But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me.
—John 15:26
When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.
—John 16:13
God created man in His image—to become like Himself, capable of holding fellowship with Him in His glory. In the garden, two ways were presented to man for attaining this likeness to God. These were typified by the two trees—that of life and that of knowledge. God’s way was the former—through life, the knowledge and likeness of God would come.
By abiding in God’s will and partaking of God’s life, man would be perfected. In recommending the other, Satan assured man that knowledge was the one thing to be desired to make us like God. When man chose the light of knowledge above the life of obedience, he entered the path that leads to death. The desire to know became his greatest temptation.
Under the power of this deceit that promises happiness in knowledge, the human race is still led astray. This lie shows its power most terribly in God’s own revelation of Himself. Even when the Word of God is accepted, the wisdom of the world and of the flesh always enters in. Even spiritual truth is robbed of its power when held, not in the Spirit, but in the wisdom of man.
When truth enters into our heart, it may reach only the outer parts of the soul, the intellect, and the reason. It pleases our minds and satisfies us with the imagination that it will exercise its influence. However, its power is nothing more than that of human argument and wisdom that never reach to the true life of the spirit.
There is a truth of the understanding and feelings that is only the human image, the shadow of divine truth. There is a truth that is substance and reality, communicating the life of the things that others only think and speak. The truth in shadow, in form and in thought, was all the Jewish law could give. The truth of substance, of divine life, was what Jesus brought as the only begotten Son, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He is Himself the Truth.