Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6.
Our attitude toward the truth determines the outcome of our lives. If we don’t love the truth, if we resist it, we resist salvation. But if we do love the truth then we embrace salvation and we receive the reward: the crown of life.
But what did Jesus mean when He said that He is the truth? What is the truth?
The truth about who we are and about Who Jesus is
God’s Word is true, and The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) So the truth is the life of Jesus – which is to be manifested in us. (2 Corinthians 4:10) When we compare His life to our own lives and see how enormously different the two are, then a light turns on for us. The truth is that light which shines into our lives and reveals what we are really like by nature. It reveals the way that we must walk on in order to be transformed into the image of Christ. (Romans 8:29)
The first step on the way of truth is taken when Jesus shines His light into our lives and we acknowledge that we are sinners in need of forgiveness, atonement, and justification. This causes us to repent.
The next step is that He shows us that, even though we are forgiven, we still have sin in the flesh, and we have to acknowledge that we ourselves are powerless to overcome when we are tempted to give in to the sin that is so rooted in us as human beings. When we humble ourselves to acknowledge this truth about ourselves then the Holy Spirit can fill us, enlightening us, leading us, and giving us the strength and power that we lack in ourselves so that we can keep all that God commands us – we can give up our own will and do His will instead. In other words, we can get victory over the lusts of the flesh which lead to sin.
“And we know that The Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him Who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” 1 John 5:20.