all of Scripture:
John 14:6
"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Jesus Christ Is the Truth
Jesus does not say He teaches the truth, or that He points toward the truth. He says He is the truth. And to understand the full weight of that claim, we need to understand who Jesus is — where He came from, and what He represents.
John 1:1
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:14
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
The Word that existed before creation — the Word that was with God and was God — became flesh and walked among us. This is the foundation of the Christian faith and what makes it utterly unique among all religions. The Bible is not a human document about God — it is God's own revelation of Himself to His creation.
Philippians 2:5–7
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men."
Hebrews 1:1–2
"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;"
In time past, God spoke through the prophets but in these last days, He has spoken finally and completely through His Son. The fullness of truth has been given to us in Jesus Christ:
John 1:17
"For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
And because truth has come to us fully in Christ, God has left nothing out. It is written in the Bible and revealed by God in the Bible. Everything we need to know — everything pertaining to life and to godliness — has been revealed, given to us by God Himself:
2 Peter 1:3
"as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,"
All things. There is nothing missing from what God has given us. The truth is complete, it is available, and it is found in His Word and in His Son.
What Can Truth Do?— It Sets You Free
The question then becomes: what does this truth actually do for us? Jesus answers this directly:
John 8:32
"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
When Jesus spoke these words, the Jewish listeners pushed back immediately. Free? We are not in bondage. What do you mean, free?
It is the same question many would ask today. I can go where I want, do what I want, decide what I want. Am I not free? But Jesus was not talking about physical or political freedom. He was talking about something far more serious:
John 8:34
"Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.""
Freedom from sin. This is what truth offers — and this matters infinitely, because sin carries consequences that reach far beyond this life. Sin is the breaking of God's law:
Romans 4:15
"because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression."
Romans 6:23
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Isaiah 59:1–2
"Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear."
Sin separates. It builds a wall between us and the God who loves us. It hides His face from us. And its ultimate wage is death — not merely physical death, but eternal separation from the One who is the source of all life. This is the bondage that Jesus came to break.
And this life is not all there is. The story does not end at the grave. There is the afterlife :
John 5:28
"Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice"
There will be a resurrection. Every person who has ever lived will stand before God.
Those who have done good — a resurrection of life.
Those who have done evil — a resurrection of condemnation.
This is not a threat designed to terrorise. It is the truth spoken in love by a God who desperately wants every single one of us to be on the right side of that moment:
1 Timothy 2:4
"who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
All men. Not some. Not the deserving few. All. God's desire is universal. His mercy is wide. And it is precisely because He wants all to be saved that He has given us the truth — clearly, completely, and without ambiguity.
What is the Truth that Jesus Wants You to Know
Having established what truth is and what it does, the lesson turns to four specific things that Jesus wants every person to know and embrace.
1. Jesus Came to Save the Lost
Luke 19:10
"for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Some will hear this and feel it does not apply to them. I am not lost — I have direction, I have goals, I know what I want from life. But being lost, in the way Jesus means it, has nothing to do with having a plan. It has everything to do with whether that plan is guided by God's truth.
A person can be purposeful, successful, and confident — and still be walking away from God, away from life, away from the only destination that ultimately matters.
Romans 5:8–10
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His
Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
While we were still sinners. While we were enemies. Not after we had cleaned ourselves up or found our way back — but while we were at our furthest from Him. That is when Christ died for us.
And to reject that love, to walk past it without receiving it, carries its own consequence:
John 8:24
"Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."
Life guided by truth leads to life. Life apart from Jesus leads to dying in our sins.
2. The Church Was God's Eternal Plan
God's eternal intention from before the foundation of the world, foretold centuries in advance:
Daniel 2:44
"And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever."
A kingdom that would never be destroyed. A kingdom that would stand forever. Jesus said He will build His church :
Matthew 16:18
"And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."
And on the Day of Pentecost, that church was established— and the Lord added to it daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:47). The church is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of His Son:
Acts 8:12
"But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized."
Colossians 1:13
"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,"
Jesus is the head of this kingdom — its King and its Saviour:
Ephesians 1:22–23
"And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."
1 Timothy 6:15
"which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,"
And the purpose of the church — the reason God established it — is made clear in Ephesians:
Ephesians 3:10–11
"to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,"
Ephesians 5:23
"For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body."
The church is not an institution invented by men. It is God's eternal plan — the body through which His wisdom is displayed to the universe, and the community through which His salvation reaches the world.
3. You Must Worship God in Spirit and in Truth
A question that often goes unasked is this: does God accept all worship offered sincerely to Him?
Many assume He does — that sincerity is the only standard that matters, and that as long as the heart is genuine, the form is not important. But Scripture tells a different story. Jesus Himself acknowledged the existence of vain worship:
Matthew 15:9
"And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."
Vain worship — offered sincerely, perhaps, but still vain. Sincerity is necessary, but it is not sufficient.
There can also be Ignorant Worship. The Apostle Paul encountered a vivid example of this in Athens, a city saturated with religious devotion — temples, altars, and idols everywhere. The people were extraordinarily sincere in their worship. But Paul did not affirm it:
Acts 17:22–23, 29
"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you... Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising.""
You cannot shape the Divine Nature with human hands, and you cannot shape worship according to human preferences. God is not unknown — He has revealed Himself. And He has told us how He desires to be approached:
John 4:23
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him."
The Father is seeking true worshippers. Which means there are also false ones — those whose worship, however earnest, does not align with the truth He has revealed. To worship in spirit and truth is to come to God on His terms, not our own — with a sincere heart, yes, but also according to His Word.
Hence it is not true that God will accept all kinds of worship offered to Him.
4. You Must Believe and Obey Jesus
Knowing the truth is not enough. Even believing it intellectually is not enough. The truth demands a response — and that response is obedience.
Paul writes with profound soberness about the two roads available to every person who encounters the truth:
2 Thessalonians 2:11–13
"And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth,"
Two groups. Those who rejected the truth and took pleasure in unrighteousness — condemned.
Those who believed the truth and were sanctified by the Spirit — saved.
Salvation is God's eternal plan, purposed before the foundations of this earth. But it is received through belief and obedience. The writer of Hebrews is direct:
Hebrews 5:9
"And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,"
The author of eternal salvation — to all who obey Him. Not to all who admire Him. Not to all who find His teachings interesting or compelling. To all who obey. The truth is not merely something to be studied. It is something to be lived.
The Invitation — Know It, Believe It, Obey It
The judgment of God will not be according to what we felt was right, or what we decided was acceptable, or how sincere we believed ourselves to be. It will be according to truth — His truth, settled and absolute:
Romans 2:2
"But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things."
God desires all men to be saved. He sent His Son to seek and to save the lost. He has given us His Word, complete and sufficient, containing everything that pertains to life and godliness. He has held nothing back. The truth is here. It is available. And it is calling for a response.
Our duty is simple to state, though it costs everything to live: know the truth, believe the truth, and obey it. Not partially. Not selectively. Not when it is convenient.
If you have been studying, reading, turning the truth over in your mind and wondering what to do with it — this is your moment. Believe it. Obey it. Step into the life that God has been holding out to you all along. You do not have to keep standing at the door.
Know the truth. Believe it. Obey it. And live.
The Truth Will Set You Free!
