The Truth or the Lie — John Murray

Pilate’s Judgment and the Truth Incarnate

John 18, verse 37, the last sentence, Everyone that is of the truth, heareth my voice. The conduct of Pilate, in connection with the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, is one of the most baffling incidents in the biblical record of events.

It is probably impossible to lay bare the tangle of motives and considerations which induced Pilate to act as he did. But there is enough evidence to show that Pilate vacillated between a sense of justice on the one hand and considerations of worldly expediency on the other.

It is indeed to Pilate's credit that he found no fault in Jesus and he protested that fact and sought to relieve Jesus. But what is to his credit, on the one hand, only accentuates his weakness on the other hand.

For he ought to have acted according to the dictates of his judgment. But he found no fault in Jesus and he ought to have delivered Jesus from the valour and envy of his accusers. But instead, Pilate vacillated.

And because he vacillated, he did not guard the paths of justice. That is the tragedy of Pilate's conduct in connection with this trial of Jesus. Pilate showed a complete lack of appreciation of the person of Jesus.

He showed a complete lack of appreciation of the stupendous character of Jesus' mission. And he also showed a failure to guard the paths of justice against every consideration to the contrary, against every extraneous consideration that might be pitted against it.

And how ironical it is that Pilate should have asked the question, What is truth? when the person who stood before him of whom he asked the question was himself the truth. This is simply evidence of the complete contradiction that there is in the estimate, in the judgment of man between the reality which came to expression in Jesus' personal mission, and the judgment on the part of men with respect to that particular person and with respect to that particular mission.

And the conduct of Pilate is simply an illustration of the cleavage which is being constantly, which is being constantly drawn between those who on the one hand are of the truth and therefore hear Jesus' voice, and those on the other hand to whom Christ is a stone of stumbling and a rock of a plank.

The Fall Began with Believing a Lie About God

Now in connection with these words, everyone who is of the truth hears my voice, there are obviously two considerations. And the first is what it is to be of the truth, and the second, the test by which that is to be determined, the criteria.

And so we have first of all a practice meant by this expression which Jesus uses, of the truth. And it will help us to understand what is meant by that expression if we remember the background of our human history, if we remember what occurred when our first parents died.

For then by way of contrast, we will discover what it means to be of the truth. Then entered into the world when Eve, our first parent, one of our first parents, was seduced by the temptation of the test.

And it is very important to recognize that Eve had been seduced. The Apostle Paul reminds us of that when he says Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

The woman was therefore subjected to a deception, to a seduction on the part of the tempter. And the seduction was in the form of a lie that had been directed against the veracity of God. The tempter came to Eve with this statement, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be of God, knowing good and evil.

And there the tempter alleged that God himself had perpetrated a lie. And sin began in our first parents in the human race when Eve gave her consent to that allegation on the part of the tempter to the effect that God himself had perpetrated a lie.

Now notice, the tempter did not bring an accusation directly against the power of God, and he did not bring an accusation directly against the goodness of God, but he brought, first of all, directly an assault on a fact upon the veracity of God himself.

It was the truthfulness of God that the tempter had said. And therefore the lie that the tempter alleged, or the lie of God's part which the tempter alleged, was that which Eve believed. And Eve sinned when she gave credit to that allegation with respect to the untruthfulness of God.

And there is the beginning of the lie in human history. And it is very necessary, it is very important to recognize that to believe a lie about God, or to believe the allegation made by the tempter about God, to entertain disbelief of God's truthfulness, is really the collapse of human integrity.

The way by which our integrity is destroyed is by disbelieving or doubting the integrity and the veracity of God. And there is the origin of untruthfulness in the human race. There is the origin of the lie.

And it is very important to remember what Jesus said in another connection with respect to Satan, with respect to the great archenemy, recorded also in this Gospel, He was a murderer from the beginning, because he abhors not in the truth, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

That is the way in which Jesus characterizes the great archenemy of the kingdom of God, that he abhors not in the truth, he is the father of lies, he is a liar. And he was successful in seducing our first parent by perpetrating a lie about God.

And he was successful in seducing our first parent when she was induced to believe that lie about God. And because she believed that lie about God, because she did not preserve in fact the belief in the integrity, the veracity of God, that untruth, that lie, has affected the whole human race.

Because of the relationship that our first parents have sustained to us in the institution of God, the lie has permeated to every member of the human race. Untruth, unreality, is the element of all very thought.

Have you ever considered that statement of Scripture with respect to every member of the human race, that we go astray from the world speaking lies. There is nothing that is more natural to us than untruth.

And therefore nothing more natural to us from our very womb than to speak untruth, to speak lies, just because the lie and truth, falsehood, have become as it were the very element, the very atmosphere of our existence.

