Jesus said of Himself that He was the way, the truth, and the life in John 14:6. This means that Jesus was the personification of truth, incarnate truth. When you and I are Christ-like in our walk, we personify truth. The flip side of that is when our walk is non-Christ-like we personify – the lie. In other words we express by our walk that we can make it in this life without faith in Christ. When I was typing the word life in the last sentence, I accidentally left off the letter "f," spelling the word lie instead of life. Well that got me to thinking.
If we use the word life as an acronym describing the believer’s walk – Living In Faith Expressions, and we drop the letter “f”; we wind up with the word, lie. Ironically this describes what we are actually doing when we don’t live by faith; we are living the lie. Are we living the Life or living the lie? The lie is anything in opposition to the principles of God. Either behavior sends a message to those in our concentric circles of influence.
If we use the word life as an acronym describing the believer’s walk – Living In Faith Expressions, and we drop the letter “f”; we wind up with the word, lie. Ironically this describes what we are actually doing when we don’t live by faith; we are living the lie. Are we living the Life or living the lie? The lie is anything in opposition to the principles of God. Either behavior sends a message to those in our concentric circles of influence.
Christ-likeness is not a limited theology of a mere belief in God and the Good Book or good intentions or some home spun wisdom (a mixture of Bible verses and life’s experiences that blend together as well as oil and water). This latter one is concerning because good people get caught up in this deception because they have a tendency to take Scripture out of context and place greater emphasis on experience.
This is particularly evident among some of the older believers (45+) whose theology is 99% oral (what they’ve heard) and 1% read (studied, researched, and meditated upon) for themselves. Their mentality is set – “Well, I’ve gotten by this far in life so I must be doing something right; if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
I have witnessed this time and again over my Christian life when people with this kind of attitude are exposed to non-contaminated biblical truth their philosophical and theological cage begins to shake and rattle as if in an earthquake. The apple cart has been disturbed and on the verge of turning over. They are uncomfortable and want to skedaddle. They quickly reject what they don't understand because their world is getting rocked; instead of meditating on what was said, it is easier to simply get mad - "Who does he think he is!" The light of the Word either draws people to the truth or they head for the hills. It’s an either or situation.
This is particularly evident among some of the older believers (45+) whose theology is 99% oral (what they’ve heard) and 1% read (studied, researched, and meditated upon) for themselves. Their mentality is set – “Well, I’ve gotten by this far in life so I must be doing something right; if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
I have witnessed this time and again over my Christian life when people with this kind of attitude are exposed to non-contaminated biblical truth their philosophical and theological cage begins to shake and rattle as if in an earthquake. The apple cart has been disturbed and on the verge of turning over. They are uncomfortable and want to skedaddle. They quickly reject what they don't understand because their world is getting rocked; instead of meditating on what was said, it is easier to simply get mad - "Who does he think he is!" The light of the Word either draws people to the truth or they head for the hills. It’s an either or situation.
Grace and truth can get so convoluted today because we live in a culture that is increasingly embracing a neo-pagan philosophy of truth – truth is what we make of it. Such an opinion rejects the authority of the Bible because the Word of God represents absolute truth which is counter to the popular notion that truth is relative. Absolute truth declares that man’s actions are accountable to God. Moral relativity answers only to self. As believers in Jesus Christ we are to submit to His authority as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Grace and truth are fractured when believers fail to submit to God’s authority. Rebellion is nothing more than a love problem toward God. We will talk more about the love walk in a moment.
In John 1:14 we read,
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 [charis, G5485] and truth [aletheia, G225] (Italics added).
From a biblical perspective, let me ask you two questions.
(1) What is grace? The unmerited favor of God toward man (cf. Jn 1:17). Don't lose the profoundness in its simplicity. Grace became available to us at a terrible price - the death of God's only begotten Son on the cross (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8). In our study we went back to the first appearance of the word grace in the antediluvian (before the flood) civilization in Gen 6:8 three weeks ago,
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
and discovered the power of grace illustrated in Noah’s life. We learned that man is accountable for his actions. Apart from grace, hell would be real for every man, woman, and child. The greatest threat to unregenerate man is and has always been the holiness of God. God will hold men accountable for their sin, unless grace is sought. Grace in Noah's day shone like a star in a coal colored universe. But only eight saw the light of grace. It is imperative that we be a people of grace and truth to convince people to flee the wrath to come, and it will come. But in so doing we must never show grace at the expense of truth. Jesus never did and neither should we.
