THE LIVING TRUTH
by Elbert McLaughlin, Jr.
The truth of God is the one thing that separates God’s people from the rest of the world. The world says that we must find the truth, but the bible tells us that the truth must find us. You see God’s truth is more than just the facts and beliefs that we hold dear. The truth is alive, has a name, and is a person. Jesus said in John 16:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life.” In the first part of this verse, Jesus calls himself the truth. In the next part of this statement, He goes on to say that no one can come to God but through Him (John 16:6). So you can’t find the truth on your own; the truth must find you. In John, it reads, “But the hour cometh, and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for the father seeketh such to worship him.”(4:23). This is telling us that God is looking the world over actively seeking true worshipers. He is not waiting for us to make a move, as most churches teach; He takes the truth to you.
Phillip the Apostle asked Jesus in John 14:8, “Lord show us the Father.” He said this because Jesus had just told them in verse 6 that He was the truth and the only way to the Father. Here, Jesus reveals that astounding truth. Let’s read it! “Have I been so long time with you, [3 years] and yet hast thou not known me, Phillip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and now sayest you then, shew us the father? Believeth thou not that I am in the Father, and the father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the father that dwells in me, he doeth the works. Believe me [Let’s believe him!] that I am in the Father and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works sake” (John 14:9-11). All those great miracles that Jesus did and wonderful teachings of love, mercy, and law were done by God the Father living in Jesus. So Jesus lived His physical life day by day just simply believing and obeying what the Father told Him to say and do.
Little did the disciples know that their world was about to be turned and then shaken apart. We have this record of Jesus, the last heart-to-heart chat with His disciples. In a few hours, Jesus would be arrested and brought before an illegal tribunal and brutally murdered. The disciples had left everything they knew: family, friends, and occupations to follow Jesus. Now, He was dead and they needed hope and comfort.
Comfort was on His way! Let’s read John 14:25-19. “These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you [in his physical body] But the comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance [what he taught them and their experiences with him] whatsoever I have said unto you.” Then Jesus explains what He means in verse 28: “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, [crucifixion and death] and come again unto you. [through the comforter, sent back by the Father] If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, [they did not want him to go] because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. Now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it come to past ye might believe.” (John 14:25-26) Notice that the comforter, the Holy Spirit, did not come while Jesus was in the flesh. That’s because Jesus is the comforter sent from God the Father. He left us in the physical so he could come back with the power of God. As a human being, Jesus was limited to being one place at one time; now as God the Son, He could be everywhere at once.
We know that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. We have eyewitness accounts of His appearances. We see that the men and women who followed Him were transformed by a power they called the Holy Spirit. By it, lives were changed, demonic forces were held at bay, and the sick were healed as a testimony to the power of God. Now in the 21st century, we also play a part in this. If you are reading this and it is making sense to you, the truth has found you! John 8:31, “If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth [God the Father and Jesus Christ] and Truth shall make you free.”