What is truth? Truth denotes all the realities of the divine economy as the content of the divine revelation, conveyed and disclosed by the holy Word; in particular, truth is the Triune God and His word. In a common sense, truth means something that is true, something generally acceptable to be true by all men.
However, truth in the Bible has a deeper and higher meaning than this; to understand the meaning of truth in the Bible, we need to go beyond the traditional and common understanding of what truth is.
When many believers and unbelievers look at the Bible, they commonly understand that truth in the Bible is a correct doctrine, something that is true; we need to go beyond this, for this is not accurate.
The common denotation of the word truth shouldn’t be applied to the truth in the Bible.
The apostle John in particular speaks of truth, and the Greek word for truth is aletheia; the meaning of this word is truth or reality (versus vanity), verity, veracity, genuineness, sincerity.
It is a term that mainly John uses, and it is a very profound word in the New Testament.
The word truth denotes much more than true and sound doctrine; it denotes all the realities of the divine economy as the content of the divine revelation.
God has an economy, and there are many realities in this economy; these are the real things, and they are revealed, contained, conveyed, and disclosed to us by the Holy Word of God.
In the Bible all the things presented are not just principles, doctrines, or truths; they are related to a person, they are personal, and they are for our experience.
Truth is a person – truth is nothing else but the Triune God Himself with His word. According to the divine revelation in the holy word of God, truth is the Triune God and His holy word.
In order for us to know the truth and be sanctified in the truth, we need to know the Triune God, enjoy the Triune God with His dispensing, and we need to be filled and constituted with the holy word of God.
Even more, the Triune God needs to become personal and experiential to us, and the word of God needs to become living and operative in us.
What we read in the Bible is not merely words, principles, doctrines, stories, poetry, and prophecies; the word of God in the Bible is living and operative, and we can enjoy God in His word, we can experience God according to His word, and His word makes God real to us.
Our reading of the Bible needs to be accompanied by our prayer so that we may take in the word of God in a living way as our life and our nourishment; the word is to become our food, supply, nourishment, and life to supply us in our daily living of Christ for the expression of God.
According to the New Testament, Truth is the Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – and His Word
According to the revelation in the New Testament, truth is first God Himself, God the Father, who is light and love, incarnated to be the reality of the divine things for our possession (John 1:1, 4, 14-17).
God Himself is truth, reality; apart from Him, nothing is real, and when we have Him, we have reality, we have truth.
This God has been incarnated to be the reality of the divine things, including the divine life, the divine nature, the divine power, and the divine glory.
All these divine things can become our possession in the incarnated God, so that we may enjoy Him as grace; this is revealed in the gospel of John.
Second, truth denotes Christ, who is God incarnated and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9).
Christ is truth, reality; He is the reality of God and man (John 1:18, 51; 1 Tim. 2:5), the reality of all the types, figures, and shadows of the Old Testament (Col. 2:16-17; John 4:23-24), and the reality of all the divine and spiritual things.
The reality of all the positive things, all the positive shadows and figures and types, and the reality of God and man is Christ Himself, who is the embodiment of the Triune God.
Everything positive in this universe points to Christ, who is the reality.
Christ is the reality of the divine life and resurrection (John 11:25; 14:6); Christ is the reality of the divine light (John 8:12; 9:5), the divine way (John 14:6), wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).
He is the reality of the positive persons in the Old Testament such as David, Solomon, Joshua, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the reality of the positive things such as all the offerings, the good land, the manna, the lamb, the water flowing, the river of water, etc.
Christ is the reality of all the positive things; He is also the reality of God and of man – without Him, God cannot be made real to us, and man is false.
In ourselves, we are not true or genuine, but Christ Himself is a genuine man. He lived a genuine human life, He embodied God, He expressed God, and He is the reality of all that God is to us.
God doesn’t give us things such as joy, peace, righteousness, holiness, etc; God gives us Christ, who is the reality of all the divine attributes and the divine realities.
Third, truth is the Spirit, who is the transfiguration of Christ (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17); the Spirit is the reality of Christ (John 14:16-17; 15:26) and of the divine revelation (John 16:13-15).
The Spirit Himself is the reality, the truth (1 John 5:6).
Christ is realized and made real to us by the Spirit of reality; the Spirit Himself is the reality of all that God is in Christ to us and for us.
The Spirit is the Spirit of reality; He is real and He makes God real to us. It is by the Spirit of reality that we can know God, contact God, worship God, be led by God, and experience God.
It is by the Spirit of reality, who is the reality of what God and Christ is, that we can be brought into the experience and enjoyment of what the Triune God is.
Finally, truth is the word of God; the word of God is truth, and we are sanctified in the truth as we remain in the word of God (John 17:17).
The Word of God is the explanation of the Triune God; it is by the Word of God that we can know the Triune God, for the word of God contains God Himself.
When we come to the word of God with a proper heart, an exercised spirit, and a proper attitude, we can know God, contact God, and take God into us.
The word of God is the divine revelation; it not only reveals but also conveys the reality of God and of Christ and of all the spiritual things.
