"Quid Est Veritas?"

John 1:1–5

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it..."

I would like to start the year with the latest verses from the Living Life devotional and keep my ideas on the book of Lamentations for next week. 2015 started with the Gospel of St. John. John's Gospel is different from the Synoptics in that the apostle John wrote this later and that it abounds in theological principles on the divine nature more than just the character and the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and more than simply history or reporting of events. I like that St. John in the very first verses introduced our Lord as the Logos, the Greek word from which we get "logic", "-logy". This is very significant. The laws of logic are used to determine, generally, the truth of propositions/claims. Everyone recognizes these normative laws as universal and necessary (except perhaps those post-modern relativists who usually undercut themselves by denying objective truth). Naturalism can't account for truth and the laws of logic, these can only proceed from the mind of God, as morality is confluent in His character. Isn't it amazing how the Lord is Reason Himself? Too bad Pilate, in his seemingly incredulous cynicism retorted, "Quid est Veritas?" ("What is Truth?"), and with that he walked away (John 18:38) not wanting to hear an answer. What can we glean from this and the verses that followed? Here are some ideas: Jesus is eternal (v.1a), Jesus was with God prior to coming to earth (v.1b), Jesus is God (v.1c), Jesus is Creator (v.3), Jesus is the Giver of Life (v.4), Jesus became human to live among us (v.14). But more than just a personification of the Hellenistic philosophical ideal (the prevailing culture of those times), Jesus is the Word of God, Who Himself claimed to be the Truth and not only that, He is also the Way and the Life —from where we can ultimately get our purpose and the very fulfillment of our existence.

Psalm 119:159–160

"Consider how I love Your precepts! Give me life according to Your steadfast love. The sum of Your Word is Truth, and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever."

*Fun Trivia: Some people like the word play of the Latin phrase used in the Vulgate Bible (St. Jerome, 400 A.D.) of John 18:38: "Quid Est Veritas?" They make it anagrammatic into "Est Vir Qui Adest" What they meant by doing this is that when Pilate asked "What is Truth?" the answer is in his question itself as a Latin anagram: "It is the Man Who is here." Woo woo Da Vinci Code! Hahaha :D

~07.01.2015