«　WEEK 2　DAY 2　»

　　John 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

　　36 If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

　　17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

　　The first function of the truth is to set us free. To be deprived of the truth is to be in bondage, in slavery, but to know the truth is to be released from slavery, to be freed. The second function of the truth is seen in John 17:17….On the one hand, the truth sets us free; on the other hand, it sanctifies us. It causes us to be saturated with the element of God. It is a very significant matter to have the truth, for it frees us from all negative things and saturates us with the divine element…. Eventually, the truth will cause us to be thoroughly sanctified and transformed. Hallelujah for the functions of the truth! (CWWL, 1978, vol. 3, “Truth Messages,” pp. 296-297)

　　The truth that sanctifies us for oneness involves the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of reality, and the word of the Father. Therefore, all three of the Triune God are related to the truth. The Lord Jesus, the Son, is the truth; the Spirit is the Spirit of truth; and the Father’s word is truth. In the New Testament, especially in the Gospel of John, truth does not mean doctrine; it means the reality of the Triune God.

　　Because the Father’s word is His expression, and because His word is truth, truth is the expression of the Father. We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that the Bible is not merely a book but a word that expresses God…. Every time I come to the Word, I have the sense deep within that I am coming to God Himself, and not to a hidden God or a concealed God, but to the God who is expressed. By means of the Bible I can meet with God, talk to Him, and listen to Him.

　　Christ, the Son, is also the truth….The Father’s word is the Son, who is the expression of God. Many Christian teachers have rightly said that the Bible is the written Word and that the Son is the living Word. I agree with this. The Bible is the word without, and the Son is the word within. But these two, the outer word and the inner word, are one. All this is realized through God the Spirit….The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit of reality. The Spirit is the realization of the Son as the embodiment of the Father. Therefore, the Spirit is the reality. The Spirit is also the word. John 6:63 says that the Lord’s word is spirit, and Ephesians 6:17 says that the Spirit is the word. Hallelujah, we have the Word without and the Spirit within!

　　Whenever we come to the Word with an open heart and an open spirit, we immediately touch both the Word and the Spirit as the truth. I can testify that every time I open my heart and spirit as I come to the Bible, I meet God….Two or three times every day we need to come to the Word. It is rather difficult to come to the Lord as the Spirit apart from the Word….What a wonderful instrument the Word is for contacting the Lord! When we are disappointed or depressed, feeling empty within, we can open ourselves and come to the Word. After reading for a while, something within us rises up, and we enjoy the presence of the Lord. This is the experience of the truth, the reality. It is the Triune God in His word being imparted into our being.

　　The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is one with the word. When we touch the Word, we also touch the Spirit. Then something is infused into our inner being. Whatever is infused into us in this way is the truth. Although this involves the acquisition of biblical knowledge, there is something living inside this knowledge. This is the Triune God realized by us and transfused into us through the word. This is not merely the word. It is the word mingled and saturated with the Triune God and infused into our being. This is the truth that sets us free and sanctifies us. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 3, “Truth Messages,” pp. 325-327)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1978, vol. 3, “Truth Messages,” ch. 1