Discovering Truth: Authority (Part 2)
Categories: Authority, Léo’s Insights 2019-2020
Tags: truth
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me” (John 14:6).
Ten years after I initially asked the question “what is truth?” this verse jumped out at me causing another pivotal moment in my life. I had found the truth! It was not complicated! It was not plural! It was not determined by public opinion or some kind of democratic consensus! It just was and it was Jesus!
While I may have discovered that Jesus was the truth, I remained perplexed. While anyone can claim to know the truth or to be searching for the truth, to claim to be the truth is entirely another matter! I had yet to discover who this Jesus was and how or why He could make such an outrageous claim. This, obviously, demanded further investigation.
Not long after finding “the Truth” and still in the Gospel of John, I had another life changing pivotal moment. This one sticks out as one of the most critical discoveries of my life.
While trying to reason with the Jews (John 8:12-59), Jesus made claim to knowing Abraham. No doubt that statement bent a few people out of shape, but the subsequent statement He made bent me “into shape.”
When asked how He (Jesus) could possibly know Abraham since Jesus was not yet fifty years old and Abraham was long dead, Jesus made the most outrageous claim of all! He said “before Abraham was, I AM”! One can understand why the Jews lost their minds and began to pick up stones to throw at Him.
My reaction to this statement, one that I had read many times before without comprehension, was different. There were no stones near the bed where I was reading this passage at that moment and there was no physical person to throw them at! I can still feel how my entire body shuddered at the revelation I received.
“I AM”! This claim is one that put Jesus outside of time and space. The only entity that could make such a claim would be the creator of time and space and that would indeed have to be God Himself!
I had already come to acknowledge that there was a God, but I sure had not thought about His taking the form of a man and calling Himself, Jesus.
Once I discovered Jesus’ deity, I had reason to trust Jesus’ claim to being the truth. Shortly thereafter, I came to understand the gift of salvation. However, this discovery turned out to be more of a foundation than the final answer to the question “What is truth?”
Continuing my quest to discover truth, I eventually read in Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians that Jesus is the pre-eminence of all things. Simply put, if a statement can be reconciled with the Word of God (John 1:1-5), it is true.
While my diligently seeking the answer to “What is truth?” led me to discover it, this only whetted my appetite to now study the world through this understanding.
I remain passionate about not only discovering truth, but sharing with those who are likewise searching. Unfortunately, I sometimes go overboard in my enthusiasm by attempting to share with those who aren’t interested which occasionally gets me into trouble!
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