This fundamental spiritual nugget was revealed to man by our Lord Jesus Himself in Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 32: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Central to this spiritual fundamental is knowing, “and you will know “. This is where the gap in our freedom comes from, our lack of knowledge. Didn’t our God, the Father of all, the Creator of all things say it? In the book of Hosea chapter 4 verse 6 we read: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: “because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” It is our responsibility therefore to know, to seek for knowledge of God from the right source, for many have gone out in their own name-calling themselves prophets and have brought confusion to the people. Truth is never a divided house, and we will see this shortly.
Important to our knowledge of the truth is knowing who truth is. Truth is a Person and that is why Truth is absolute, that is why it is emphatic, ” and the Truth SHALL set you free. The Gospel of John in chapter 14 verse 6: “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Also we read in John chapter 1: 1, 14: ” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”.
We see that the Truth who is the Word is God and He, who is the Truth, became flesh that He might dwell among us. God is a Spirit and Father of Spirits who distills Himself in His word that He might flow out to all men and dwell among them who are in the flesh. Why will this understanding be a matter of contention among men? God in the beginning chose to make man in His own image and likeness, it behooves God therefore to become as us in the likeness of man (Hebrews 2:17) whom He made in His own image because of His great love. He identified with man to save man (salvation is by grace through faith in Christ: Ephesians 2: 8) that He might take man back to Himself. If any man fails to know and identify with this salvation, then he is destroyed for the futility of his ignorance. Only the devil will deny this, for he, the devil, seeks the destruction of the souls of men. The devil, who the truth calls the thief, came to steal, to kill and to destroy (John 10:10).
So the Truth is a Person, (Divine) and He only is absolute, and He cannot be divided against Himself. His purpose was to save, His purpose was and still is to give life to man that was dead because of sin which, came from the deception of Satan, the devil. So the Truth, who is God, distills Himself in His word to every man that they may have knowledge to partake of Him. The epistle of 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 and 4 reads: “For His divine power has bestowed on us [absolutely] everything necessary for [a dynamic spiritual] life and godliness, through true and personal knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
Through the knowledge of God’s word, the Truth that became flesh, we have come to gain knowledge of the desire of God in His precious promises to make us partakers of His divine nature. This is our salvation in a nutshell. When we come to an understanding that Truth is a Divine Person, not just an ordinary word, it affects the way we relate to the Truth. We ought to be one with the Truth that its power might be made manifest in us for our true liberty.
The Truth came to reveal that the way which seems good to man leads but to death. This is the essence of prophecy, it is to give man wisdom for man to amend his way and not necessarily to fulfill doom. The narrative in the book of Isaiah chapter 38 verse 1 and following is instructive: prophet Isaiah was sent to King Hezekiah to prepare his house, for he will, surely. God was not interested in the death of any sinner but in their repentance, God definitely was not predicting the death of King Hezekiah but of his condition and the consequence if he refuses to change. King Hezekiah turned to the Lord in prayer, and the Lord sent back His prophet Isaiah to tell him he had added fifteen more years to his life and gave a sign.
God is the absolute, He is the Dispenser of events, but it is man to chose his own path, his own salvation by the choices he makes, his decision and the knowledge he amassed to himself. Many believers have fallen under the weight of a prophecy of a man not having understanding that it is the Truth, who is a Divine Person that sets free a man free if such a man would mend his way. Any prophecy that does not comfort, edify and correct is not of God (1Corinthians 14: 3). No man is given to determine the destiny of another man, only lack of knowledge destroys.
The purpose of God, the Spirit of Truth; whom the world unfortunately cannot receive (John 15: 26) due to the deceitful of their hearts; from the beginning of the world has been the salvation of men. This salvation was reassured by the new covenant ratified by the blood of Jesus Christ and not the blood of animals, and based on better promises that we might be partakers of His divine nature. Daniel revealed in chapter 12 verse 4 that men will run to and fro, and that knowledge will increase and in Chapter 11 verse 32 he says “but the people that know God (The Spirit of Truth), shall be strong and do exploit“.
What knowledge do you have or seek after?, is it the knowledge that bring you salvation or the one that reinforces the wide gate and broad way that leads to destruction (Mathew 7:13). Our Lord Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life has come that we may have life and have it abundantly. Only the Truth sets free.
