“To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.” —John 18
THE Scripture before you, my reader, is the trial of the Lord Jesus Christ. There never was a trial in this world like the trial of Jesus, and what I want you to see is, that it is not Christ who is really on trial here, but the world, and therefore you!
The moment Christ comes in, all in His presence are on trial, for He is God’s test, and God’s touchstone, for the heart of man. God knows if you, my reader, are among those who know Him, and who love Him. Blessed for you if you are! Happy for you if you are!
Awful your state if you are not! For mark what he says here, “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice”; and I ask you, Have you heard His voice? Is His voice familiar to you? The voice of Jesus, the voice of the Saviour. Do you know that voice? You know the voice of the one you love best in this world, but tell me, Do you know the voice of Jesus? Blessed indeed is the one who knows His voice, the voice of the Son of God!
It is a real thing to hear His voice, no phantasy, no mere imagining of the mind, of which preachers can talk, or writers pen, but the most wonderful thing the soul can know in its earthly history—the moment when first penetrates to the recesses of the heart, the voice of the Son of God! And why? Because it marks a new era in the career; because it is the moment of blessing, of life, the moment that links your soul with God. And if you have not heard His voice, where are you?
Unblessed, unwashed, unpardoned, dead in sins, and exposed to the judgment of God; and how soon that judgment may fall on you, God only knows—you cannot tell.
You are on trial now for eternity, for the moment Christ is brought in, you must either declare yourself for Him, or you must take sides against Him. It was so in that judgement hall that day; not Christ who was on trial, but every other man there—for, or against the Son of God?
I grant that you were not in that judgment hall, but which side do you take today? For, or against the Son of God? There is no middle ground— “He that is not with me, is against me, said the Lord Jesus.”
Look at the majesty, and the tenderness, the Godhead and the humanity of the blessed Jesus, in this chapter! They come out against Him with swords and staves, but they go backward and fall to the ground when He declares Himself. Here His Godhead comes out, for who was Jesus of Nazareth? JEHOVAH! The I AM! The self-existing One. Only for one moment does He display His power though.
The next, we hear Him saying, “If ye seek me, let these go their way.” Ah, what tenderness in that man, the God-man, Christ Jesus. This little company was gathered round Him, and there was the bloodthirsty crowd. Methinks I see Him sweep that crowd aside, and leave a pathway free for His own to go through; even though He may weep as He sees them one and all forsake Him and fly. Yes, forsake Him and fly in His hour of sorrow, though they had all declared they loved Him, and one, at any rate, had declared he was ready to go to prison and to death for Him!
“If ye seek me, let these go their way.”
How touching! They sought Him that day only to kill Him; but do you seek Jesus today? Then you shall find Him. No needy soul ever sought Him in vain.
They sought Him only to crucify Him; but, oh, will not you seek Him to exalt Him in your heart, as your Lord, and your Saviour? And does not this win your heart? Did you ever think of it, that the Son of God consented to be a bound captive, scorned, spit upon, scourged, tasting the bitterness of death itself, that He might offer you freedom, glory, and eternal life?
Do they smite the blessed Jesus? He bears it patiently. Do they ask Him of His disciples and His doctrine; He will tell them of His doctrine, but not one word of His disciples. He says as it were, You may do as you will with me, but you must not touch mine. What a Saviour He is! Pilate asks Him: “Art thou a King?” This stranger, had as retinue but a dozen fishermen! How little Christ cares for what you and I care for; you and I love power naturally, but look at Christ. Hear His answer “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” The fact was this, God was not known till Christ came, and man did not know himself either, and the Lord did not come into this world to assert Kingly rights; the only crown He got was a crown of thorns; the only exaltation man gave Him, was putting Him on that cross of wood. He came to testify of the truth! The truth was never known, save in the person of Jesus.
Until you have Christ you have the truth about nothing, but when you have Christ, you have the truth about everything, for He is the truth about God., and the truth about man, the truth about righteousness, the truth about sin, the truth about grace, and the truth about judgment, the truth about the second man, and the first man, and more, He is the truth about Satan also, i.e., He makes plain and clear what the object of Satan is—the object of the enemy of souls, who is the enemy of Christ likewise.
If I think of God, Christ is the truth about Him. Man has misjudged God, but Christ has brought out the whole truth about Him—what the heart of God is. In the Garden of Eden, Satan instilled distrust of God into the heart of the woman, and the consequence was the fall, and all the misery in this world today is the consequence of that lie instilled into the heart of Eve. Christ’s answer to all is, God has one Son, and He loves man well enough to give that one Son for him. But God is not only love, He is light, and this Christ brings out. The cross of Christ shows my guilty condition, my state as a sinner, and the work of atonement that was needed to take me out of that state. The sin that would have taken me into death, took Christ there, and therefore there is perfect deliverance for me if I trust Him. You have your own thoughts about God, but did you ever think He would submit to be bound and struck, and spit upon in Pilate’s hall? You never did. You thought of Him as an angry judge, who would punish your sins, but you never thought of Him as you see Him in this scene. If you want to know God you must look at Christ!
Pilate asks, “What is truth?” Christ does not answer, for Pilate does not want to know.
He turns on his heel in haughty greatness, (alas! it was miserable littleness), and does not wait for an answer. The answer was in the person of the blessed Man who stood bound before Him.
Such was our state of ruin that nothing but that cross, to which the blessed Lord walked in self-sacrifice and devotedness, could deliver us. He must endure that cross if He would take up the case of man, or glorify God about sin. From the third to the sixth hour on that cross it was sunlight, the perfection of the second man coming out, He prayed for His murderers, He pardoned the robber, He commended His mother to the care of the disciple who loved Him. Beautiful charming expression of moral loveliness! From the sixth hour to the ninth hour the awful dark ruin of the first man came out. Christ must go into death or you and I could not be saved.
He is the truth about man. Do your worst against this blessed One, He will do His best for you. Taunt and despise Him, He will only love and save you! What sustained the heart of Christ in those unparalleled hours of darkness and woe? The mighty energy of His love, and His devotedness to God.
He wanted God’s character to be cleared, His throne vindicated, your soul saved, death annulled, Satan defeated, and the grave robbed of its victory. In all this His love sustained Him then! Have you tasted His mighty love?
Oh, taste it and see how great, how ineffable it is.
He dies, and there is the wonderful word left for you, if you care to hear it, “It is finished!”
The work of redemption was finished. He came to bear witness to the truth that so great was our sin, that nothing but His death could deliver you and me.
In the cross you get the truth about holiness, and about love. God will not pass by sin, but He loves the sinner; the cross of the Son of God answers every question that God could raise, or that Satan could suggest.
“Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” Have you heard His voice? The blessed peace-giving voice of the Son of God?
That voice, crying, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and again, crying, “It is finished” addresses you. The work is complete He came to do, and your deliverance perfected.
Oh, listen to His voice. Hear the truth and delight in it. Let your faith go up to the throne of God, where sits today, crowned with glory, the One who died on Calvary’s tree, and who cries to you now, “Come unto me.”
Listen, and hear His voice, and get eternal life, for the hour now is when “the dead” dead in sins, “shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.”
W. T. P. W.