“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'” (John 8:31-32)
Nothing quite like a dose of truth at the onset of a New Year! There is no substitute for truth. Honestly, where would World Economy go, if truth doesn’t undergird all of its transactions? Truth is so important in this World that paradoxically even in the Crime World of “lies“, people have paid for their lives for not speaking the truth! Even in an as mundane an act as hiring an auto-rickshaw in the Indian context, imagine the reaction of the commuters, if they learn that meter designed to calculate the fare has been tampered with. Continuing to blow the trumpet about the importance of truth…ever wondered how the lie-detector machine works? Oh boy…on the principle that normally all of us speak the truth. Normal heart-beat and pulse-rate of a person speaking a lie would go awry, immediately registering on the “lie-detector” facilitating the authorities to nail the truth, as it were, straightaway. Amongst others, one ennobling action of truth is that of liberation. Where truth is, fetters of a lie are bound to lie unshackled.
In this New Year’s message, I intend to focus on the truth in each of the three Christian doctrines of…Justification (a sinner is forgiven on accepting Christ as his/her Saviour), Sanctification (a forgiven sinner is transformed into a Christ-like image) and Glorification (Christians get raptured or on their departure from the Earthly realm reach the Heavenly shores whichever were to occur first).
Prayer: Father, enable us to always to seek and live by the truth, You have revealed to us in the Scriptures. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Suresh Manoharan
An Unworthy servant
J and SM Ministries
(To access the entire “Truth and Nothing but the Truth: A New Years’ Message for 2016” mini-series, please click here.)