verily, verily

     (John 18:38) Pontius Pilate asks of Jesus, "What is truth?"

     The prelude to this question is such as to suggest that Jesus must give an account for Himself. However, that is not how it played out. Pilate wanted Jesus' explanation of why the Jews wanted Him dead. Jesus offered that He testified of the truth and claimed that all who are on the side of truth listen to Him. Apparently Jesus was inferring that the Jews were opposed to the truth, and therefore opposed to Him. He did not account for Himself, only for the evil against Him.
   
     (John 14:6) Jesus said to him, (Thomas), "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
    
     (John 8:32) Jesus says, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
    
     (John 8: 36) "Therefore if the son makes you free, you are free indeed."

     By Jesus' own testimony, we see that it is by the truth that we are set free. We also see that Jesus is the truth. Therefore the conclusion is that to get to the Father is to be set free, and this can only happen via Jesus.
     I think it is instinctual to man to seek to be free. I also think that it is inherent in man to be subordinant to something greater than himself. I further think that he will often confuse the two, and seek the truth with such zeal and purpose that when he stumbles upon freedom, he either doesn't recognize it or know what to do with it. Such is the human condition apart from Christ. The man apart from Christ, while desperately wanting freedom, can't handle the truth.
     When we go to church or enter into fellowship with other believers, we like to discuss truth. All to often, I fear, we settle on issues of truth we call doctrines, and satisfy ourselves that we have entered into truth. We examine relevent scriptures and teachings of the great minds of the age, and draw enlightened conclusions. We learn of new and better doctrines which supplant old favorites, and we experience epiphenies of understanding. We learn better and more intimate details about the nature and workings of our Father, so we surmise we have grown in the faith. We say, yes yes Jesus died for our sins so that we might be set free, but I understand more about our God now than the other guy, because my doctrine is right. My salvation is sure, but my worth does not meet up to my salvation, so I must go beyond the gospel to glory through sanctification. Ultimately, we become hooked on the narcotic of higher levels of achievement in faith and the treasures in Heaven we have heard of.
     By Christ's testimony we understand that there is only one way to the Father. Jesus. I think when we get this down we draw a subtley eroneous conclusion. Let me explain by asking a question. By the indisputable frankness of Christ's statement, don't we err by then believing there is only one way to Christ? Don't get me wrong. I am not endorsing any religion or sect of christianity that does not cling to the gospel. I feel that any church that does not worship Jesus Christ as the son of the living God, resurrected and ascended, has no claim on the way to Christ, much less the way to the Father. But among those who are true to the gospel, don't we see an abundance of approaches, each emphasizing selected doctrines and even religious practices? Isn't it so like each of us to then look with pitty or even scorn on those who do not adhere to our doctrines? Do we remember the religious leader who thanked God that he was not like the poor beggarly man beside him? Didn't he show the shallowness of his understanding of the grace and mercy of our God?
     I was raised in the Catholic church. After leaving the church I received the gospel anew in grace. However, I struggled for decades with my anger and frustration over my Catholic upbringing. I compared each new doctrine I received with the contrary doctrine of Catholics. Surely, they were a heresy and I had seen the light. In my drawing closer to God, I had seperated myself from my brothers and sisters in Christ over doctrinal issues. I've felt the same about almost all the protestant denominations. I had convinced myself that, " . . . wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few  who find it." (Matt. 7:13,14) And so I am still convinced of it with this concession; It is not me who knows who is on the right road. While I can refute from scripture some of the outward practices and religious observances of others, and maybe even hope to share my understanding of God through fellowship and testimony, I do not posess the ability to see into the heart of a man. I haven't lived what he has lived, been taught what he has been taught, been met by God in precisely the same way he has, so I cannot account for what he says or what he does in worship of God. Yet I know this, "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Rom. 10:9) I now am satisfied in receiving this testimony from any man, regardless of his religious affiliations. This is huge for me. I have sought the way to the father through Jesus Christ my whole life. My problem was I was looking for the right road to Jesus. I still cling to doctrines and have grown in my understanding of, and relationship with God, but am just now learning the scope of the love God fills me with.
     If by instinct we seek freedom, let us find freedom in the Father through Jesus Christ. He is the truth by which we are set free. Let us be free from subordination to any man or teaching of man. Let us be sure of our doctrines, willing to share them and live them. Let them be doctrines of love, mercy and grace. Let them not be doctrines of seperation of one from another, for it is God's place to judge such, not our own. Let us not be like Pontius Pilate and fail to recognize the truth when it was staring him in the face. Let us go by the way of truth into eternal life. Jesus, and only Jesus saves. every other revelation  is subordinate to this. I feel it is unprofitable to put the gospel in the place of a stepping stone to our union in glory with the father. It is profitable however, to put all glories aside, to lay down our crowns, and know that for our purposes and God's glory Jesus is all that is true. By this we are made free.