How to Know the Truth
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Key Verse: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Selected Scripture: |
JESUS’ WORDS, AS given in the Key Verse, were directed to the Jewish believers in the Early Church. They were privileged to have had a special covenant relationship with God, and were the first to be invited to share as the bride of Christ in his future kingdom.
That covenant relationship which the Jews possessed, however, was in direct proportion to their faith, or lack of it. “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed,” Jesus said. (John 8:31) Continuing in faith, and striving to know and do the will of God was a test for all those to whom these words were addressed, as well as to all Christian believers throughout the Gospel Age.
To be a disciple of Christ means to be baptized into Jesus’ death, which includes a life of self-denial and self-sacrifice, even until death. This consecrated walk, or invitation to the high calling in Christ, must also be accompanied with love and devotion to our Lord. Many Jews did not accept this invitation because of their lack of faith, and so it was extended to gentile believers, when Israel’s period of exclusive favor ended.
Jesus said that the truth shall make you free, and when that light of truth is received into good and honest hearts, the child of God is set free from the errors of darkness and superstition. There is a relationship between truth and freedom. The more truth we accept, the more freedom we experience, freedom from bondage to the creeds and dogmas of men.
It is also a freedom from sin and death, as we give our lives over to God. Those who have entered into covenant relationship with the Heavenly Father, and have made a full consecration of their lives to him, are justified through the marvelous provision of his grace. The child of God then wears the symbolic ‘robe of righteousness’ because of his faith in the precious blood of Jesus. His sins are covered as long as he continues to abide in the love and providences of the Father.
Jesus was in full and complete harmony with his Heavenly Father. He always did those things that were ‘wellpleasing’ to God, and he gave his life by faithfully carrying out his commitment to do the Father’s will, even unto death on the cross. Jesus said to them, “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.”—John 8:28,29
Our Lord received his strength and understanding and guidance from the Heavenly Father. He laid down his life willingly as a sacrifice for the fallen human family. When he begins his reign with his bride in the future kingdom, all will come to know him, and will understand the great sacrifice that he made on behalf of the sin-cursed and dying human family.
Then, all mankind will “come unto the knowledge of the truth.”—I Tim. 2:4