Friday, September 2, 2016

Grace and Truth

What is truth?  Many today say that there is no truth.  There is only what is true for someone, but not true for everyone.  Truth, we are told, is relative.  As a person trained as a teacher through our state’s required teacher education program, I was taught that we cannot tell our students that there is absolute truth.  Truth is relative.  All sins in the right context are justifiable.  All religions are equally true to their adherents.  All truth can be decided by the individual and not the community.  Is that true? 
One of the great names for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.  Jesus repeatedly calls Him that in John 14-16.  Jesus goes on in that passage to make several bold statements about truth that would challenge our contemporary view of truth.  First Jesus said that He was THE TRUTH.  That’s right, THE TRUTH.  The word the means there is no other truth, there is only one and He is it.  Then Jesus says that He will ask the Father who will send THE Spirit of TRUTH.  There will be but ONE Spirit of truth.  That ONE Spirit of TRUTH will guide those who believe in THE TRUTH, Jesus Christ, into ALL TRUTH.  That is a lot of truth for a world that doesn’t believe in truth.  Why don’t they believe in truth?  They don’t believe in Jesus. 
This means that in a world where there is great confusion, in a world that has lost its compass direction of absolutes, in a world that is constantly seeking the truth they cannot find because they don’t believe it exists; in that world there is TRUTH.  There is one who will teach us the truth.  That one is the Holy Spirit of God.  He will teach us the truth through the next thing in John that Jesus says is true, the Word of God.  Jesus said most clearly, “Thy Word is Truth”.  The Holy Spirit, the author the Word of God will teach the truth of the Word of God to all who will follow the Truth, the Son of God Jesus Christ.

Do you need a Name you can count on?  Do you need someone that you can absolutely trust?  That is the Holy Spirit of Truth who will lead you into all truth.  Reginald Heber wrote a hymn “Spirit of Truth, on This Thy Day”.  Heber called upon the Spirit for the simple course of guidance in life.  “Spirit of truth, on this Thy day to Thee for help we cry, to guide us through the dreary way of dark mortality.”  We need the guidance of truth every day of our lives.  Let us look to the One who has been given the name, Spirit of Truth, to guide us as Jesus promised.  Let Him teach us that wholly true word of God and make our lives count for the TRUTH that shall forever endure.  


   The Friday Benediction
Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen



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