On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stood before the most reprobate, corrupt and dishonest organization in the world, and told them the truth from the floor of the United Nations. (I don't think he got the memo that they haven't allowed that sort of thing for some time now.) He called them to account for their silence when his people have been repeatedly threatened with genocide. And then, he took the most meaningful forty-seven seconds that I have ever witnessed in the UN podium. Prime Minister Netanyahu did not speak, but locked eyes with every calloused soul in the room who dared to engage his. For forty-seven heavy seconds the general assembly of the United Nations sat in a well-deserved and much needed humiliated silence, wilting in the face of the truth. We live in a world that has given itself so completely to evil, that we will not even acknowledge the most basic and unmistakable manifestations of truth. When Pilate questioned Jesus, he was also confronted with the truth. In John 18:37, Jesus said to him: "For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." In response, Pilate simply asked in the rhetorical: "What is truth?", then demonstrated the height of irony by going out to the people to ascertain their will. Pilate's method of dismissing the truth through a trendy philosophical loophole is still wildly popular today.
The Lord's response to every variation of man's attempt to excuse himself from acknowledgement of the truth has always and will always be the same. In John 8:31-32, Jesus said: "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This is really what repentance is all about. We have all sinned; we have deviated from the truth. The very first time in the garden of Eden, we asked ourselves "what is truth" and ate of the fruit. But, the Lord says that we "shall know the truth, and the truth shall make [us] free". One Greek word for "repent" that is used several times in the New Testament is "metanoeo". "Metanoeo" as defined by Strong's Concordance means: "to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider (mor. feel compunction)". Repentance is to come to a knowledge of the truth, and then to change and agree with the truth. You shouldn't expect any applause from our culture when you acknowledge the truth. What you should expect is freedom. And, whom the Son has set free is free indeed.