The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. How is He the truth?

First let’s ask, what is truth? This question was ironically asked by Pilate, with Christ who claimed to be the truth standing before him. At the point of asking, Pilate was overwhelmed by his responsibility as the judge at the trial of Jesus Christ. He knew he could not justify sentencing Him to death with no charge against Him, but he still felt the pull of the crowd who were loudly shouting for Christ to be crucified. Torn in his conscience, he overrode what he knew to be true, and to please a crowd sentenced an innocent man to death. In the process he grappled with the question, what was it he had just done? Why did he have a sense of accountability to truth, what is this thing, truth? It is a profound question. On one level there is a straightforward answer: truth is whatever corresponds to reality. It is what a witness is called to speak in a court of law – what he has seen and heard, what really happened; not some made up story, but reality. In a court of law it is necessary for justice to be served. In any relationship it is necessary for trust to be built, just think how hard it is for trust to be regained when you discover someone has lied to you.

How is Christ the truth? It may help to think of it like this: of everything that is true, of everything that is real, he is the originator. Take the world around us – the Bible says “all things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians chapter1 verse 16). Take our ability to decide between right and wrong. The Bible indicates that we have a working knowledge of right and wrong written on our hearts (Romans chapter 2 verse 15), ultimately because Christ made us that way. Where do we find absolute truth that we can rely on? We find it in Christ, and in God’s word, of which Christ said: “Your word is truth” (John chapter 17 verse 17).