"The First Question"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"The First Question"

     "Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art Thou a king then?  Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king.  To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.  Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.  Pilate saith unto Him, What is truth?" (John 18:37-38).

   Pilate asked the second greatest of all questions: What is truth?  He did not possess the spiritual wherewithal, however, to ask the first question, namely, Who is truth?

    "I am… the Truth" (John 14:6).

    The first question - Who? - is personal.  It must be because Truth is a Person, or rather three Persons perfectly united in One.  Truth first exists as a matter of heart (or Hearts) wherein loving relationship and fellowship constitutes the essence of reality.  Indeed, before any created thing existed, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwelt together in the perfectly united glory of personal and unselfish devotion to one another.

   "From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God" (Psalm 90:2).

   "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was…Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." (John 17:5; 24).

   This is truth.  This is reality.  This is essence.  This is God, the personal Who? of all truth, reality, and essence.  He existed when nothing else existed, as revealed in light of the eternal, "everlasting to everlasting" nature of our triune Lord.  This constitutes our relationship to God and Truth first in personal terms, and then in conceptual, doctrinal understanding.  In unbelievers, God must work in their hearts to convince, convict, and convert as the Holy Spirit personally illuminates the doctrine of salvation.  In believers, we must relate to our Lord in personal terms if we are to understand His doctrinal truth.  Thereby we discover the meaning and power of our newness of life in Christ whereby we consistently access His leading and enabling.  In spiritual terms, we look into the Face of God in order to assimilate and live in accordance with the Facts of God.  

    Such truth does not minimize the importance of Biblical doctrine.  It rather enhances its necessity and value by making it understandable and accessible as the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds.  "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).  Thereby He enables us to fulfill our calling to "worship God in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).  Moreover, our relationship with the most personal of Beings becomes alive with genuine love, devotion, commitment, determination, and the assurance of God's vital reality.  He is Truth, in the personal terms of "Who?"   His Word is Truth in the doctrinal terms of "What?"   Pilate asked the second greatest of all questions.  "What is Truth?" We do well to join him, but only after voicing the greatest question, the personal question, the first question: "Who is Truth?"

"As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?  Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" (I Corinthians 2:9-11).

"Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me."

(John 5:39)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me."

(John 5:39)

  

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