33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” 34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” 35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” 37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” 38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. ~ John 18:33-38
There was a day when we thought the world was flat. It was not true. There was a time when we believed the earth was at the center of our universe. It was not true. What we accepted as true changed. This is what creates the problem.
Truth is not merely an idea. As indicated in the response of the Lord Jesus in v.34, it is experienced, and most importantly, it is lived. If it is not lived, it is not truth. Truth is not the ascent to an idea, it is a way of life. In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus identified Himself as the truth. In John 8:32, He said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
The Bible teaches that truth is the Word of God. The Lord Jesus made this clear when He prayed, “Father, Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:17) When we read the Bible, we discover it bears witness to the truth that is universal, absolute and unchanging.
Three times in v.37-38, the word “truth” is used. In fact, the word “truth” is used 26 times in John's gospel. Pilate did not recognize the truth, because he could not understand the truth. There is a difference between something being true and the truth.
There is a difference between determining that a statement or fact is “true,” and "the truth.” A true statement about something, relies on observation, judgment, evaluation. You and I become the ones who determine the truth, but if that is all that there is to truth, then we will never reach it, because truth is subject to our judgment, and our interpretation.
Is it any wonder that Pilate could not see the truth, when it was standing in front of him? He was used to being the one who decided what was a true statement and what was not. And here, right in front of him, is a small, weak, inoffensive man who lots of people wanted dead. The Lord Jesus did not have an army, weapons, wealth, or power.
In v.33, Pilate asked, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Rome was in power; “the Jews” were not a political group, they were an ethnic group living in the Roman Province of Syria. The claim is absurd that anyone could be King of the Jews, let alone the Lord Jesus. To his observation, it was a true statement for Pilate to say that Jesus was NOT King of the Jews.
And then the Lord Jesus answers in v.36, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” Pilate doesn’t get this “kingdom is not of this world.” I'm sure he wondered, "what other world is there?"
Then, Pilate picks up on the “King” thing again. “So you are a King?” Pilate asks. The Lord Jesus responds in v.37 with “the truth”, not with a true statement, subject to evaluation, but with the truth. Actually, with a story about Himself, “the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.”
He does not say that He came to fill our heads with true statements. Although He does some of that, He tells us true things so that we can understand something about the truth.
Truth is not simply a collection of true statements. The truth is that upon which everything rests. The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to make known the Father to a people who were separated from their God, by sin. Jesus Christ came to restore us to God, to undo the sin that the world and which we have inherited. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, hung on a cross, died in our place, rose from the dead, and is coming again to restore us, body and soul, to God. That is the truth.
That is why the Lord Jesus says in v.37, "Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Notice He did not say, “everyone who believes true things listens to my voice.” Rather, only those who are “of truth.” This is the key statement. “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Pilate did not belong to the truth, and so when he sees this Jesus standing before him, he cannot see that He is the Son of God, that He is, indeed, King not only of the Jews but of all. The crowds outside Pilate’s headquarters were not of the truth. And so they could not see that this man was the one sent to save them, and so they asked Pilate to crucify Him.
But you and I see it, because we are of the truth. And this changes everything. You and I do not live up to the standards of God’s law and we never will. We can measure ourselves, evaluate ourselves, but we will fall short. It is a true statement to say that every one of us has, at one time or another, put our trust and confidence in something other than God. These statements are all true because they can all be observed and measured.
And it is a true statement to say, that, as a result, we are all worthy of death and separation from God. The truth is that because of the work of the Son of God we are righteous in God’s sight, we are perfect in His eyes. That is the truth. And it is because of one man, Jesus Christ, who by His work has called us, justified us, sanctified us and kept us in and by the faith.
What is truth? It is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He substantiated the truth through being crucified, for us. Because He is the way, and the truth, and the life.
