“and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”” (John 8:32, NRSV)
The more truth I have, the more freedom I have. But this is not a freedom to make arbitrary choices between mysterious options. As wisdom increases, poor options become apparent; good options become clear. True freedom isn’t the mere capacity to make selections. True freedom is realized when delusion and deception lose their power and the best option is obvious and all other options fade into irrelevance. When I am free to know what is best and choose it, then I am free indeed.
A number of years ago I read through Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica—the shorter version, not the whole thing. In it, Aquinas sets out to see what truth he can discover about God based solely on the application of reason. This resulted in the articulation of some of the common categories of Classical Theism we use to give content to the word god. We basically wind up with some version of Aristotle’s unmoved mover. I remember reading his book and thinking that his version of God doesn’t seem much like Jesus at all.
And that’s just it. As a Christian, I begin with the fundamental assumption that God can only be known by revelation. I cannot reason myself to truth when it comes to God. God must reveal truth for me to know it. God is not unreasonable; God is beyond reason. I do not set my reason aside. Instead, I keep reason in it’s place. Reason is a wonderful tool but a terrible source when it comes to knowing the truth about God.
…we may know God only through sharing in the knowledge of the Son by the Father and of the Father by the Son, and the testimony he gives us of himself through his Spirit. As such we disavow any understanding of the Holy Trinity or any formulation of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity that has no intrinsic relation to the saving revelation of God in the life, work and Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only he can reveal God truly and perfectly who is himself the very Son of God, only he can speak of God truly and perfectly who is himself the Word of God made flesh. Torrance, T. F. (1996). The Christian doctrine of God, one being three persons (p. 11). T&T Clark.
In Genesis 1, we see that God created all things by speaking.
“Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” (Genesis 1:3–5, NRSV)
The New Testament writers took up this important theme.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being” (John 1:1–3, NRSV)
God speaks and all of creation comes into existence. This same voice is presently sustaining creation moment by moment.
“He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:3, NRSV)
This Word that God speaks to create and sustain all things became a man.
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, NRSV)
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5–8, NRSV)
This Word-made-flesh is Jesus, the eternal Son of God, one who is fully God and fully man. God can only be known by revelation so God has revealed himself fully in the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.
“Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (John 14:8–10, NRSV)
If you’ve seen Jesus, has seen the Father.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15–17, NRSV)
God is invisible, but God has imaged himself fully in Jesus. Jesus is the source of all. Jesus is the sustainer of all. Jesus is the purpose of all. In God’s incarnate word, we have a complete revelation about who God is and what God is like. Any of our god-concepts that are incongruent with God revealed in Jesus are, at best, incomplete.
God being God, all our knowledge of him comes by divine revelation, for it is impossible for us to know God without his willing to be known. God may be known only through God, and is known only as he makes himself known to us through the revealing and saving agency of his Word and Spirit. - Torrance, T. F. (1996). The Christian doctrine of God, one being three persons (p. 13). T&T Clark.
Jesus is the truth that sets us free. This is personal truth. This is relational truth. The kind of truth that sets us free is revelatory truth and our way of knowing this truth must also be revelatory.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NRSV)
It is the role of the Spirit to guide us into the fullness of God’s self revelation in the person of Jesus. This is why the Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of truth.
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” (John 14:16–17, NRSV)
The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. Said another way, the Holy Spirit leads us deeper and deeper into God’s full self-revelation in the person of Jesus. God can only be known by revelation. Jesus is God’s revelation. The Spirit give us access into God’s self-revelation in Jesus.
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16:13, NRSV)
The truth is a person. The truth is Jesus. The truth isn’t a doctrinal formula. The truth is a unity of Father, Son, and Spirit. The truth is the relationship of the son to all creation, for all of creation finds its origin in the Word and is sustained moment by moment by the Word. The Son, who is completely one with the Father in the Spirit, has fully entered into our humanity, even the deepest brokenness of our selfish violence. He has embraced us while in our freedom we screamed “Crucify!” He has forgiven us before we even knew to confess.
…by our own doing we have already drawn him into the deepest abyss of confusion in our own souls. In rejecting him we opened the door to our great wound. In crucifying the Creator Son we opened our alienation to his live and to the Father’s embrace and to the presence of the Holy Spirit inside our faithlessness. There, in the Holy Spirit, Jesus speaks as the living Word of God, the humble brother of the human race, the Light of life shining in the great darkness. There the Holy Spirit, who indivisibly accompanied the Son into the far country of our murder and rage, cries, “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:6), bearing witness with our spirits that we are sons and daughters of the Father, “heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17), heirs of the Triune life. - Kruger, Baxter C. (2003). The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
“Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing.” (Luke 23:34, NRSV)
He has forgiven us. All of us. For everything.
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.” (2 Corinthians 5:18–19, NRSV)
He has made a home for us in Christ, in the Father.
“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:2–3, NRSV)
And he has made a home for Jesus and the Father in us.
““I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.” (John 14:18, NRSV)
“Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23, NRSV)
This is Truth. Knowing this is what produces freedom, but not the kind of freedom that lets you do anything. This is the kind of freedom that enables you to choose the one true best thing. And when you know the truth by revelation, choosing it is the only reasonable thing to do.