(2) What is truth? Jesus is incarnate (clothed in flesh) truth (Jn 14:6). The Word is truth.
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth (Jn 17:17) .
The antonym of truth is antichrist, falsehood, untruth.
Last week we discussed the trustworthiness of Scripture and what made it unique among all the books of the world in 2 Tim 3:16-17 and 2 Pet 1:20-21.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
2Ti 3:17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
All Scripture is literally God breathed or inspired of God. Scripture is not a work of man but a work of God through man. The actual process of inspiration remains a mystery, but it also remains an absolute fact.
- Verbal inspiration means the words originally written by the forty or more writers were God breathed (cf. 1 Cor 2:13). The very words were given by the Holy Spirit.
- Plenary inspiration means Genesis to Revelation and Matthew to Revelation are God-given.
- Inerrancy means that the original autographs (not translations) are totally without error in every area of life.
The Bible is our guide to salvation and godly living. It is our road map to Christ-likeness. It is completely reliable, completely trustworthy.
2Pe 1:20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
2Pe 1:21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
How else can we know God apart from special revelation or inscripturated (written) revelation? How can we know about God’s love, the way of salvation, the principles of God to live by without a road map, a moral compass? Nature tells us nothing concerning these things. We are not biblicist, people who worship the Bible, but we do worship the God who revealed Himself to us in the Holy Writ. Because the Bible is absolutely trustworthy, we embrace it as the absolute authority on all matters of faith and practice. It is and should be for every believer the rule of life.
We are on our last installment of the grace and truth paradox. We have been a running a parallel course with Randy Alcorn on this subject matter for three weeks now. Again a paradox is two truths that look on the surface to be conflicting when in reality are compatible after a closer examination. This is how grace and truth are viewed. When we refer to the person of Christ being full of grace and truth there is no paradox. We when talk about the abstract concepts of grace and truth hammered out in the routine of life it has the perspective of a paradox. Either that or we made it into a paradox through abuse of the terminology with our personal agendas. Bad theology can make such a wretched mess of things.
Unfortunately, misguided folks have created a gap between these two great truths with their rhetoric and behavior causing unnecessary division among believers. This morning our objective is to prevent grace and truth from separating in our lives. When this happens, grace will no longer be biblical grace and truth will no longer be biblical truth in our lives. We definitely want to keep them connected together and not cause a breach for the byproduct will always be non-Christ-like behavior.
Over the course of our discussion, we have repeated this truth multiple times that Jesus never displayed unmerited kindness or favor (grace) at the expense of the truth; it would contradict His immutable nature. God is also (agape) love (1 Jn 4:8, 16). This kind of love is alien to the human framework. The source of this love argues that agape love has higher standards foreign to human love. As grace is according to truth, so is agape love according to truth. Both share the same standard of Divine truth.
The reason grace and truth ever get separated at all is due to the sin of ignorance and self-will. We talked about that last week how ignorance plays havoc with the spiritual health of the kingdom of God on earth. We are all ignorant of Scripture to various degrees; we will learn until we die. The self-inflicted kind of ignorance, however, is dangerous and divisive when driven by personal agendas.
Ignorance is considered here as intentional, laziness, undisciplined, excusive, and an unwillingness to spend time in God’s Word by reading (Jos 1:8), searching (Acts 17:11), studying (2 Tim 2:15, KJV), meditating (Psa 1:2), renewing the mind (Rom 12:2), and applying the truth of God’s Word to everyday life (1 Cor 10:31; Jas 2:26). So many of God’s people struggle with simply carrying their Bibles to church. They are either lazy or afraid somebody might see them with a Bible in their hand as if they are ashamed of it (Rom 1:16, 2 Tim 1:12). Many just want to come to church, get their ears tickled, and be spoon fed spiritual pablum all of their days. Christ-likeness, on the other hand, comes through hard work and a life long process. It makes you wonder if people want the label of Christian but not Christ-like....
Should a connect group leader or pastor say something they don’t like whenever it is convenient for them to attend church, they get mad and leave. The only effort by this group of evangelicals these days is keeping from falling asleep, looking as if interested, or trying to listen; I guess looking spiritual is effort, too. Most claim not to have time for Bible study. When they get home from work all they want to do is decompress and go brain dead through some worldly entertainment. Busyness (work or pleasure) has become the god of modern man. Often the excuse is time. I guess they should get a star for at least attending church, and two stars if they attend a connect group. Obviously, I am being sarcastic, but can’t teachers of the truth have a point of view, too?
