GRACE & TRUTH WALKS HAND IN HAND
I sat down one day and listened to a preacher that was being interviewed on a Christian talk-show. The preacher spoke on the passage of scripture in the book of John where it says “Jesus was full of grace and truth” in John chapter 1. Sadly, I was very disappointed when the preacher said “we have preached “grace” long enough, but we have forgotten about “truth”. This he said to make a point, that it is now time to preach truth rather than grace.
My question is, what is truth without grace? Is there any truth without grace? In fact the scripture points out a distinction between the truth of the law that was given by Moses, and the grace and truth that came by Jesus (John 1:17) I totally disagree that we have preached grace enough, and I totally disagree that we have forgotten about truth. In fact, we can not preach enough of grace - more grace equals more Jesus.
When Jesus rebuked the religious leaders saying “Woe unto you… hypocrites” in Matthew 23, he said that they were full of extortion and self-indulgence. Why? Because they had preached the truth of the law, but neglected the weightier matters such as justice, mercy and faith. John 1:17 "... grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"
WHAT TRUTH?
Grace and truth in this verse are synonymous terms, you can not touch truth without touching grace. You are probably familiar with the famous scripture where Jesus said “you will know the truth and the truth will make you free”, but what is that truth? What truth is Jesus talking about? Grace is that truth, that sets you free. Jesus had a moment earlier told the pharisees “he that is without sin, cast the first stone”. He had moments earlier told the adulterous woman “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more”. In this story you see a perfect cooperation between grace and truth, and later on Jesus told the Jews which believed in him “if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” The truth Jesus was talking about, was the truth and revelation about His grace. With other words, if you want to live in freedom and truth, you got to have a revelation of God’s grace. Now, Jesus could have told the adulterous woman “go and sin no more” and never have mentioned anything about grace, and she would have left his presence and fell right back into sin. Grace is therefore our very empowerment to live holy (Tit. 2:11-12).
GRACE IS A PERSON
Grace is not a curriculum or a subject, grace is a person: John 1:14, 16-17 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” The very glory of Jesus was his grace, and the gracious works that he performed. Grace is a person - Jesus Christ. Gracious is who He is! Grace is His very character, and if any man preaches truth without grace, he is not preaching Jesus. You can not preach a half Jesus, you have to preach Him fully! To say that we have preached grace long enough, and that it is now time to preach truth, is like saying that we now ought to stop preaching the fullness of Jesus! In fact, Jesus full of grace and truth, was the express image of God's person (Hebr. 1:3) Jesus was full of grace and truth, this verse states that you can not take truth out of grace, and grace out of truth - they walk hand in hand. Jesus is the truth, but at the same time He’s grace. A gospel without grace is no gospel at all (Luke 4:22 “marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth”)
A GOSPEL WITHOUT GRACE IS NO GOSPEL AT ALL
Paul said in the book of Galatians that if anyone preaches another gospel than what he preached, (the gospel of grace), let him be accursed. You can see how Paul opens up his letters with “grace to you”. Grace was the very core of his message, and really to preach Jesus without grace is no Jesus at all. Paul said in the book of Ephesians, that if our message doesn’t impart grace to the hearers, our words is corruption. You can see that there was a conflict in the church in Acts 15 where a group of people wanted to add on tradition, religious rituals and so called “yokes” to the gospel of grace. It’s the same today, people want to water down the greatness of his grace by adding things to it, that we must do better in order to live in God’s favor. There’s one problem with adding things to the gospel, and that is, that it only leads to abounding sin (Rom. 5:20 “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,”) Grace instead, gives you a gratitude to God, and in pure thankfulness you want to live right. By adding things to the gospel of grace, fear gets involved. Fears of not pleasing God, being a good Christian etc. The apostle John said “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