And that's because of that great apostasy that occurred at the very beginning of human history when our first parents believed a lie about God and did not abide in the truth. Now it is that background we must have in mind when we try to understand what Jesus says in this particular text by way of Congress.

Becoming People of the Truth Through Christ

Everyone who is of the truth in Congress with everyone who is of the lie. There must be that radical transformation by which the truth rather than the lie, by which reality rather than unreality, by which honesty rather than dishonesty, by which simplicity rather than duplicity, by which light rather than darkness come to be the element, the very atmosphere of our being, of our existence.

Just as the lie began with the acceptance of the lie about God, so the truth in us begins with our acceptance of the truth about God. It begins with the rendering of our total consent, our total amen to the truth of God.

That God, in the reality of His deed, in the reality of His perfection, in the reality of His relation to us, of our relation to Him, comes to possess our heart, our mind, our consciousness, our total being to such an extent that God is to us the only absolute and ultimate reality.

And I'm going to ask you a very pointed question. Is that true with respect to us? Has God, in the reality of His being and of His perfection, as He is related to us, as we are related to Him, come to take such possession of us that our first thought in every circumstance, our first thought in every relationship is the relationship of God to us and to our relationship?

That's what it means to be of the truth. Our sense of redemptive provision has to be brought to bear upon that radical transformation which must take place. I say since redemptive provision must be brought to bear upon that radical transformation, that change can only take place as Christ, who is the brightness of the Father's glory and the expressiveness of His person.

As the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ comes to shine into our hearts and to dispel the darkness. Christ Himself is not only the way and the light, He is also the truth.

And it is in that way that the truth of God comes into relationship to us and comes within, as it were, the orbit of our apprehension in such a way that the lie becomes displayed on the truth. It's when God shines into our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of His own glory in the face of Jesus Christ that there begins to be this displacement of the lie by the truth.

And from that starting point the apprehension of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, our whole heart and soul and mind are controlled by the conviction that God is true. That justice and judgment are the habitation of His soul and that mercy and truth go before Him.

That is what it means to be of the truth. That conviction of the reality of God, of His perfection, captivates our heart and then it is not our own interest that is paralyzed. It is not our own and that praise and honor of God and the interest of His kingdom.

We say then with the apart, let God be true with every man alive. We picture this world, the reality and the truth of God against every contrary consideration. And however high appearance may seem to be to the contrary, we are always ready to accede to this, that the fundamental article of our faith, that as for God, He is gorgeous, and all His ways are just.

A God of righteousness and without Him equal. Just and righteous He is. It is perfectly true that God's ways on the sea and His paths in the great waters His footsteps are not lost. Clouds and darkness surround about Him and it is but as it were the outskirts of His ways that we, that we feel there.

Nevertheless, everyone who is of the truth has this as the fundamental article of his faith and of his conviction that justice and judgment are the habitation of God's law. That He is just in all His ways, and holy in all His ways.

And it all comes back to that very simple truth that the person who is of the truth is the person who has become possessed and indeed has become possessed with the conviction of the reality of God, the reality of His perfection, and the reality of our relationship to Him, not His relationship to Him.

We have effectively the past which Jesus enunciates in this particular passage. That is the criterion by which we are to determine whether we are of the truth or not. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.

Christ’s Deity and the Claim of His Voice

And now we are to concentrate upon that hears my voice. And there are three things implied in that very brief statement on the part of the Lord. First, there is the claim of the person. Second, there is the finality of His words.

And third, there is the sanctity of His commandments. And so we have, first of all, implied in that statement the claim of Jesus Christ. How significant it is that Jesus should have placed Himself on such a plane of dignity and honor that it would be attention to His words which would determine whether or not we are of the truth or whether we are of the not.

Whether we are of God or whether we are of sin. Whether God is our Father or whether it can be said to us that Jesus said to you, nearer of your Father the devil and the worse of your father he is willing to do.

That Jesus should have placed Himself on such a plane of unique dignity and honor that it was attention to His words which is the criterion of that ultimate and all-important life. You remember when Jesus asked Peter at Caesarea Philippi, Whom do ye say that I am?

And Peter answered, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied to Peter, Blessed art thou Simon of Arjuno, for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.

Jesus therefore placed His endorsement upon the confession of Peter Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And that confession of Peter, the Son of the living God, is one that is very significant because at that particular time in the thinking of the Jews, the person who claimed to be the Son of God or the Son of the living God was considered to have placed Himself on an equality with God.

That was the prevailing conception. And you find the evidence of that in this very gospel in the fifth chapter where the Jews said, For a good work we do not, but for blasphemy, and because of thou being a man, make yourself God.

