Friday, September 9, 2016

Grace + Truth = A Christ-like Life

This Sunday I’m preaching on the first half on John chapter 1, focusing in on verse 14.  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  I am so captivated by this idea of Jesus being full of grace and truth.  It’s practically all I’ve been thinking about for the past week, and that’s not just because I’m preparing a sermon on it.  I keep asking myself “what does it mean for me to be full of grace and truth?”  I figure if I’m a Christian that means I am a follower of Jesus and I desire to learn from and emulate his exemplary life.  Therefore I think I need to be doing all I can to live a life full of grace and truth.

I think depending on our personalities we all tend to lean one direction or the other.  I’m a bit more of a truth guy myself.  Whatever the issue is I tend to hone in on what I think the truth of the matter is, often times without a lot of understanding or compassion.  I’ll never forget when I was getting my Masters many years back; I was in a class that was discussing crime in our society and I made the mistake of using the term “dirt bags” when referring to a lot of those people who contribute to our societal ills.  I got in a little trouble with the professor that day.  Thankfully I think I’ve grown a little since then.   A more graceful person would have wanted to understand more what has contributed to said “dirt bags” actions and how can we better help them.  Although a grace leaning person can sometimes go too far as well; often looking to excuse behaviors that are plain and simply wrong. 

Here’s something that’s probably a safe generalization.  When looking at the faults of others we tend to lean more towards truth, and when looking at the faults of ourselves we tend to lean more towards grace.  Back to Jesus; He was full of both.  He called people out for their sin and didn’t back down from that.  At the same time He was full of grace, offering forgiveness and a new way of life.  Perhaps we see His fullness of both truth and grace at its best in the account of the woman caught in adultery.  Jesus identified her sin as sin and told her to go and sin no more, but he also said he did not condemn her.


So how do we let the fullness of grace and truth play out in our own lives?  For those of us who profess the Christian faith I have at least one suggestion.  I think the Church would be far better off if we could learn to focus more on the core truths of our faith and show grace in all the rest.  By core truths I mean belief in the one true Triune God, that we are sinners and belief in Jesus Christ as the sole way to salvation, and belief in the bible as God’s word to mankind.  And that’s about it.  Everything else is secondary.  We can have great discussions about such things as inerrancy, end times, creation, Calvinism, fundamentalism, worship styles, miraculous gifts, faith in politics, sexuality, baptism, how we should share our faith, and more.  I also believe we should have well-formed opinions on such things based in our study of the scriptures.  But to be full of grace in these areas means that we accept that there are those who have studied the scriptures just as much if not more and have come to different conclusions than we have.  And when that happens we resist those judgments that come to mind, dismissing the other as a wacky fundamentalist or a liberal social gospel nut (to name just a couple).  We also seek to keep things civil and respectful in our conversations and especially in our social media dialogue. I say that preaching to myself.  It’s so easy sometimes to take a “tone” in the written language we use on Facebook.  Let’s remember the rest of the world is watching us.  We all need to ask ourselves “how am I coming across to others?”  The Church is a big tent with room for all types and we need to lead the way as Christians; holding consistently to our core truths and being full of grace in all the rest.