The word of God is the explanation of the Triune God, and we can see a clear revelation of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit by coming to the Word of God.
Oh Father of glory, grant us to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of You! Amen, may we see that truth is the Triune God and His holy word. We come to You to contact You in spirit and with a turned heart; sanctify us in Your word, for Your word is truth. Hallelujah, we can know God – who is light and love, incarnated to be the reality of the divine things for our possession! We can know and enjoy Christ, the incarnation of God to be the reality of God and man, the reality of all the types and figures, and the reality of all the spiritual and divine things! Amen, Lord, we contact You as the Spirit of reality and we want to enter into the reality of all that the Triune God is and has. Keep us in Your word, the divine revelation in the Bible, to see, know, and enjoy all that the Triune God has, is, has done, and has accomplished!
Being Sanctified in the Truth to Enjoy and Experience the Triune God and His Holy Word
It is one thing to understand that truth is the Triune God and His holy word, and it is something different to be sanctified in the truth so that we may enjoy and experience the Triune God and His holy word.
God Himself is truth; He is the reality of the divine things for our possession. Therefore, we need to possess God as the reality and enjoy Him as grace.
We need to exercise our spirit in coming to the word of God so that we may enjoy God as reality and grace for Him to become our daily experience.
God in Christ is the reality of all the positive things; everything that is positive both in the word of God and in the universe points to Christ, who is the reality.
We need to take Christ as the reality of all the positive things; in our daily experience, we need to take Christ as the reality of our life, our food, our drink, the air we breathe, the chair we sit on, the way, the plants, the animals, and all the positive things.
When we exercise our spirit and tell the Lord, Lord, You are my rest; even as I rest on this bed, You give me rest, and You are my real rest, this brings us into the reality of what Christ is to us.
We need to take Him as the reality of our breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the snacks in-between; Christ is our real food, our life supply, and the real nourishment for our being.
He is the reality, but we need to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him (Eph. 1:17).
He needs to be the reality of all the positive things in our personal universe, and we need to take Him again and again as reality for Him to be our very reality.
We need to take Christ as our peace, our joy, our rest, and our satisfaction; when we exercise our spirit to tell Him that He is the reality of our peace, joy, rest, and satisfaction, He becomes this to us in our experience.
When we exercise our spirit to turn to the Lord, He as the Spirit of reality is guiding us into all the reality of what God and Christ are and have and have accomplished.
We want to have not only a mental understanding or knowledge of truth being the Triune God and His holy word; we want to have the subjective knowledge and experience of the Triune God and His word.
For this, we need to come to the full knowledge of the Triune God and His word by exercising our spirit in coming to the Lord and to His word.
The word of God is truth, and whenever we come to the word of God with an exercised spirit, we can enjoy and experience the Triune God as reality.
We are being made real and genuine men when we come to the Lord in His word, for truth is the Triune God and His holy word.
May we be those who come to the full knowledge of God, the full knowledge of Christ Jesus, our Lord, in a subjective and experiential way.
May we seek to be sanctified in the Holy Word of God by coming to the Lord in His word so that we may enter into the reality of what God is to us.
May the Lord’s word become spirit and life to us when we come to it with the exercise of our spirit so that we may absorb Him, be infused with Him, and be constituted with Him.
Lord Jesus, we come to You in Your word to be sanctified in the truth, for Your word is truth. Grant us to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Christ Jesus, our Lord. We exercise our spirit, dear Lord, to take You as the reality of all the positive things. You are our life, our person, our food, our drink, our peace, our joy, and our satisfaction. Be so real to us day by day in our experience. We open to You, Lord, to be guided by You as the Spirit of reality into all the reality of God and Christ. Hallelujah, we can know and experience the Triune God by coming to His holy word to be sanctified in the truth! Amen, Lord, grant us such a subjective knowledge of Yourself today.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 John, msgs. 5, 7, 9-11, 17-18, 28, 32, 39-40 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing the Truth, being Absolute for the Truth, and Proclaiming the Truth in this Present Evil Age (2021 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 1, Knowing the Truth, Being Absolute for the Truth and for Upholding the Absoluteness of the Truth, and Testifying to the Truth in the Present Age of the World.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Darkling our great forefathers went / The first steps of the way; / ’Twas but the dawning yet to grow / Into the perfect day; / And grow it shall, our glorious Sun / More fervid rays afford: / The Lord hath yet more light and truth / To break forth from His Word. (Hymns #817)
– Lord, sanctify me in the truth, / In every word breathed out by You. / Your word contains, conceals the Triune God within. / Your word is the reality, / It brings the Triune God to me, / To separate me from the world and sin. / Your word conveys the truth to me, / Of all You are in Your reality. (Song on, Lord, Sanctify Me in the Truth)
– We have seen Christ is reality: / But it’s not sufficient just to see: / He in our experience must be / Everything to us. / We in prayer behold Him face to face, / In the Word and meetings know His grace; / But in daily life, in every place, / What is He to us? (Hymns #1178)
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