Grace and Truth - Keep the Balance

So there I was on Monday after a late dinner, trying to stay awake to avoid heartburn and indigestion from eating at 11pm so I decided to turn on some Christian television. Hopefully I could not only stem the onslaught of indigestion, but also be encouraged and challenged at the same time. Much to my surprise, Pastor Brian Houston from Hillsong Church in Australia was on. Since I rarely catch him on TV, I was interested to hear what he was speaking about. The series he was teaching was called 'An Empowering Culture'. The specific segment he was speaking on dealt with the balance between grace and forgiveness & challenge and truth. This is a subject that is always near the top of my list so he immediately had my attention. As I begun to hear his teaching on the subject he spoke about how we can never allow ourselves to create an environment as leaders or in our individual lives that is out of balance in this area. We should never walk in all grace and forgiveness or all challenge and truth, but in a balance of the two. Now that sound like a tough balancing act, but it is exactly what Jesus walked in. With that in mind, let's take a closer look.

When John speaks of Jesus' coming to Earth, he says that the Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17 - NKJV). This does not discount God's law because clearly Jesus said that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17-19). What that shows us is that the truth would be brought to light through Him and that He would provide us the grace to walk in that truth. We must never come to the place of 'greasy grace' as a certain pastor I know often says, but we must also not be in the place of hellfire and condemnation for all either. Just as Jesus did, we dispense mercy, grace and forgiveness, but at the same time walk in an uncompromising standard of truth.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, it is essential to apply this not only to those we come in contact with, but in our own lives first. We must be able to receive grace and forgiveness to not be condemned, but at the same time walk in the uncompromised truth. So many in our society and even in the church today get the two areas out of balance. They want to have the freshly kindled fires of hell waiting for all of the trespassers or they want to say 'it's alright, God understands', never holding up a standard of truth. Imbalance in these two areas is not God's desire for us. He wants us to follow the example given to us by Jesus Christ. An incredible picture of this came when Jesus encountered the woman who was caught in adultery (John 8:1-11 - NKJV). As He stood up for this woman with grace and forgiveness, he was able to turn away her accusers and save her life, but I'm always intrigued by what he said to her as they parted ways: 'go and sin no more.' Funny that he didn't say, 'it's okay, I know you're going to sin again', 'do whatever feels right to you', 'do what your inner sense tells you' or any other type of statement that would justify her sin and wrong-doing. Instead, Jesus does what in our natural minds is unthinkable, he raises the banner of truth uncompromisingly during a time when many of us would think it was insensitive. I could hear the voices of today's society and political arena saying, 'can't you show some kindness', 'you don't know what she's been through', 'don't judge her', but the reality is, Jesus understand the balance between grace and forgiveness & challenge and truth. He knew that if he didn't challenge this woman to break the cycle, nothing would change. He knew she would be in the same broken, condemned, outcast state again if she didn't follow a new path. Her future was bright through his grace and forgiveness, but to receive it she needed to embrace the challenge to walk in truth. So that's just what Jesus did, dispensed grace and mercy freely while continuing to champion the cause of truth. This is what will bring true, lasting, world-changing fruit in our lives.

With our eyes fixed on Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith, let's embrace the grace and forgiveness that He's given us, but let's also receive the challenge that the truth of God's word brings into our lives so we can become all that we're called to be.