Is Truth Relative?

I heard the expression years ago, "Truth is relative", meaning that what is truth to you may not necessarily be truth to me. Is this statement in and of itself truth? I was raised by my parents that truth is truth. Ignorance of the truth doesn't make truth any less truth.

When I was in college I was helping a friend move into a part of the city we were attending school in that I was not familiar with. I was following him to his new apartment when a police car pulled behind me with its lights flashing. I wound up getting a traffic violation for speeding in a school zone. I didn't know it was a school zone. I was focused on following my friends car and never noticed the signs.

The police officer didn't care that I was ignorant of the speeding law in that area. I had violated it knowingly or not. Truth wasn't relative. I was held accountable even though I didn't realise I was speeding. In fact I believed I was under speed.

The world has its version of truth. It has an every changing set of ideas and beliefs. What is true to the world and acceptable today may not be tomorrow. This isn’t real truth. Truth is unchanging. You can’t change truth. It either is or it isn’t. If it’s true today then it’s true tomorrow as well. Truth doesn’t change over time. What is acceptable or unacceptable may shift with time, but truth is constant, consistent, unmovable.

The earth revolves around the sun, one complete rotation a year. The earth rotates on its axis 365 rotations a year. The sun comes up and goes down upon our horizon every night. These are irrefutable truths. The blind person may not be aware, but these things happen none the less. The world use to believe that the earth was flat. That was the "Science" of the day. We of course now know that the earth is in fact round. This is truth. We still have "Flat Earthers" today, but I couldn't say if they actually believe that or not. My point is, you can't negate truth. You can't change truth. The truth is the truth.

Jesus said in John 18:37

"I have come into this world to prove what truth really is, and everyone who loves the truth will receive my words".

It's not surprising that so many in the world are confused as to what is truth. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:4

"For their minds have been blinded by the god of this age..."

Jesus came to prove what truth is. The truth is how much God loves you and I! God doesn't just give lip service and say it, He proved it by sending Jesus into the world to sacrifice His own life in order that we might live.

John 3:16-17 says that

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

This is the truth! Jesus said you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. God has never hid the truth from us. He has made it plain as day even from the beginning. The world can deny God's love. They can even say He's a God of hate, but that is not the truth no matter how many times they say it. God is love. This is eternal truth. This great love compelled Him to enact the greatest rescue of all history. He overcame great odds giving the ultimate sacrifice to save the world, His sons life.

The truth is that everyone who believes in Jesus will have eternal life. Some may say that God is judgemental, but this isn't truth. God sent His son not to judge the world but to save the world!

John 3:18 says

“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son."

Did you catch that? There is no judgement against anyone who believes in Jesus! We are only judged when we deny the truth of God's love through His son Jesus. We place ourselves in judgement by our denial, our unbelief, our refusal to yield to the truth. In deceiving ourselves we fall to judgement. What is this judgement based upon?

John 3:19-21 makes this clear.

"And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

The truth is, God loves you. He loves you so much that that great love compelled Him to act upon that love and implement the rescue plan of sending His only son Jesus to die in your place. The only thing required of you is to believe in Him.

Romans 10:9-10 says

"If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved."

Be brave today to admit the truth to yourself and allow yourself to believe. Believe that the Easter story isn't simply a story, but truth, that Jesus came to sacrifice His life for you and that God rose Him from the dead. Do you believe this with all your heart? If you do then out loud declare Jesus as your Lord. "For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved."

Truth is truth. If you take this all to heart and believe, then the truth is that you will have eternal life with God through Jesus.