Trinitarian Nature of TruthTruth is founded upon the Trinitarian God of Scripture in both his person and his revelation. In John 3:33, John the Baptist declares that God is truth. Geerhardus Vos notes that throughout the Gospel of John the concept of truth is associated with the heavenly.[1] In John the Baptist’s declaration of God as truth Vos’ argument seems justified. John ties truthfulness to God because he is from above and the testifier of the Father is also seen as true because he comes from heaven.[2]
In fact as Groothius notes, “each member of the Trinity is closely associated with truth in the New Testament.”[3] Jesus constantly makes mention that he is testifying to the one and only true God. In John 7:25ff Jesus is teaching in the temple even though his enemies are seeking to kill him. Some question that the authorities really may think he is the Christ. However, they know where Jesus came from and believe that they will not know where the Christ comes from. Jesus responded by declaring that you may know where I come from but I have not come on my own accord. Then he proceeds to say, “He who sent me is true, and him you do not know.” Jesus’ mission was to bear testimony to the Father and he does so by declaring that He is True.[4]
Elsewhere Jesus almost in passing makes reference to the Father being true.[5] The people did not understand that he was speaking of the Father, but Jesus exalts Him as being true, as being the truth. Lastly, the Father is declared as true in John 17:3: “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”[6] The only way to a life eternal is through God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. Knowing God involves knowing him as the one and only true God.[7]
God the Son, Jesus Christ, is also the truth. He is both the messenger of truth and the message of truth.[8] Jesus’ mission as messenger was to reveal the Father who is truth.[9] The mission of Jesus is summed up well in John 1:9: “The true Light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” Jesus’ mission was to be a lamp unto his chosen people’s feet. He was to lift their heads to the radiance and truthfulness of the Father. The true light of the world came to point those in darkness to the source of that light. He alone was able to be a faithful witness, a truthful messenger, and a just herald to the Gospel of his grace.
Indeed grace and truth can never be separated. Coming from the Father, Jesus was full of grace and truth.[10] “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus’ message was to bring not the law, which was given, through Moses, but grace and truth. This grace is made known because Christ reveals the Father who has never been revealed before. Jesus has this right because of his closeness to the Father.
Jesus also is the message of truth. Jesus is the “true light, which enlightens everyone.” He is the true bread and his body and blood are the true food and drink. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is also the true vine. To know the truth one must walk in the light, eat of his body and blood, come to the Father through him and abide in him.[11] Crump writes, “John presents Jesus as the final revelation of God, who is himself God; the one against whom all claims to meaning and reality are to be evaluated.”[12]
The Spirit is also truth. Crump notes three aspects to the Spirit being defined as truth. First, the Spirit who comes from the Father is also God and therefore truth. Secondly, the Spirit continues the mission of Jesus, which was the proclamation of truth. Thirdly, the Spirit will lead disciples into the truth. The Spirit has come in the world to be an “advocate of heavenly reality in this world, advancing God’s case, as it were, and exposing, or at least condemning, all counterfeit claims to truth.[13]
From the above texts it is clear that the Gospel of John sets forth the Trinity as Truth. Truth as “conformity to fact” and “completion” have their foundation in the Godhead.[14] Roger Nicole understates this by writing, “The truth is called God’s truth for he has a stake in it.”[15] Indeed God has a stake in the truth because he is the truth! Herman Bavinck sums up the doctrine of God as truth:
It is therefore correct to see God as the metaphysical foundation for all truth.[17] He is truth, he is the standard of truth and he is all the final judge of truth and falsity. In other words God is the precondition for all truth since he is the Truth. God is the norm or criterion for all knowledge and truth.[18] Without God there would be no truth and truth would not be attainable by humanity. Truth is derivable and knowable because God is truth and he has revealed himself.
The Trinitarian nature of truth is founded upon the metaphysical aspect of the Godhead being truth. The Father is true, the Son is true and the Spirit is true. Therefore there exists a foundation in this postmodern world for truth. There is such a thing as objective truth!
[1] Geerhardus Vos. “True’ and ‘Truth’ in the Johannine Writings.” in Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos. Richard B. Gaffin Jr. ed.
[2] See John 3:31-32
[3] Truth Decay, 63
[4] cf. John 17:18 where the one who sent Christ is true and there is no falsehood in him.
[5] John 8:21-30 Pharisees are here questioning Jesus, they ask him who he is and where he is from. Jesus always goes back to his heavenly mission as one commissioned by the Father to proclaim the glory of the Father.
[6] to.n mo,non avlhqino.n qeo.n – The one true God, avlhqino.n stands in the attributive position in relation to qeo.n. Truth is attributed to God the Father.
[7] Crump writes, “As ultimate reality, God the Father is the only standard by which all truth or falsehood, light or darkness are measured in this world.” Crump, D. M. “Truth.” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, and
[8] Ibid.
[9] John 3:17; 4:34; 5:24, 30; 6:29; 8:25; 17:18; 20:21
[10] John 1:14, 17. John Frame writes, “Truth like knowledge and wisdom, comes by grace, by trinitarian communication, by Word and Spirit.” DKG, 49
[11] John 1:9; 6:32, 55; 14:6; 15:1 respectively
[12] Crump, “Truth.”
[13] Ibid. See John 14:16-17 for the Spirit as another helper, 15:26 to his testifying to Christ, 16:7-11 for his conviction of the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, 16:13 for guiding believers into the truth. See also P. D. Woodbridge. “Truth.” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology. T. Desmond Alexander and Brian S. Rosner. eds. electronic ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001.
[14] For truth being understood as conformity to fact and completion see Roger Nicole. “The Biblical Concept of Truth.” in Scripture and Truth. D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge. eds.
[15] Ibid, 294
[16] Bavinck, Herman. The Doctrine of God. William Hendriksen. trans.
[17] John Frame writes, “In the lordship attribute of authority, he is the very standard of truth for his creatures…There is no higher standard than God against which his truth may be measured. So God’s metaphysical ultimacy implies that he is the standard of prepositional truth.” In The Doctrine of God.
[18] Frame, DKG, 124
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