Last Sunday I preached on Grace and Truth the real balance. I think if there is any area that the church and people can get unbalanced in, it is this subject. We can either side with grace in which we get this picture of God as a nice a cudly Granfather figure or we side with truth in which God becomes angry and always ready to strike us down. We look at God through these lenses, it affects who we are, how we live and how we treat other people. John 1:14 says that Jesus came to this world full of Grace and Truth. Jesus wasn't just full of one or the other. He was full of both. At times Jesus showed grace and other times He showed truth. John 8 is a great example of how Jesus showed both in one situation when there was a women who was caught in adultery. Jesus showed the woman grace by telling her that He did not condemn her but He also pointed her to truth by telling her to go and sin no more. Jesus first showed grace in order to point her to truth.
In our culture, we need to show people grace in order to point them to truth. People don't care what we have to say unless they know that we first care. The only way we can do this is by building relationships with those that need both grace and truth. If you are a parent, it means building that relationship with your child. If you are teacher, it means building that relationship with that student. If you have a person that you want to reach for Christ, it means building that relationship with that person no matter their lifestyle or opinions are. Let us learn how to show grace so that we can point people to truth. Remember it's not one or the other, it is both. Go walk in grace and truth!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comments:
That was a wonderful sermon on Sunday, Pastor. I think in today's post-modern world, we like to try and include everyone, you know, each person on their own faith journey. We offer grace in the hopes that people will see God in our grace and come to know Him in a deeper, more full way. That isn't likely to happen if we aren't offering Truth with that grace. What we really need to do is love people as we love ourselves- even more, actually. We forgive them as God forgave us, but also offer what we know to be true of God- not just saying it, but living it out.
God Bless You, Pastor!
Post a Comment