A G K Y R A

If you haven’t been to the website for Tim Keller’s new book, why don’t you take a look? Make sure your computer audio is turned up so you can hear.

John chapter 8 gives a fascinating exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees about the nature of truth and human ability to recognize it:

So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true …” (13-14a)

… you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. (34b)

If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did … (39b)

If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. (42)

When [your father, the devil] lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. (44-45)

Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. (47)

People are so unsure about what to believe. People lie all the time, or at least distort the truth to personal advantage (e.g., advertisers and politicians), and with so many competing and mutually contradictory claims, how can we know the truth?

We Christians try to make a persuasive argument why people should believe. We ought to do that, and people ought to be persuaded! But two of the points of these verses in John 8 is that the truth is its own best evidence and that truth recognizes truth.

The truth is its own best evidence. Ponder that for a minute, because I don’t think I can really explain what I hope you will understand. The truth is fundamentally, essentially, and incorrigibly true. It is unmixed with error. Truth is naked and unashamed because it is full of glory. To look at it is to see it as it really is. There should be no better reason to believe something than that it is true in-and-of-itself. Its truthfulness should immediately settle any question.

Truth recognizes truth. People of the truth recognize the truth and truly speak of it as truthful, people of the lie lyingly call the truth a lie. Ironically, the people of the lie are self-deceived too! All this comes out of our personal state of spiritual life or death. Jesus’ words find no place in the Pharisees. The devil speaks lies out of his own character. People who are fundamentally right and spiritually vital recognize the truth, whereas people who are spiritually dead cannot see it and cannot speak truthfully about it–no matter how many good reasons Christians may give. Argument can never do more than provide an occasion and an instrument for the Holy Spirit to breathe new spiritual life into a person, taking him from death to life. Persuasive arguments can never seal the deal, only a recognition of the naked truth itself can do that.

This is not unlike Saul’s conversion in Acts 9. Saul was on his way to Damascus to round up some early believers and take them back to Jerusalem to be prosecuted when he was confronted by the Risen Lord himself. That was his conversion. Not an extended discussion about Old Testament prophecy, Jesus’ miracles, or Messianism.

If you are not a Christian and you say that you don’t recognize that what Jesus says is true, don’t spring forward with counter-arguments or objections. Why not? Because there is one sure-fire, guaranteed way for you to prove to yourself that what he says is true: you must pray. Pray to God, imploring him to let you recognize the truth. Beg him to give you spiritual life so that you can see truth for what it really is. Confess that there is something wrong with you if you cannot recognize the truth, and ask him to heal you. If you commit yourself to doing this and do it earnestly and repeatedly, for weeks and months if necessary, he will give you what you ask for.

What’s that? You say you want proof first before you do that? Why? Is prayer so much to ask? If Jesus is really all we Christians claim him to be, but you had to make a pilgrimage to the North Pole to find out and get the benefits, that wouldn’t be too much to ask. How much less onerous is prayer! It does, of course, have to be sincere and earnest. The proof that will be sufficient to convince you personally is there for the taking. If I promise you that praying in this way will supply the proof you seek, but you are still unwilling to do it, are you then really interested in proofs after all?

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