John 18:38 Pilate said to him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them… I. THE TRANSCENDENT IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS TRUTH TO MAN. This might be proved, inasmuch as man is — 1. An intellectual being. The reason of man forms the link between man and his Gods and in as far as it is unperverted, seeks after truth. There was no feature in the mighty mind of Newton, who grasped the universe almost in his span, that was so remarkable as his childlike, simple love of truth. Truth in art, in science, in metaphysics, in morals, and in nature, ought to be the aim of the mind, but if truth in pursuits which have merely to do with things seen and temporal be of moment, how much more truth, even in an intellectual point of view, in reference to the reality of a world that never changes and that never passes away. If to know the glorious works of God be an exalted study, how much more to know the nature of that Great Architect who built and beautified the universe! If to measure the dimensions, and to understand the proportions of things visible be noble, how much more to explore and to investigate the nature, the proportion, and the dimensions of the wondrous things that are connected with the world to come! 2. A moral and responsible being. All within us and without us tell and testify that we have to do with the great unseen God. The ties which bind the creature to his Creator and his Preserver, must of all ties be the most intimate. There is a conscience in man that testifies, and a reason that responds to the testimony, that there is verily a God that judgeth in the earth. If it were not that man is a responsible being, why do we find among the savage as well as the sage a conscience exercising its power. If then man be a responsible being, how emphatically interesting to man to know that God with whom he has to do — how he may approve himself in the sight of his Heavenly Ruler, and how he may enjoy His favour. 3. An immortal being. Were man what the infidel represents him, it might be indeed of little moment what man knew, or of what he was ignorant. But if man be an immortal being, then that fact stamps upon man an infinite worth, and stamps, therefore, upon religious truth a worth that is infinite also. 4. A fallen being. The proofs of evil are as plain as the proofs of existence, and along with these there are proofs that that depravity is not accidental, but that it is the painful consequences of man's own fatal choice. There is a sense of guilt upon man that makes him dread to meet his God. If it were all well with man, if there were peace in his conscience, it might be, comparatively speaking, of little moment to ascertain truth. But, being guilty, man needs to know how he may be reconciled to God; how his guilt may be removed and his ruin remedied. II. WHERE THEN IS TRUTH TO BE FOUND? "Thy Word is truth." Then how transcendent the importance of the Scriptures of truth to man. 1. As an intellectual being. Does man sigh for information respecting God, His character, the worship He requires? Let Him open the Scriptures of truth, and there he finds "shallows in which & lamb may wade, and depths in which an elephant may swim." There are those glorious heights — that sublime morality — those splendid discoveries which elevate and expand the intellect. Yea, the Word of God is the great foster-mother of all the arts and sciences of civilized life. 2. As a responsible being. He asks reason, but it can give him little information; conscience, but its rays are half quenched within him. But let him open the Word of God, and there you will see written, as in letters of light, all that his Father would have him to do, so plain, that "he who runs may read." 3. An immortal being. It does not point him to a Mahometan paradise, or tell him of a place of liquid fire, such as heathen poets have described, but in its simple sublimity tells us that "after death comes the judgment;" of "the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched;" of heaven, in the simple declarations of glory. 4. As a sinful being. If it simply told us how we might know God and ascertain His will and the dread sanctions of His law, it would but have enhanced our misery and increased our guilt. But it is as a revelation to lost man of the glad tidings of eternal life through the blood of the Lamb that the Book of God is of most transcendent interest to man. (H. Stowell, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. |
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