What Is The Truth ? By: W. Wolston
Little did Pilate realise the momentousness of the question he so lightly put to our Lord. As little did he know the import of the previous words of Christ, "every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." Solemn, too, is it to think that the truth may be known to a certain extent intellectually, and professed vaguely to a still greater extent, yet be unknown in the heart and to the conscience. To profess the truth is not necessarily to be of the truth; in order to this we must be begotten of God by the word of truth (James 1:18): it is an effectual and abiding work of the Spirit. Ordinances have their place, but have nothing to do with the communication of life. As "he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God;" so with true Christianity, and with baptism. Outward rites have nothing whatever to do with the communication or with the sustenance of life; to think so is to mistake their object and use. Life is exclusively by the word of God, in the power of the Spirit; "thy word hath quickened me." The process is not an external and mechanical one, it is a moral one dealing with the heart and conscience. It is the voice of Christ within, a still small voice, it may be, speaking within and to the conscience, but with a power and effect peculiar to itself; "even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." It is Christ who quickens the soul, by the word instrumentally, and by the Spirit mediately.