Truth is a Person

Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the Truth.

Of course... the Bible says so. (John 1:1, 14:6)

But what exactly does this mean?

There is a helpful clue in church history.

Athanasius, a church Father from the 3rd and 4th centuries, defended the Christian faith from the Arian heresy. The Arians believed that the Son of God was created by God at a certain point, and therefore was neither eternal nor God.

Athanasius responded to this by arguing that God is most fundamentally and essentially a loving Father. Therefore, there was never a time when God was not also a beloved Son, or else God would cease to be who he is most fundamentally and essentially, namely, a loving Father.

That is what it means that Christ is the Word and the Truth. Christ is the Word because he communicates that God is a Father who loves his Son. Christ is the Truth because he is a beloved Son; he is the truth that God is a Father who loves his Son.

There is no way to speak more truly of God than in this relationship.

Jesus says, "For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. (John 5:36)"

What were the works that Jesus was going to do? He would die on a cross for the sins of the world.

^{1 John 4:10}In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Here love is defined as Christ loving us precisely when we did not love him. In other words, the Father sent us his Son NOT in order to get anything in return, but rather simply because he LOVED us. If you do something nice for someone simply to get something nicer in return, it is NOT love. Love is when you do something nice for someone just because you love them.

Jesus says that the Father loved him "before the creation of the world (John 17:24)."

When Jesus died for the sins of the world he bore witness to the love of the Father. Why? Because he loved us like the Father loved him. He loved us unconditionally. God is love.

Therefore, the cross is not just some nice thing that God decided to do. Rather, it is an outpouring of who God is most fundamentally; it is a display of God the loving Father.

Jesus is the Word and the Truth that God is a loving Father because he is the beloved Son.