Resources by Topic: Grace and Truth

Jesus told of a servant whose debt to his master was 10,000 talents, the equivalent of millions of dollars. The servant begged forgiveness. Though the master had every right to imprison him for the rest of his life, he offered full pardon.

Of course, God can redeem your daughter, and of course, Jesus ate with sinners. But that’s different than celebrating a union that is outside of His designed order, a celebration of something that is not reality and is sinful. 

It can be so hard to know how to balance showing God’s love to others but not approving of what is outside His moral will. And it gets a bit more difficult if you are dealing with unbelievers in the family and are trying to communicate grace and truth and love without sounding condemning of your cousin as a person.

Today, many of us embrace truth but need a heavy dose of grace. (Spend ten minutes on social media if you need an embarrassing eyeful of examples.) Others talk about grace but forget their need for a heavy dose of truth.

Deliberately and unceasingly, the tide of God’s grace brings us wave after wave of God’s goodness. The next wave crashes onto the beach before the previous wave is diminished. God’s grace is constant, but it isn’t stationary. It keeps moving toward us day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. It’s always there when we need it—and there’s never a moment we don’t. 

Of all truths in the universe, the most important is the truth of who Jesus is. After all, Truth is not merely an impersonal moral standard. It is a living Person who loved us so much He bears on His hands eternal scars because He rescued us.

Jesus, the sinless one, willingly gave Himself over to be tortured—not for anything He had done, but to save those least deserving. We are not merely misguided subjects; we are rebels and traitors against the King. Yet God adopts us as His children and happily gives us a seat at His table. If this seems less than amazing, less than wonderful, then we really don’t grasp the meaning of grace.

As long as we trust our own subjective judgment that ebbs and flows with the current of our culture, we divorce ourselves from God’s eternal and unchanging truth. Once our eyes are opened to the transcendent beauty and freedom of God’s truth, we’ll never be content with anything less.

Late one rainy night years ago, my wife and I were leaving a movie the­ater when Nanci noticed an older man in the parking lot leaning on a walker, struggling. I helped him get into his car. Since he was so exhausted, I asked if I could drive him home.

Today’s blog is by Sara Barratt, from her new book, Stand Up, Stand Strong. Sara clearly understands the appealing but deceptive cultural values that confuse and derail countless believers, who, apart from learning to think critically, will likely abandon their faith.

I love this four-minute video from Russell Moore answering the question, “Why should Christians speak with kindness?” I think this message is more important right now than at any other point in my lifetime.

Grace doesn’t minimize or ignore the awful reality of our sin. Grace emphasizes the depths of sin by virtue of the unthinkable price paid to redeem us from it.

A common Old Testament word expressing truth, emeth, speaks of a dependable reality that’s solid and binding. Truth is the bedrock of human relationships (Exodus 20:16), involving an integrity of thoughts, speech, or actions.

Some churches today embrace truth but need a heavy dose of grace. Other churches talk about grace but cry out for a heavy dose of truth.