What is Truth?

Truth is theological: One of the most profound and eternally significant questions in the Bible was posed by an unbeliever: Pilate. Handing Jesus over to be crucified, Pilate turned to Jesus and asked, “What is truth?” It was a rhetorical question, a cynical response to what Jesus had just revealed: “I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.” Two thousand years later, the whole world breathes Pilate’s cynicism. To some, truth is subjective, the individual world of preference and opinion. Others believe truth is a collective judgment, the product of cultural consensus, and still others flatly deny the concept of truth altogether. So, what is truth? Here’s what the Bible teaches: Truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God. Even more to the point: Truth is the self-expression of God. Because the definition of truth flows from God, truth is theological.

Truth is ontological: Truth is also the way things really are. Reality is what it is because God declared it so and made it so. Therefore God is the author, source, determiner, governor, arbiter, ultimate standard, and final judge of all truth. The Old Testament refers to the Almighty as the “God of truth” (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 31:5; Isaiah 65:16). When Jesus said of Himself, “I am…the truth” (John 14:6, emphasis added), He was thereby making a profound claim about His own deity. He was also making it clear that all truth must ultimately be defined in terms of God and His eternal glory. After all, Jesus is “the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3). He is truth incarnate—the perfect expression of God and therefore the absolute embodiment of all that is true.

The Word is truth: The Bible does not merely contain nuggets of truth; it is pure, unchangeable, and inviolable truth that “cannot be broken” (John 10:35). The Word of God is eternal truth “which lives and abides forever” (1Peter 1:23). Scripture is called “the word of Christ” (Colossians 3:16). It is His message, His self-expression. In other words, the truth of Christ and the truth of the Bible are of the very same character. They are in perfect agreement in every respect and equally true. God has revealed Himself to humanity through Scripture and through His Son. Both perfectly embody the essence of what truth is. Scripture also says God reveals basic truth about Himself in nature. The heavens declare His glory (Psalm 19:1). Knowledge of Him is inborn in the human heart (Romans 1:19), and a sense of the moral character and loftiness of His law is implicit in every human conscience (Romans 2:15). The only infallible interpreter of what we see in nature or know innately in our own consciences is the explicit revelation of Scripture and by which all other truth must finally be measured.

Truth means nothing apart from God: Truth cannot be adequately explained, recognized, understood, or defined without God as the source. Since He alone is eternal and self-existent and He alone is the Creator of all else, He is the fountain of all truth. Truth is not subjective, it is not a consensual cultural construct, and it is not an invalid, outdated, irrelevant concept. Truth is the self-expression of God. Truth is the reality God has created and defined, and over which He rules. Truth is therefore a moral issue for every human being. How each person responds to the truth God has revealed is an issue of eternal significance.