The innocence of our 8-year-old son recently took a serious hit. He has begun to pay more attention to television commercials. As he’s viewed the ads, he has slowly begun to realize that not everything they claim is true. Toys are never as exhilarating as the commercials portray. Tennis shoes never provide the excitement and cool-factor the advertising suggests. Recently, Wyatt said matter-of-factly, “Dad, they shouldn’t allow false advertising.”

We live in a world filled with false advertising. We’re immersed in sin, and one of sin’s effects is that we believe the lie instead of the truth (Romans 1:18-25). The gospel is God’s work to defeat the lie. More than merely a way to heaven, it’s God’s way to help us see what is true.

When we think of “truth,” facts typically come to mind. We think of information, propositions, specifics. These are all important, but Scripture first points to truth as a person. It is embodied in Jesus. In one of the multiple moments when Jesus’ disciples were perplexed by His teaching, Thomas asked, “We don’t know, Lord, . . . how can we know?” (John 14:5). In other words: How can we know what is true about all this?

Jesus replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He didn’t respond with a logical argument or a philosophical theorem. Jesus didn’t point to the disciples’ inner conscience or to their shared moral assumptions. He simply stood in front of them, pointed to Himself and, in essence, said, “This is where you discover truth.”

God has entered a world filled with lies and deceit in order to show us what is true, what we can know, and what we can trust. He’s given us Jesus.

NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Luke 14:15-35