Why did they bring that allegation against Christ? Just because He claimed to be the Son of God. Because He claimed that God was His Father in that unique sense. Which implies that He was in a unique sense the Son of God.

And they brought against Him this charge that He made Himself equal with God. And that was perfectly correct. So when Jesus places His endorsement upon the confession of Peter that thou art with Christ, the Son of the living God, He places His endorsement upon this tenet.

Namely, that He Himself is on an equality with God. And nothing else, nothing less than that is the implication of this particular statement here. That He is placing Himself on an equality with God, on a plane of dignity and honor that is comparable to that upon which God, that that belongs to God the Father Himself.

And that is the implication of the tent of the person who is of the truth, that he accords to Christ that position of deity that is on equality with God Himself. Now the second thing implied in this statement is the finality of Jesus' word.

The Finality of Jesus’ Words

The finality of Jesus' word, the distinctive mark of our faith in God, is the simplicity of that faith and the simplicity, because it is the faith of total and unreserved commitment. Simplicity in the sense of the total and unreserved commitment.

Now it's perfectly true that we have faith in our fellow men. And if they are trustworthy, we have faith in them. But our faith in a mere man never rises to the level of being total and unreserved commitment.

And it cannot be total, because attaching to every man there is a certain impairment, there's a certain weakness. Certain weaknesses are rising from his primacy, and our trust in him cannot be total because of that infirmity.

Even if he were a practice man, even if he were a glorified saint, and Abraham in heaven, or Moses, or Elijah, or John the Apostle, our trust in him cannot be total. And our trust in men in this life can never be unreserved, because there is always not only the infirmity attaching to their finitude, but the weakness attaching to their incontestability.

However high may be our regard for men, and however much faith we may have faith in them, our trust is never that of total and unreserved commitment. And that is reserved for God alone. And when Jesus says here, everyone who is of the truth, heareth my voice, he means that to his word is attached that total and unreserved trust.

The characterizes our very trust in God himself. We have certain patterns of thought, and we are sometimes very jealous of these patterns of thought. And because we are, as it were, committed to certain patterns of thought, we accept those words of Jesus which fall into accord with these patterns of thought, and we reject those words of Jesus which don't accord with that pattern of thought.

And so we can be, as it were, selective. We take some of Jesus' words because they accord with our own way of thinking, and we reject others because they don't accord with our own way of thinking. Well, that is just exactly what Jesus comes, what Jesus exposes as power in this particular time.

Everyone who is of the truth, heareth my voice. There's no reservation, there's no qualification. It is to listen to the words of Jesus in every particular. It just comes back to this that we stake everything upon any one particular word of Jesus, because he is the truth itself.

He is the truth incarnate. And if there could be any error, if there could be any fault, if there could be even the suggestion of a lie, if anything that Jesus ever spoke, then he could not be the person that he claims to be.

He could not be on this plane of dignity and honor, which is equal to that of God Himself. If anything that is of the lie could possibly attack him, then he would be the sinner. Now that is a matter that should give us the greatest comfort, because there is abroad in the world, and abroad in many cases even in the professing Protestant Church, the disposition to be very selective with reference to the words of Jesus.

Take, for example, this matter of his deliverances regarding the damnation of the final infinity. That is the doctrine of everlasting perdition. We don't find anywhere in the New Testament any words that are more explicit to the effect that there is everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power than we find in the words of Jesus himself, on which he did obey.

He referred to that place which we translate hell, where the world dies not, and the fire is not quenched. And on the most, perhaps what is the most solemn occasion depicted for us in the New Testament, he says, depart from me, ye churches, into everlasting fire.

Prepare for the devil and his angels. Then he finally says, thee shall go away into everlasting punishment for the righteous and the righteous. If we are of the truth, we cannot possibly enter there in disbelief with reference to that statement of his, because he is the proof, he is the final judge and final arbiter of destiny.

And if he can say with reference to the final judgment which he himself will execute, thee shall go away into everlasting punishment. It is quite contrary to every, every, every standard by which we are to judge.

For us who disbelieve that truth, we get claimed to be Jesus' disciples, claimed to be of the truth. Everyone who is of the truth here is my one, and we must take everything upon the veracity, the absolute verity, of everything that Jesus did.

The Sanctity of Christ’s Commandments

And now, thirdly, in connection with this criterion, we have the sanctity of Jesus' commandment. Everyone who is of the truth here is my boss. That is to say, he gives attention to my boss, and therefore he keeps my commandment.

How can I loyal to Christ? How profession of his name? How profession of being his disciple be compatible with swearing loose and fast with his commandment? Simply a contradiction is an impossibility.

