Prayer: Lord, bring us into Your light. We long to see light in Your light. Lord, thank You that although we were born in darkness, we have been regenerated into light. We are no longer sons of darkness but are children of light. We need more light. Speak something to us that will bring us into light. Lord, we trust in You.
In previous chapters we have seen that we need to know the Lord’s recovery in life and truth. In this chapter we will continue to consider the matter of the truth. In order to know what the truth is, we must come to the Gospel of John. The word truth is rarely mentioned in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. Its revelation begins in John, the Gospel of life. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Because the Word is the first item mentioned in the Gospel of John, it must be very significant. Verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” In the Word, which is God, is life. Life is in the Word. Verse 14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.” The Greek word for “reality” in this verse is translated as “truth” elsewhere (e.g., 8:32). John 1:17 says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” The matters that we need to see in these verses are the Word, life, grace, and reality, or truth.
In chapter 8 the truth is mentioned again. Verse 32 says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Verse 36 says, “If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” These two verses use the truth and the Son interchangeably, revealing that the truth is actually a person, Christ the Son. Chapter 14 also reveals this in verse 6, which says, “Jesus said to him, I am the way and the reality and the life.” Both the truth and the life are a person, Christ Himself. Verse 17 mentions the Spirit of reality, which is the “another Comforter” mentioned in verse 16. The first Comforter is the Son, and the second Comforter is the Spirit of reality, which is also mentioned in 15:26 and 16:13. In 17:17 the Lord prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” The word of the Father is the truth, and this truth sanctifies the church.
The Gospel of John also covers the matter of light. John 1:4 says, “The life was the light of men.” In 8:12 the Lord said, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” The term the light of life indicates that life becomes light.
The Word, life, grace, reality, the Spirit of reality, and light—along with the Son and the Father—are the basic factors in the Gospel of John. In other words, John is composed with the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—the Word, life, light, grace, and reality, or truth. These terms may be familiar terms to us, but we need to see that all these factors are a person, God Himself. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, the Word, life, and light are God. Grace is God for our enjoyment, and truth is God revealed and realized.
On God’s side, truth is God revealed; and on our side, it is God realized. When God reveals Himself, that is truth; and when we realize and touch God, that is also truth, or reality. When God is hidden, we do not have truth. The revelation of God is truth, but it needs our realization. Our realization goes along with God’s revelation. We cannot have realization without revelation. The revelation of God brings forth the realization of God in us. This is truth.
As we have seen in previous chapters, when we have the truth, we have light, for truth is the shining of light. The shining of light is actually light itself. Furthermore, light brings in life; light becomes life. Life is our enjoyment of God, which is grace. Grace is God Himself—the Father embodied in the Son and the Son realized as the Spirit enjoyed by us—and God is the Word. Therefore, the basic factors in John are like a circle—the beginning is joined to the end. The beginning is the Word; the end is the truth, reality; and the Word and the truth are one. The basic factors in John are one; they are all aspects of the Triune God. We must see this in order to understand what the truth is.