From the time we began to list virtues, humankind has put the highest price on the quality of truth. Under the names of sincerity, truthfulness, genuineness, transparency, honesty, and reality, this virtue is our most admired and most elusive. Our celebrities seem much more attractive when we read that they are "down to earth" or "genuine." The friends we value are the friends we trust to keep secrets and admire for being straightforward. Even our pets are made lovable to us by their fidelity and lack of guile. In our personal search after truthfulness, some of us endeavor to live by the highest standard we can find. But most of us, rather than agonize over sustaining perfectly upright behavior, have settled down to live by self-made standards, not absolute ones. We think that as long as we refrain from preaching a different kind of life to others, we cannot be hypocrites. Actually, no matter what standard we try to live by, we are unable to live a life of truth.
A Life of Pretense
We are not immune to hypocrisy simply because we stop trying to be perfect. It does not matter whether we try to keep the Ten Commandments as well as teach them, or just strive to be a genuine and unbiased friend—not one of us is capable of living a transparent life. We may accept that the world is a stage, but we are often consciously tired of playing so many parts to please so many people—our parents, colleagues, boss, teachers, pupils, friends, mentors, and policemen. In the attempt to be friends with everyone, we present a slightly different face to each person we encounter. We often lie to others to spare their feelings. We have a personalized standard of righteousness and fairness, but we unfairly judge others for coming short of our personal standard. We do all these things habitually. We live a compromising life in a complex society, justifying our many masks as part of being civilized.
No one likes to think of the masks they habitually wear or the white lies they tell. Of course we would rather be transparent, needing to hide nothing and pretend nothing. We long to have the same unbiased sympathy and open heart toward everyone. Indeed, we admire anyone who comes close to this ideal. So why is this life of truth so difficult for us to attain? There is a problem inherent in human nature. Our experience bears out that though we admire and aspire to truthfulness, we can never fully carry out our good intentions. The reason we are impotent to live a life of truth is that we are sinful. It is not just that we lie or pretend. It is that the element of sin dwells in us from the time we are born.1 No child has to be taught how to lie. No child has to learn from others that they can perform well in public but "let go" in private. This is because sin accompanies us from the cradle to the grave in our very flesh.2 This is why our search to live genuinely is always in vain.
The Only True One
The Bible tells us that truth and reality are in God Himself. The gospel of John describes the incarnated God, Jesus Christ, as being "full of grace and truth."3 As God, Jesus is truth.4 Jesus had the divine life contained within His human vessel. Therefore, He alone on the entire earth had the capacity to express the divine life and nature, through a human living that was absolutely transparent, righteous, fair, and truthful. He was without bias or preference: He neither revered powerful Pharisees who were hypocrites nor despised the outcasts of society.5 He was known as the friend of sinners. No one who knew Him could convict Him of sin.6 He genuinely expressed His emotion, whether anger, love, or sadness. Such a life was the expression of the divine life in Him that needed no mask and was incapable of falsehood. The testimony of all those who knew Him declares that Jesus lived a life of truth.
A Twofold Solution
Remarkable as this testimony is, Jesus did not live such a life just for Himself. He came so that we also could live a life of truth. The unique divine truth existed in God, but He did not keep it to Himself. Jesus' disciple John wrote, "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true".7 God incarnated Himself in His Son, so that we could see truth lived out in a human being. The truth is now in Jesus.8 Even more, this One who is both God and man knew that mankind could not be truthful or genuine. He knew well that our sinful nature made us impotent to live such a life. To take care of this problem He took all our hypocrisy, our lies, and even our sinful nature upon Himself, then died to pay the price of sin for us.9 God also knew that dealing with our past sins would not suffice: He had to put the true, divine life inside of us. He had to give us Himself as our inward life.10
Receiving the True Life
Once we receive His life, He indwells us, and we can then enjoy what He is as the embodiment of truth.11 Then the divine life becomes our human genuineness—our sincerity, honesty, and trustworthiness. This is not our own virtue, which is part of our old nature, but the living out of the unique life we have received. Bit by bit, our flawed life and nature is replaced by the highest nature there is—the life and nature of God Himself. By partaking of the divine nature we can gradually begin to express the God by whom we live, as Jesus did when He lived such a life on the earth.12
John wrote of Jesus Christ: "This is the true God and eternal life."13 God in Christ has already done everything to give His life to us. Now all we need to do is to receive Him, believing in Him. When we receive Jesus Christ as the God-man who redeemed us and saves us, He right away gives us the authority to become children of God.14 As God's children we receive His life as a free gift.15 This life, the divine life, is the same life Jesus had when living a life of truth on earth.
By becoming children of God with His life, we can "not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth, [and w]e shall know by this that we are of the truth."16 We can live a life of truth only by receiving and enjoying this One who is truth. When we receive Christ, we have within us the real, transparent, and genuine One. And He is able to live a life of truth through us. 
1 Romans 7:17, 20–23, First John 1:8. (back) 2 Romans 7:18. (back) 3 John 1:14 (NASB). (back) 4 John 14:6 (NASB). (back) 5 Luke 15:2, 11:39, 16:15. (back) 6 John 8:46. (back) 7 First John 5:20. (back) 8 Ephesians 4:21 (NASB). (back) 9 John 1:29; Second Corinthians 5:21. (back) 10 John 10:10; Romans 5:10; First Corinthians 15:45b; Colossians 3:4; Second Timothy 1:1; First John 5:11–12. (back) 11 Romans 8:9–10; Colossians 1:27. (back) 12 Second Peter 1:4. (back) 13 First John 5:20. (back) 14 John 1:12–13. (back) 15 Romans 6:23. (back) 16 First John 3:18–19 (NASB).
To receive the true life of God, revealed in the living of the God-man Jesus, simply pray the following:
"Lord Jesus, I confess that I need You. Forgive me for not living according to Your standard of truth. Thank You for dying on my behalf and taking away my sins. I receive You right now. From now on I want to live by Your true and eternal life."