It's very strange indeed that there should be a process in certain circles within the professing of a fellowship by the antipathy to the whole idea of keeping the commandments of God. I have met with this in particular circles within the professing evangelical church, and in patience, and indeed, and in tolerance with the whole idea of keeping the commandments of God.

Have we forgotten the express words of Jesus himself? He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.

Jesus never spoke a word which is more brilliant, full of precious intimacy. For the people of God than that, we will come unto him and make our abode with him. But what is the prophet? He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father.

Have we forgotten the word of Jesus again? If he loveth me, he will keep my commandments. And have we forgotten the final word that he spoke to his disciples on the eve of his ascension? When he said, Go ye therefore and disciple all the nations, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you.

That is, teaching them to keep all things, to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you. And you have the transcript of that very same teaching in the first epistle of John, where you have to watch that contest of vain emphasis upon keeping the commandments of God.

My little children, let us not love in words, neither in song, but in deed and in truth. Nearby we know that we are all the truth, shall Christ be born. How do we know that we are all the truth? The commandments of God keep the commandments of Jesus.

It is simply mockery. For us to claim to be the friends of Christ, and more particularly to be the disciples of Christ, if we can play fast and loose with his commandments, with his institutions, the way we honor him, the chief of their highest events, our love for him, in accordance with his words, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Christ’s Redemptive and Prophetic Mission

No, nothing could advertise the paramount concern of this particular matter than the words which introduce these words of our Lord. Jesus said, To this end was I born, and for this cause came I unto the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.

Every one who is of the truth heareth my voice. If he had defined the very purpose for which he came into the world in terms of bearing witness unto the truth, something that is too frequently forgotten because what is central in the witness of Jesus himself in connection with his coming into the world is the redemptive work that he came into the world to accomplish.

The Son of Man came, he says, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, to give his life of ransom for many. He must come. He might redeem, that is central, from the fullness of the childless tongue.

God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. But in this particular passage, our Lord brings to our attention himself that he not only came into this world to accomplish a work of wisdom, but he also came into this world to bear witness unto the truth.

And therefore, we must always coordinate that high priestly purpose for which Christ came into the world, and this that we may call the prophetic function for which he came into the world. And the truth really comes back to this, that we cannot be partakers of that redemption which he came into this world to accomplish unless we give the evidence of supreme preparing for that other function for which Jesus also came into the world, namely, that he might bear witness unto the truth.

Can we be indifferent to the whole question of truth, to the whole question of the truth that Jesus is, to the whole question of the truth that Jesus spoke? Without a capable bearing witness unto the truth, we can just slightly change the form of expression and still use the words of Jesus.

He said, that good shepherds give us his life for the sheep. There is his redemption, he said. But he also said in that very connection, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand. My heart and kingdom, he is greater than all, and no one can pluck out of my father's hand. Do you see how intimately related all of this is to the very eternal security which Christ came into this world to procure and to conserve for his own people?

My sheep hear my voice. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Jesus came into this world to bear witness of his voice unto the truth. And it cannot but be that the person who is the beneficiary of his redemptive accomplishment is the person who is also characterized by that supreme jealousy for the truth, the truth as it comes to a supreme expression in Jesus Christ himself, as it comes to expression in the whole council of God, as it comes to expression for faith and for comfort, for life and for hope.

Total and the sum total of everything is positive for us in the scripture, and the sum total of the valuation of the council. Now how do we stand in reference to this criterion? How do we stand individually in reference to this all-important are we of the truth or are we of the lie?

The Final Question: Truth or the Lie

And that all comes back simply to this question, are we of God, the devil, who is the father of lies? Nothing less than that is the urgent alternative placed before us. Are we of God, or are we of our father the devil?

And that is to say, are we of the truth or are we of the lie? And it all comes to its focal point in this criterion, in this term. Are we ready to accord to the words of Jesus, to the voice of Jesus, all that credit, all that honor, all that glory, obedience.

With his voice, the voice of him is the way, the truth. I can but leave that question with you, with your conscience, with your mind, and with your heart, as I must also in the last analysis leave it with myself.

This is the ultimate question after all of our human relationships with God, are we of the truth or lie? May God's name be praised. O thou eternal and ever-blessed one, we beseech thee that thou wouldst, notwithstanding all our frailty, our weakness, notwithstanding all our sins, cover us with the wings of thy protection, because thou didst sprinkle upon us the blood of spring that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

O Lord and Abraham, to receive the truth in simplicity and honesty at heart, and to live and walk in the light, as thou art in the light, that we may have confidence towards God. O forbid that we should, if any, be the victims of satanic seduction.

That we might always be in the secret place of the Most High, and under the shadow of the Almighty. For Jesus' sake and in His name, Amen.