WATCHWORD:
1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.
7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.
10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” John 8:1-11
Meditation:
Truth and Grace
Okay, you and a friend are having this conversation about Heaven. Your friend thinks he will be surprised to see who is there. You reply, with a smile, that they may be more surprised to see you.
That kind of the conversation is lighthearted and with much good humor. There is a degree of truth in that exchange. In the midst of that conversation someone might wonder, isn’t it strange that God would send people to hell. Oh, I have a couple of candidates to nominate for that trip. The better question might be, how could God send sinful people to Heaven?
On matters of truth and grace, it occurs to me that we may not know the full definition of either one of those ideas. I have read essays that talk about what is truth, but when it comes to the matter of grace, I wonder if we fully understand.
Do we see Grace as a ‘get out of jail free card’? You know that’s partly correct. Grace is God’s way of delivering us from what we really deserve. However, there is a ‘but’ there.
In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer draws a fine distinction between cheap and costly grace. The short version – Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, or repentance. Costly grace confronts us as a call to follow Jesus.
And Jesus says to the woman caught in adultery, “Your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more.” That is costly grace. Cheap grace, Bonhoeffer says, is to hear the gospel preached as “Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness”. No demand for discipleship.
Speak the truth in love. That is grace. Sometimes showing grace requires silence. At other times, it requires speaking up. Randy Alcorn makes this statement: “Unfortunately, many nonbelievers know only two kinds of Christians: those who speak the truth without grace and those who are very nice but never share the truth. What they need to see is a third type of Christian–one who, in the spirit of grace, loves them enough to tell them the truth.”
Alcorn makes a further statement: “If we minimize grace, the world would see no hope for salvation. If we minimize truth, the world sees no need for salvation. To show the world Jesus we must offer unabridged grace and truth, emphasizing both, apologizing for neither.”
Truth hates sin. Grace loves sinners.
Those full of grace and truth do both. Amen.
Bulletin Board:
Humor for the day — Why don’t ants ever get sick? Because they have these little anty bodies.
Never criticize someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’ll be a mile away, and you’ll have their shoes.
Prayers:
Dear Heavenly Father, In a day and age where sin, confusion and lack of grace and truth abounds – I pray for Your Holy Spirit’s help in these matters as we need Your help all the more.
Some want to throw out truth all together in order to accommodate in “grace and love” even when it’s in opposition of the truth of Your Word. Help us to understand that Your truth is part of Your love and faith comes by hearing. (Romans 10:17)
On the other hand some want to throw out grace all together and sometimes hit people over the head with the “truth” when they forget the scriptures teaching about grace and love which is not devoid of truth. (John 4:1-26) Yet, You, oh Lord call us to both in love.
As imperfect as we – Your church is, please help us to have the wisdom to know how to apply Your grace and truth in love.
You’ve called us to The Great Commission making disciples of all nations… (Matthew 28:16-20) but we can’t do that without grace, truth and love!
Help us to never gloss over or reject Your truth. Help us to never gloss over or reject Your grace. Help us to be balanced in grace and truth in all things as Jesus came full of Your Grace and Truth. (John 1:14)…so ought we grow in grace and truth.
These prayers we offer in the Name of Jesus the Christ. Amen
