Grace and Truth
“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1: 14 NIV).
I have read somewhere (it might have been in J.I. Packer’s book ‘Fundamentalism and the Word of God’) that grace and truth were synonymous with generosity and orthodoxy. We walk with Christ in both grace and truth or generosity and orthodoxy. Leave either one out and you don’t have the full sense of who Jesus is, what He taught, and how He calls us to live. Whoever called it generosity and orthodoxy also wrote “generosity without orthodoxy is nothing; orthodoxy without generosity is worse than nothing”. Powerful words, recalling Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 13 that without love we are nothing.
We all like the grace part. And it really is very incredible. But I wonder if we have let ourselves off the hook too easily as we fall back on ‘grace’. The fact is, and I have come to see this more and more as I have been writing this blog, the Christian life, if we live it as Jesus commands, it not an easy life. It is not a comfortable life. It challenges us and stretches us in ways that most of us don’t like. Frankly, it offends us. On every page in Scripture Jesus clobbers us and tells us that He expects us to live up to a standard that we just don’t think we can achieve. One way around this is to say “He is speaking metaphorically. He doesn’t really mean that”, or “I am ‘saved’. I don’t have to take what He says too seriously”.
What does Jesus mean when He says “Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me” or “Instead whoever wants to be become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all“, speaking to James and John about their place in the Kingdom of God. Or, what about this “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
The cross is a place of death. I don’t think Jesus is telling us literally to allow ourselves to be nailed to a real cross. But He is calling us to death everyday, the death of self — including death to addictions, pride, hate, selfishness, and all the other things in our hearts that are of the world. Is He serious about this? If He is serious, and this ‘clobbers us’ and makes us feel inadequate, isn’t that kind of the point? There is grace — if we step up and say “Ok, Lord. I think I know what you want from me but I don’t know how to get there”, Jesus will step in and help us. We don’t have to do it alone, unless we try to do it alone.
Jesus calls us to be the slave of all. This is, apparently, the Kingdom life. Who can do this? Does this clobber you? Does this make you mad? I am surrounded by guys who believe that Scripture is the inspired and inerrant word of God — until the word of God clobbers us (I include myself with this group) with something that seems so outrageous we can’t take it seriously.
What is the command Jesus gave us? Love each other as He has loved us. How has He loved us? With agape love — that love which rises out of my will and makes no demands on the one I love. It is independent of their behavior. So if they do something that hurts us, we should not be offended. We love them, no matter what. Isn’t that the meaning of unconditional love? We have no grounds for retaliation or unforgiveness. Does this clobber you? Does this make you mad. Can you love this way? And of course, Jesus literally died for us.
There are many more demands that Jesus makes of us that hit us between the eyes. They are hard — no, more than hard, they seem impossible for us to live up to. And so we become discouraged and, not wanting to bail out on Jesus completely, fall back on some sort of easy-believeism that demands far less of us.
But friends, if Scripture is truth, that is not Jesus and that is not His way. His way is the path to the cross. His way is the way of death so that we might have life, and life abundantly. This Christian walk is hard, very hard. But Jesus does not expect us to be perfect. We can never be perfect. We should delete perfectionism from our minds. If perfect is what we are striving for, and generally that means we are shooting for it in our own power, we will crash and burn. Jesus expects repentance, faith, and obedience, and even then His grace is intertwined with each of these. He expects us to try and to keep on trying. He has given us the Comforter, His Spirit living within us. As we draw on Him, and stop trying to do things our own way and in our own power, we will make progress on the Way. I think that is the meaning of hope.
Jesus loves us. He wants the best for us. But we have to participate in this ‘best’ life. I must choose. There are two gates: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7: 13, 14 NIV).
The narrow gate and the narrow road paint the picture of a difficult journey. I used to think that this passage referred to believers and unbelievers. But when combined with Luke 13:23 – 24 it takes on a deeper meaning”Make every effort to enter through the narrow door . . . but I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers” ( NIV). Uh Oh.
The words of Jesus were offensive in His lifetime. They are just as offensive today. They hit us over the head, they seem unfair, impossible to live up to. But, they are the truth. They force us to choose. Will we live by grace alone — generosity without orthodoxy? Or will we live in the uncomfortable tension between grace and truth, which is apparently where Jesus has called us to be. And how do I do this? God knows. Ask Him.
Judy and I are off on a trip for 2 weeks. I am asking the Lord if I should keep on writing this blog. I’ll see what He says as I relax with some friends on a cruise.
Grace and peace,
John