Grace and Truth
I’m thinking about grace and truth because I think it’s important. It’s important if we’re to be people who encourage one another to live lives worthy of God without becoming religious or judgmental. It’s really important if we’re to be a safe space for people from all walks of life to discover Jesus and become lifelong followers of him. And it’s really important because I think we often get grace and truth wrong.
The problem is that it often gets defined too narrowly. Truth gets reduced to telling people that what they’re doing is wrong while grace becomes a synonym for leniency. This makes grace and truth mutually exclusive and impossible to be embodied in one person. A broader view is needed.
John loved the word truth and made it a theme of his gospel and letters. We discover that Jesus is the truth who reveals the reality about God, his work and his ways (John 14:6). To know the truth is not simply to realise the mistakes we’ve made but to be invited into a personal relationship with Jesus which leads to freedom and fullness of life (John 8:31-32).
Grace is the way God chooses (Rom 11:5), calls (Gal 1:15), forgives (Gal 1:7), saves (Acts 15:11), builds up (Acts 20:32) and gives eternal hope (Titus 3:7). It’s by grace that God enables us to believe (Acts 11:23), serve (Rom 12:6), be generous (2 Cor 8:7) and persevere (2 Cor 12:9). Where sin increases, grace increases more (Rom 5:21). And it’s also the way God calls us to a holy life (2 Tim 1:9). No wonder we often sing about amazing grace!
Can you see that grace and truth are not mutually exclusive. Truth reveals the grand story God is telling and grace enables us to join in with it. Grace and truth are therefore powerful partners for life change.
It’s something I think I got to see in my teens. I grew up in a Christian home but ran in the opposite direction. My parents either knew or assumed what I was up to but rarely confronted me. Instead, they consistently modelled a better way to live and allowed home to be a place where I knew I was unconditionally loved and accepted. I also think they prayed a whole lot behind the scenes! It seems to me that what they did was create an environment of grace that encouraged me towards the truth their lives revealed.
I’m not exactly sure what this looks like for us or where it ends up. But can I invite us on a journey as we reach out and encourage one another to grow. Let’s be a church that seeks to reveal truth with our whole lives and that creates an environment where God is welcome to work in the fullest expression of his grace.
Simon
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