By: Dale Weckbacher
John 8:32
And you shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
NKJV
The Greek word translated free in John 8:32 is the word
eleutheroo, which means, “to make free, set at liberty from the dominion of
sin.” (1) As we discovered in last Saturday’s posting,
Genesis 3 in the Bible reveals a pattern of lies and deception that began in
the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve
gave in to this pattern of lies and deception, mankind came under the dominion
of sin. However, as we can see from this
verse, the truth sets us free from the dominion of sin.
If truth is indeed the cure for lies and deception, we must
discover its source and tap into it in order to immunize ourselves against the plethora
of lies and deception currently gripping our world. According to Scripture, we find truth in,
1)
Jesus – In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through Me. (NKJV) In fact, Pilate asked Jesus what
is truth. (John 18:28) Pilate’s question
was in response to Jesus answer to his question asking what he had done to
warrant calls for his crucifixion by his Jewish peers. Jesus reply to Pilate’s question was that he
came to bear witness to the truth. (John
18:37). Pilate was in essence asking the
source of truth what truth was but did not stick around to hear the answer from
Jesus and instead went out to the people declaring he found no fault in
Jesus. Jesus also spoke of the Spirit of
Truth that one can only receive by having The Holy Spirit in them (John
14:17). The only way for one to have the
Holy Spirit in them is to have their sins forgiven by confessing Jesus as Lord
of their lives (John 7:38-39). When
Jesus said he was the way, the truth, and the life, he was telling us he is the
gateway to truth. To find the source of
truth we must first enter the door by accepting Jesus as our Lord.
2)
The Word of God – This past Sunday my pastor
provided an excellent analogy illustrating what the Word of God is in our
lives. In the sanctuary of our church,
we have speakers hanging from the ceiling.
However, we do not see the actual woofer that produces the sound for it
is covered by a screen. The pages of the
Bible are similar to the screen on a speaker for they are just words on a page
but backing up those words on the page is the voice of God that inspires those
words. The Words of the Bible are
actually God declaring His truth to mankind.
These words also provide encouragement and are the only offensive weapon
in the arsenal of the spiritual soldier (Ephesians 6:10-17). I encourage everyone reading this to begin a
daily study of the Word of God and allow it to immunize you against the lies
and deceit that dominate our world.
3)
History – When I was attending school, I, like
many of my peers, did not believe history was important. I mean, why would we need to study the
past? The past is done and there is
nothing we can do about it, so why bother studying it? However, as I have grown older I realize that
history provides lessons from the past that teach what to do and what not to
do. Once again, the Bible is a great
source of such lessons for it is full of historical accounts of men and women
some of which did great things and others who blew it. I once heard it said that experience is the
best teacher, but it is less painful to learn from the experiences of
others.
In this time of chaos, our world exposes us to many lies and
deceptions as people attempt to use crisis to advance their agenda. We also live in a world dominated by the
philosophy of post-modernism, which relegates truth into something molded to
fit ones agenda instead of the standard we should use to mold our lives. (2) I believe that truth, especially the truth
contained in the Bible, is absolute and what guides my life. I encourage everyone reading this to join me
in allowing truth to guide your life as well.
I want to close with some encouraging words that my pastor
shared this past week in his daily email devotion. My hope is that these words of truth will
encourage you as they did me.
"...Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do
not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you.
He will neither fail you nor abandon you" (Deuteronomy 31:6).
"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me" (Psalm 23:4, NASB).
"Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand" (Isaiah 41:10).
"No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you" (Joshua 1:5).
"When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them" (Psalm 91:15).
"Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means 'God is with us' " (Matthew 1:23).
"But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength…" (2 Timothy 4:17a).
1. BibleStudyTools.com. Eleutheroo. www.biblestudytools.com.
[Online] [Cited: July 25, 2014.]
http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/kjv/eleutheroo.html.
2. PhD., Louis
Hoffman. Premodernism, Modernism, & Postmodernism:. www.postmodernpsychology.com.
[Online] [Cited: September 7, 2013.]
http://www.postmodernpsychology.com/Philosophical_Systems/Overview.htm.
3. Martin, Mark.
Grace Mail from July 25, 2014. [Email] Phoenix : Calvary Community
Church, 2014.
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