Why are people so afraid of praying in public, reading the Bible in public, carrying their Bible in public, standing up for the truth in public (Naturally you can’t take a stand on ignorance, and he that stands for nothing falls for anything.), or being a public witness for Christ? What's up with that?
You may not agree with me on this point, and that’s okay (I’ll pray for you), but please bear with me on this; I only mean this for good. I believe good people are treating self-esteem as an idol. I know that sounds crazy and silly. But look how much homage we pay to it! We will throw everything under the bus for self-esteem. What does driving the right car, wearing the right clothes, and being properly educated have to do with the decision on attending a church or not? “They are too rich for my blood” or “They are a bunch of hicks.” Take an inventory of things you won’t do because of your self-esteem. Cliques form by matching up self-esteems; kind attracts kind. White collar, blue collar, and dog collar gravitate to its own kind of self-esteem needs. I am not telling you where I “fit” in, ruff ruff.
There is another word for self-esteem, pride; there’s nothing good said about pride in the Bible (Prov 16:18). Pray to God we don’t make our Father’s house (figuratively speaking of the local church) a den of self-esteem. If that continues to happen, and I certainly am not exaggerating here; it is happening; grace and truth will not be there in that assembly, and there will come a time when the Lord will turn the tables on that congregation. The words of John are an appropriate warning,
Little children, keep yourselves from idols (1Jn 5:21).
Remember, an idol can be anything that competes for the will of God for your life. It doesn’t have to be some deaf, dumb, and dead idol figurine made of wood, stone, or metal. I know this all comes across as very opinionated, but I am truly concerned where this elevated level of self-esteem is headed in the kingdom of God, and how it is shaping behavior in the churches. If it is that obvious in church, we can only imagine to what level its rising outside the walls of the sanctuary. Perhaps this is the natural byproduct of the ascendancy of humanism in our culture. The focus is on human feelings, not holiness before God. One thing I do know, it is not of the Lord for it smacks of fleshy. Pride can drive a wedge between grace and truth, and we should be aware of it. Political correctness doesn’t belong in the church; wisdom from on high does.
Grace is according to the knowledge of truth. Unmerited favor applies the principle of God’s Word and does not compromise His standards. So if people are ignorant of the truth how can they be like Christ and show grace without compromising the truth? How can a person ignorant of the truth show grace and know if he or she has compromised the truth or not, or if it really matters?
If the Bible is not the rule of our life, our absolute authority in all matters of faith and practice, we will split grace and truth wide open; we will never be a people of grace and truth in the biblical sense of either term. Biblical grace ain’t grace without truth.
How do we measure or calibrate our grace if we are ignorant to the truth? If our grace is running on ignorance, then it is not biblical grace. If our love for others is not based on the truth of God’s Word, it is not agape love but a natural love. Often acts of natural love or our “love” walk have been mistaken for agape love; agape love never compromises the truth (I sound like a broken record, don’t I?).
Natural love and supernatural love have similarities, but they are not one and the same. Agape love only enters the heart of man through regeneration.
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured (floods, Moffatt) out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Rom 5:5).
Agape love cannot be expressed by the flesh; the flesh can only produce a cheap imitation. There is cheap grace (according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer), but there is cheap love as well. Expressions of agape love require the assistance of the Holy Spirit living within the heart. In other words, the natural man (without Christ) cannot display agape love, only natural, fleshy love. Because God’s love floods our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, we don’t ask God to put love into our hearts; it is already there in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Rather, we are to let agape love out, to escape with a purpose!
So we got a mess on our hands when the Bible is not the rule of life, making life decisions that are not biblically based. One side gets all warm, mushy, and lovey with grace; the other side gets cold, hard, and legal with truth. Some bail out altogether out of frustration and hurt. How do we keep from separating them? And how do we strike a balance with grace and truth in our own life?
The answer will seem obvious, but I think we will discover that it will become obvious very quickly that we aren’t doing the obvious - in love with God.
Do you know what the prime directive of all of Scripture is? Before you answer, consider this. Everything else pales to this command; everything is predicated on this command! Is the very reason we desire to glorify God in all that we do. It is the greatest of all commands. Do you know?
