Salvation from the Negative Consequences of the Sin of Relativism

Within relativism, what's true to me might not be true to you and vice versa. A relativist would generally affirm the truth of the Christian faith to the Christian community while denying the truth of the Christian faith to non-Christians.

Part of the problem with this line of thinking is that in order to make this statement, the relativist must assume a vantage point from which he or she is able to make universal judgments about the Christian perspective (namely that it is only true to Christians). This is logically inconsistent and self-defeating.

If we say that truth is relative to multiples subjects (such as you and I and every other individual in the world), then truth becomes inherently contradictory. Truth claims can be both true and false at the same time. This results in the complete breakdown of meaning. Anything can be proven to be true if we affirm a single contradiction. Thus, if truth is relative to multiple subjects, then anything and everything is both true and false at the same time. Consequently, all propositions becoming meaningless.

Now, if there are those who want to hold to a position in which all things are meaningless, I suppose that’s their prerogative. But I think such people will find that they are not able to live consistently with such a belief.

A viable alternative is the Christian worldview. The Christian worldview sees truth as relative, but not as relative to multiple subjects. Within the Christian worldview, truth is relative to a single subject, namely the God of the Bible. God is all knowing. Thus, our knowledge is necessarily a subset of God’s knowledge. The knowledge of God as it is revealed in the Scriptures, therefore, becomes the standard against which all truth claims either stand or fall.

The incoherence of relativism, on the other hand, really corroborates the Christian position. From the perspective of the Apostle Paul, human beings naturally suppress the truth of God in our unrighteousness apart from a supernatural work of God in our lives (Romans 1:18ff). We are all naturally at enmity with God and seek to make our own rules and determine truth for ourselves rather than looking to Him to tell us how to live and what to think. Our tendency is to believe that man is the measure of all things. We want to be our own gods, make our own rules, and set our own priorities. But when we exalt our own wisdom over and against the wisdom of God, we really embrace of form of foolishness. This is the reason that those who deny the Word of God as the ultimate standard of truth, and instead embrace a relativistic view of truth, ultimately embrace a position with which they cannot consistently live and in which all things become meaningless.

This kind of logical inconsistency is one of the effects of the reign of sin in our lives. It is, therefore, part of the curse from which Christ came to save us. When we accept God’s revelation in the Scriptures as the ultimate standard of truth, we experience salvation from the negative consequences that come when we try to make it up ourselves. Jesus came to save us from the reign of sin in our lives. This includes sinful patterns of thinking and the effects of suppressing the truth.

Ultimately, I believe, we can only find true fulfillment and happiness only when we find our joy in Christ. We all have a Christ-shaped hole in our hearts. Yet we try to fill this hole with a variety of other things: Money, Power, Sex, you name it. But we will remain unfulfilled in an unquenchable quest for more until we find our satisfaction in Christ. And so I want to do what I can to point people to the only One in whom we can find satisfaction.