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John wrote, “For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
I like to teach grace and truth as being spiritually handcuffed together. Handcuffs bind two hands and arms together. They keep the person wearing them from separating their hands.
God in the work of Jesus tied these two concepts together.
Grace – God’s unmerited or undeserved favor and gift of salvation (Romans 3:23-25, 6:23, Ephesians 2:1-10; etc.)
Truth – God’s revealed will and message for our lives. (John 8:31-32, 17:17; Gal. 2:5, 5:7; Eph. 1:13; ch. 4; etc.)
Jesus is the manifestation of both of these concepts. He brought into the world grace and truth. He lived them out and made both possible.
Jesus and Grace – He brought God’s grace by becoming the propitiation for our sins on the cross. His work, death, and resurrection made the grace of God possible in our lives (Rom. 3:21-25, ch. 5; 2 Tim. 1:9).
Jesus and Truth – He brought God’s truth to this world. His will was to do the Father’s will and He spoke not on his own authority but on the Father’s authority (John 14:23-24). He described himself as “the truth” (John 14:6).
They are tied together by God.
Grace is the free gift of salvation. Truth is the message of that free gift and how we obtain it. You cannot have one without the other. If you have the gift without the message it does you no good. If you have the message, but not the gift then you cannot be saved. We must have both!
What this means . . .
The history of Christianity and the religious world today struggles to keep these hand-cuffed together. We often talk about liberal or conservative, grace-based or works-based, really all these descriptions are dealing with an over-emphasis of truth or grace with a neglect of the other.
Some err by unlocking the truth side and casting it aside. They focus on God’s grace and emphasize in their teaching that it doesn’t matter how you live or what you do in obedience to God.
Others err by unlocking the grace side and casting it aside. They focus on law-keeping as a means to salvation. They become legalistic to the point of making one’s works the basis of their salvation. They tend to bind matters of opinion and are rigid in their interpretation of Scripture.
But the challenge for us is to realize Jesus brought both grace and truth (John 1:17). We cannot divorce the two. You must obtain God’s grace by obeying and following God’s truth. His grace must be received as a gift that could never be earned or deserved.