What is the second greatest command?
What is the greatest verb?
A Must Read: Mt 22:34-40 and Mk 12:28-34
The prime directive of all Scripture is to love God with the whole heart. Jesus said the second command is liken to it, to love our neighbor as our self.
This love toward God is qualified – with all the heart
This love toward others is qualified – as we love ourselves
The heart involves our cognition, emotions, and our volition. Another way of saying it is our intellect, emotions, and will. What one preacher used to call it: our thinker, our feeler, and our chooser. We are to love God with all of our intellect, all of our emotions, and with all of our will. There is no authority on what order there should be, but in my opinion, it makes sense if the emphasis is the thinker, feeler, and chooser. Someone once described the thinker and feeler as a cart being pulled by a mule, the chooser. Thinker and feeler doesn’t go anywhere without the chooser. I can think and feel all I want, but Beverly will wind up deciding; that’s a blond for you. Oh, I am not suggesting she’s the mule either….
Grace and truth separate in our lives when we don’t love God with all of our heart. The root cause of the grace and truth split today is actually a love problem with God. Something else is moving in on the affections and desires. When this happens the Word of God is not the rule of our life in all matters of faith and practice. Listen, when the prime directive goes south, everything spiritual begins to go south.
Satan’s strategy is to undermine the authority of God in the life of believers. The best way to do that is to find a way to separate us from the Word of God. The only way we can show our love for God is our love response to His Word (Jn 14:15). We obey His Word because we love Him. It is the fruit of our love for God. When we stop living according to His commandments, there is a love problem. We need to be submitted and committed to the Word of God (cf. Psa 119:1-176 for a proper attitude toward God’s Word). With human relationships both sides share a measure of blame. But with our relationship with God, the blame is always one sided – us.
When we love God with all our intellect, emotions, and will or with all our heart, we love others by allowing the love of God flooded in our heart by the Holy Spirit at regeneration to over flow. Submitting to the authority of Scriptures is our love response to God where we glorify Him in all that we say or do. When we take our focus off of God, one of three things usually happens.
(1) We allow our intellect to dominate, and there is a tendency to be like the truth group: cold, hard, and legalistic.
(2) We permit our emotions to rule, and there is a propensity to be like the grace group: warm, mushy, and anything goes.
(3) The thinker, the feeler, and the chooser go secular.
It is not about a percentage of how much of either one is to be utilized in decision making. I don’t think anyone has the answer to that, but all must be engaged; all are involved. When we love God with the whole heart, all of life’s decisions have His viewpoint and His glory in mind. The love for God with all of our heart is the bridge of grace and truth.
I think it fair to allow Randy to throw in some closing thoughts on the paradox of grace and truth.
Any concept of grace that makes us feel more comfortable about sinning is not biblical grace. It’s what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace. Cheap grace is grace without truth – a ticket to heaven without any of the demands of living as Jesus’ disciple. Genuine grace never encourages us to live in sin; on the contrary, it empowers us to say no to sin and yes to truth (Randy Alcorn, The Grace and Truth Paradox, MasterWork, Spring 2011, LifeWay, pp. 54-55).
If we minimize grace, the world sees no hope for salvation. If we minimize truth, the world sees no need for salvation. To show Jesus to the world, we must offer unabridged grace and truth, emphasizing both, apologizing for neither. No one offered grace and truth like Jesus (Ibid., p. 55).
And when we are Christ-like, we will offer grace and truth like our Lord. Love is the bridge of grace and truth.
And when we are Christ-like, we will offer grace and truth like our Lord. Love is the bridge of grace and truth.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1Cor 13:13). <><
Post Script
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
(Original text by Robert Robinson 1735 - 1790)
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.
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 (Jn 1:14).
I received an email after this posted from a sister in Christ, Phyllis Ruch, who loves to read about the grace of God. She reminded of an acronym that I wanted to include in this blog but had overlooked it. Thank you, Phyllis, for reminding me of the beauty of this grace statement,
I received an email after this posted from a sister in Christ, Phyllis Ruch, who loves to read about the grace of God. She reminded of an acronym that I wanted to include in this blog but had overlooked it. Thank you, Phyllis, for reminding me of the beauty of this grace statement,
God's Riches At Christ's Expense.
