Introduction:  God is real.  And because God is real, the world can be best explained and understood by acknowledging the existence of God.  Yet, many today, do not realize the validity of the Christian worldview.  At Legacy, we not only believe in Jesus, we believe that the world around us is best explained by the belief in a creator God who personally interacts with it and specifically sent Christ to redeem it.

 We will outline the main reasons we believe and are disciples of Jesus.  Some reasons will be related to believing in God and some in Jesus specifically.  The goal is to help all of us understand that our faith is not only experiential but also rational.  For believers, we hope this series will help your faith become stronger and for pre-believers, we hope these humble thoughts will help you understand the foundation for our faith better. 

Reason #1 to believe – All pursuit of TRUTH will end at the feet of Jesus.

Truth Defined

Truth is not something we make up, but something that is discovered.  Truth is a revealing of things as they actually are or have occurred.  Though Truth is very real, as there is an actual way everything has unfolded, the discovery of truth will lead all of us on a journey of faith.  Perhaps one could describe the pursuit of truth as a gathering of experiences, information, and witnesses with the intent of helping one discover how we came to be, what we are here to do, and where we go from here. 

Absolute Truth

The enlightenment was a rich time in history where people believed that all of life should be the pursuit of truth.  We live in a world today that in many ways has lost this virtue.  People have believed the absolutely illogical idea that all religions and “truths” are the same and all religions teach the same thing.  Therefore, they have given up on pursuing truth at all and have allowed themselves to not think about life’s most important questions, perhaps because they fear there are no ‘real’ answers.  I would humbly suggest that anyone who claims that all religions are the same, and therefore we do not need to investigate and believe in any of them, has never fully studied any of the major religions.  The major religions differ on nearly every core question.  Including: Does God beyond us exist?  Can this God be known? Are we capable of achieving our own spiritual strength?  Who defines what is good?  Are humans ‘sinners’ or naturally good and can save themselves?  Is Jesus needed for salvation?  After we die, what determines our destiny?

The Christian View of Truth

Jesus is the truth.

The Bible’s existence shows that God has revealed Himself to humanity.  God is personal, not just theoretical, or abstract.  God can be known because God has made Himself known to the world in creation and in the scriptures.  He has also made Himself known through the person of Jesus.

The Bible (John 1) introduces Jesus as the one full of grace and TRUTH.  When Jesus describes Himself, He says that He is the way, THE TRUTH, and the life.  Christians believe that the honest, humble, and faithful search for truth will end up at the feet of Jesus.  Jesus is the reason the world was created, all of time flows towards His coming and His returning.  Therefore, our lives find their meaning when we discover who Jesus is, embrace Him by faith, and then live underneath His teaching.

 All truth is God’s truth, there is no other kind.  

If it is true for one, it is true for all.  God is the only one who knows how everything was made, why everything was made and where everything that is made is headed.  God was gracious enough to reveal these truths to us in creation and give us all the truth we need for life, salvation and living in the Bible.

God’s way of living is ‘the truth.’

There is another element of truth that is important.  Not only does what a person believes need to make sense logically, but the truth of their worldview should show through in their lifestyle and how it brings truth and goodness into the world. 

I have been laboring in the ministry for over 25 years in one way shape or form.  During that time, I have met thousands of people, who have tried thousands of different lifestyles on their own.  Many of the things they have tried have gone against the teaching of the Bible.  In my experience, the pursuit of anything outside of the parameters established in the Bible will eventually lead to shame, harming others, sadness, and despair. 

When lives are changed by God, and they pursue a life that conforms to the Bible, people experience joy and life, and the people around them get a taste of goodness.  I remember at one point doing a study on the ten commandments with a group of people, where we shared stories of all the commands we had broken and the impact it had on our own lives and the lives around us.  It was a time of great tears, not overflowing joy.  Just to give a couple of examples, one man who became addicted to drugs described how he had lived a life of thieving and deception.  He described the pain he went through as his choices caused those he loved great pain and isolated him.  Another woman described the abuse that she had suffered as a child when someone had forced her into sexual immorality.  She then described a life filled with pain, shame, and anger.  

 God’s plans revealed in scripture are the ‘true’ way we were designed to live in goodness.  As you conform your life to God’s plans you will experience more goodness, less shame and your Spirit will come alive.

 We do not pursue truth because we fear change.

A Christian artist, Steve Camp, was with the popular singer Prince in an elevator during the height of Prince’s popularity.  He boldly shared the gospel with him and asked him if he had ever considered following Jesus.  Prince replied, “If I became a follower of Jesus, would have to give up all of this?”  He replied, yes.  The silence spoke volumes.

 The Bible says (Romans 1) that this is the main reason people do not pursue and live in the truth.  It is our love for the momentary pleasures and distractions that keep us from all that God would have for us.  The Bible calls this wickedness, it says we as humans naturally suppress the truth by our wickedness. We simply do not want to change.

What about mystery?

The scriptures (Matthew 9) tell us that people were drawn to Jesus by the authority from which he spoke.  He knew the truth about the world and tried to teach it to others.  He understood complexities that we today can study but eventually must admit that they are marvelous mysteries.  One of these great mysteries is the existence of Jesus Himself.  He claimed to be both God and human.  The more we dig into this truth, the more mysterious it becomes.  Or if we ponder human responsibility and God’s sovereignty and providence, we can struggle to see how both could be true simultaneously.  It does not mean these things are not ‘true,’ it simply means we do not have the same knowledge or understanding as Jesus.  Our best explanations will fall short of fully satisfying all of our questions.

The good news is that every worldview is filled with mysteries.  The pursuit of truth will call us to sort through the tough questions and mysteries of every worldview.  As we will see in this study, the Christian worldview is the best and most logical way to understand the world around us.  If it is not, then we should pursue something else.

We cannot live in ‘the truth’ on our own.

One way to understand truth is to think of its opposite, deception.  The Bible says (Romans 3) all of us have fallen into deception. We believe things that are not true, and our lives end up revolving around things that cannot bring us true life and goodness.  Scripture says that we are darkened (Ephesians 4) in our understanding and incapable of living into the truths that God designed for us to discover and enjoy.  If we seek to live in goodness, we will soon discover that we fall short.  We do not love God or others like we should, instead of helping and serving those around us, we will find ourselves at times hurting others.  The more we understand God’s plans for our lives and try to live into them, the more we will discover our need for someone who can save us from the lack of goodness we live in and help us live in the truth.

Reason #1) All pursuit of truth will end at the feet of Jesus.

In summary, there may not be a more important virtue than the pursuit of truth.  It is much easier to live in deception.  We try to escape the truth by allowing ourselves to run and escape God’s call to change our lives.  We may, without realizing it, find ourselves hiding in momentary pleasures and distractions while missing the call of truth around us.  However, we do not need to be afraid of the truth.  If the Bible is wrong, then followers of Jesus should pursue another truth that is more valid.  However, if the Bible is true, then God is real, God is good and God is personally working in the world to bring us all into his goodness and truth.