JOHN 18,19
FER Chapters 18 and 19 are, in the main, historical, and for this reason are not quite adapted for a Reading. The details which come out in them are pretty much in accord with the gospel. The utterances before the high priest and Pilate are peculiar to the gospel. The Lord answers no accusations; they ask about His doctrine, and He answers that He had taught openly in the temple. “Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said”. So, too, with Pilate, the Lord replies to no accusation; His utterances show them that He judges them, not they Him, for they were in the presence of Him who is the truth. “Why askest thou me?” really shows that He discerns the motives at work in them. The whole object of questioning Christ was to get something to go upon to condemn Him; it was no honest inquiry.
In the council it is, “Why askest thou me?” To Pilate it is, “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice”. He did not make so much of being a king, but that He might gather up all that was of the truth — “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice”. The ground that the Jew is compelled to take here is most humiliating; they had had a history as God’s people, and now they are compelled to own, “We have no king but Caesar”. You cannot imagine anything more humiliating.
The human idea of truth is the setting forth of anything as it is; but that is not the divine idea. Truth covers all that may be known of God, both as revelation and His will; truth shows everything in its place, it is a test for everything, but you cannot connect truth with man. The Lord said of the devil, “There is no truth in him”. The idea of the truth [p. 432] covers the revelation of God, and the revelation of His will; this explains to me what the Lord says, “To this end was I born ... that I should bear witness unto the truth”. It is said of the devil, too, that he abode not in the truth. To abide in the truth means that everything must stand in its own proper relation and proportion. A madman is a man who has lost all sense of relation and proportion, and therefore he has no proper ideas, all is disproportioned. The truth, according to Scripture, covers the revelation of God, and of His will, and therefore, in that sense, Christ is the truth. The idea that truth is the statement of a thing as it is has no foundation in Scripture. Man fallen is a living lie, there can be no truth about that man any more than about the devil, of whom it is said, “There is no truth in him”. The statement of a thing as it is may be true, but that is not truth. It was a bold confession before Pilate, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice”. Pilate afterwards seems to have had a misgiving that the Lord was more than human. Philosophers avow that they are in search of truth, but where are they going to get it? One generation after another passes off the scene, and they do not arrive at it. The Greeks and Romans were in search of it; it seems to be a long business, and what about the poor generations who meanwhile pass away? Philosophers want to get the secret of things of life, etc., but that is not truth at all, for truth is the revelation of God, and the setting forth of His will, therefore Christ is the Truth, and the Spirit is the Truth, for He is here to lead us into it.
People shelter themselves behind the statement that there is nothing certain, and therefore every man must go on just as he likes. It is only by the knowledge of God that you have any standard for things; there is no sanction or standard for social ties or anything else,
[p. 433] apart from the revelation of God. The validity of these things depends on the revelation of God, and if this is not accepted you may as well give up all, and people will do even that by-and-by; but they will not leave God out for nothing. They will not benefit themselves thereby. By the love of the truth a man is saved.
It is important to have simply and clearly before you, “What is truth?” The bulk of people could not give a very good answer. God would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. There is nothing of truth outside the operation of God’s Spirit. I think that, when a man is born again, it is the beginning of the truth with that man. I saw, in one of the periodicals, that the statement of a thing, as it is, is truth; but that is not the Scripture idea of it. I might, for example, give you an exact description of Paris, and it might be all true, but it is not “truth”. One characteristic of the truth is that it abides. Paris will not abide; one of these days I expect there will not be a trace of it left. I do not believe there is a trace of truth outside the operation of the Spirit. “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice”. All others are outside truth. We get the revelation of God’s will in Christ, and the consequence is that we practise the truth.
Ques What is the force of “love of the truth”?
FER It is the love of the revelation of God, of His righteousness and love. Faith is really the love of the truth. You believe with your heart, and therefore it is the obedience of the gospel, because the revelation commands the heart. Pilate was afraid and asked Jesus, “Whence art thou?” I believe he had a misgiving that He was more than human; then, afterwards, we read that Pilate sought to release Him. Pilate’s inquiries were not honest, and therefore the Lord gave no answer. Needy, simple souls who came to Him He was not silent to. The Lord’s silence was [p. 434] more terrible than anything. Pilate assumes a great deal, “Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?” The Lord stripped him of that assumption. He witnessed a good confession. Pilate did not own God, his only thought was the Roman Emperor.
“He that delivered me unto thee” refers to the Jew, the Jew was not alive to the gravity of the moment; he was helping on the deliverance of their Messiah to the Gentile power. After the Jews had owned Caesar as their king, Pilate heaps insult upon insult upon them, insisting that Jesus was their King, and he had that inscription written on the cross.
It is a sad picture all through, both with regard to the council and Pilate, and to the Jews; they were all in the dark, not knowing what they were doing.
The fulfilment of Scripture comes out in a remarkable way in chapter 19: 24 - 38. A soldier pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water — the blood atoned, and the water cleansed. The grace of God rose above the worst hatred of man; it was wanton brutality, and the divine answer is the water and the blood. Even the soldier that pierced His side might be cleansed.
“A bone of him shall not be broken”. This shows that however unrestrained the hand of man may seem to be, God is over everything. If you want an evidence of that truth of the scripture, verse 34 would give it. What human mind could conceive that the answer to brutal wantonness should be a testimony to the grace of God?