The Meaning

“God forbid: yea, let God be true but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.” - Romans 3:4

Let God and His word be the standard and governing authority as it pertains to truth and all things, and may all men seek to measure up.

There is no ‘my word against His word’ when we are talking about a holy God. He is no man’s equal, nor should He or His word be treated as such. Paul Washer said of God that “He is in a category all by Himself”. It is complete blasphemy and rebellion to suggest that ‘I believe this, and well God, he believes that’. As if God’s words and ways were on the same plan as ours, and therefore it is just a differing of opinion between us. He IS truth. Anything else other than what He says about anything is an absolute lie. " Psalms 12:6 reads, “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” So, when we examine what we say and do through the lens of the word of God we ought not to come out with, ‘Well I was partially right’ or ‘I almost got it’. God IS truth, He doesn’t operate in partial and almost. The scriptures that say that “God cannot be tempted with evil” indicate to us that there is no evil in Him, no impurity because the scriptures tell us that evil comes from within, from the heart, and makes its way out (See Lk. 6:45; Mt. 15:19-20). It cannot be said of Him that He is “mostly right”, or that He should have said or should have done something different. Whereas our words and ways are almost always less than pure. We produce speech that is nothing more than our judgments concerning the experiences both good and bad that we face in life. Filtered through our wants and desires, backed by our own will, based on an incomplete understanding, we then speak and move.

God IS true so that we can have someone (God) and something (His word) to measure up to. God is ….so that we can be. It is not God’s truth and then man’s truth, it is God’s truth and stance, and then mans response. We see this in John 3:16-18: God’s stance - “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” Man’s response -“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” The God who only operates in truth has with it set the parameters for man, whereby man cannot say I choose not to participate. Man will inevitably face His truth and be judged by it.

And yet still we proclaim, “Let God be true!” because only if He is true can we then have the assurance of eternal salvation, and hope for an inheritance amongst the saints.