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 18:37-38
With his one rhetorical question, Pilate encapsulates the lie of relativism. This lie says that there is no absolute truth, there are only perceptions of the truth. Truth is relative. It varies from culture to culture and society to society. There is no fixed, certain, unmovable, absolute truth. There’s your truth, and there’s my truth. And what is true for you, may not be true for me. But who am I tell you that you’re wrong, because that’s your truth?
If believed, this lie leaves us with a world and a God that make no sense. If there is no absolute truth, then I cannot absolutely say that God exists, or that He has called you to repent of your sins. In fact, if there is no truth, then I can’t say for sure that anything is sinful. Maybe it’s a sin for me, but not for you. Or maybe it’s considered a sin in our culture, but is praiseworthy in another. If truth doesn’t exist, then nothing is certain and Christianity is just an opinion. If truth isn’t fixed, then reality as a whole begins to break down and it becomes hard to make sense of anything.
But what does the Bible say? Are we adrift at sea in a world without truth? No!
If you were to flip the Bible open at random and pick any verse, chances are you would find a truth claim. Because literally, every page of the Bible assumes, implies, and makes clear that truth really does exist and that it doesn’t change over time.
But instead of flipping the Bible open at random, let me share just a few verses with you. The first is Isaiah 65:16 which says “...he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth.” God identifies Himself as the “God of truth.” Why would He do that if truth doesn’t exist?
Or consider 1 Timothy 2:4 which says that God “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” How can people come to a knowledge of the truth if truth doesn’t exist?
So, make no mistake, truth does exist. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that truth is relative or that my truth is different from your truth. Truth exists and God is its source. He is the God of truth! This is why we find truth primarily revealed to us in God’s Word. The Bible, is our primary source of truth. It is the standard by which we determine what is true. Don’t allow anyone or anything else to be your final standard of truth but God’s Word. Cling to it!
