THE GLORIOUS NAMES OF JESUS REPRINT OF AMOS R. WELLS 1926

THE GLORIOUS NAMES OF JESUS
REPRINT OF AMOS R. WELLS 1926

The Truth
Chapter 8

Something To Consider:
What did Jesus mean when He declared in John’s gospel chapter 14, “I am the Truth”? Was it merely that He was a true teacher, that He based His statements on facts, or that He could be trusted? The Pharisees and the Herodians admitted, “We know that You are true, and that You teach the way of God in truth.”

Certainly, our Lord meant to make some claim for Himself beyond what His bitter foes would agree to. Many others before Him had been sincere and able teachers, and many such teachers were to come after Him. Jesus intended to do far more than simply rank Himself with other teachers.

What Jesus meant by His proclaiming, “I am the Truth”, is clearly revealed by His next statement in verse 6 of John chapter 14; “No one comes to the Father except through Me”. Jesus’ entire acknowledgment in the first half of John 14.6 was, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”.

In other words, Jesus was and is the incarnate way to the Father and He was and is the embodiment of eternal life, the life of the Father. And in the same fashion Jesus was and still is the vital and the vitalizing truth concerning this way of life we call Christianity.

This is not saying that Jesus merely told the truth about the Father and the way to the Father; millions of teachers since His day have done this faithfully and magnificently. But Jesus was and still is the Truth, and unless He had been the Truth others since Him could not have told the truth.

Something Else To Consider:
Of course, there is a sense in which any follower of the way of life, the way to God, is an embodiment of the great and central truth that the Father can be reached by men, women, and young people, and that the reaching of Him leads to eternal life.

Therefore, every true Christian must experience this truth by living it out in their lives on a daily basis. But unless Jesus has been the Truth in our lives in His divine and unique manner, we could never be a reflection of that truth in our human and imperfect earthly existence.

In one of the most profound biblical insights ever expressed, John the apostle asserted in the first chapter of his gospel and in verse 17, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Truth was not in the world until He, Jesus, the Word of God that was in the beginning, came to earth in the flesh as the Son of Man.

Through Jesus the Father poured truth into the world. Therefore, as Christ dwells in a man, woman, or young person, Truth dwells in that individual. And it is not impersonal truth or truth personified, but Truth the person, Truth who is our God. That is what is meant when the third person of the trinity is called the “Spirit of Truth.”

The Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, was sent forth by Jesus Christ the Truth, to continue Christ’s work among men, women, and young people and to guide them into the way of truth. The living Truth did not ascend into heaven from the summit of Olivet but remains within His people forever.

Something More To Consider:
How it simplifies life when we come to recognize that the foundation of all truths is the Truth, Jesus Christ! There are not many truths. Essentially, there is only this one Truth that is encompassed in the person of Jesus Christ. From this great Truth all the lesser truths exist as His children. If they do not show the marks of His parenthood, they are not genuine truths.

Christians need no other test of truth than this truth, “Is it in harmony with Jesus Christ and His biblical teachings of the Truth?” Through all the marvelous maze of truths and lies there is one straight and narrow path, only one unmistakable Way that leads to eternal life and the understanding of the Truth.

And what authority, what majesty, what appealing force is given to truth when we think of truth not as abstract but as a Person! Then for the first time Truth commands and receives our passionate allegiance. No one can truly love an impersonal law or die for a wrongful reasoning. Logic does not inspire dreams or heroism.

But when He, Jesus, the Truth, has come, we gladly follow Him through this earthly life as well as willingly through the valley of the shadow of death. And while doing so, we will fear no evil because we are in agreement with the One who is full of grace and full of truth.

We then are enabled to become crusaders for the Truth and if need be, we are willing to become martyrs for the Truth. And if so, like Stephen of old, we too will see the heavens opened and the Truth standing at the right hand of our Almighty God and heavenly Father. What picture could be lovelier, or more powerful, or more gracious to the eye of the beholder?

A Few Final Words:
Thus, when Jesus declared, “I am the Truth”, He made the most stupendous claim He could have ever made. No stronger evidence of His deity is needed than the fact that the claim does not seem impious, not even conceited, nor even strange. Therefore, the ages have taken it as truth, and many wise men, wise women, and wise young people have adopted it and have pledged their earthly allegiance to that truth and to the person known to them as the Truth, Jesus.

Not every individual heart acknowledges this truth. For not all men, all women, and all young people have received that Truth. And yet, the battle of the centuries and beyond continues. The earthly struggle between good and evil, right and wrong, the truth and the deceitful lies of Satan, the father of lies rages on.

And if our heads own the truth concerning this earthly warfare and our hearts do not bow down before the Truth, we foolishly dedicate these earthly lives and all of eternity to that father of lies. If therefore, Christ Jesus is the Truth, there is only one thing we must do, and that is to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, how important is it that we understand Jesus to be the Truth come in the flesh to testify to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Instill within us a hungering and thirsting for seeking that truth by way of our diligently studying to show ourselves approved unto You Father, rightly understanding and rightly communicating that truth to others. Grant unto us the undeniable truth of Your Word and of Jesus who is the Word of God, full of grace and full of truth. In Him Always, Amen!