Sure, Jesus had both. John tells us that He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) But it seems that today we must settle for one or the other.
It tends to be a generational thing. The previous generation majored on the truth. This one stresses grace.
The previous generation was (and still is) into Bible teaching, expository preaching, and personal devotions that includes systematic Bible study. They were also into living by the book, especially the rules of the book.
To today’s generation, the latter description may sound pejorative. They would be shocked to hear that the rules of Scripture are not all bad, that holy living may have some merit.
However, the one rule the pervious generation stumbled over was the mandate to display grace. The problem with that one is that it seems to undermine all the rules. After all, if you go around showing grace to rule breakers, how can you keep them in line?
Contemporary evangelicals see through that one. They tag it as judgmental and legalistic. They abhor its rigidity and critical spirit. And they are right. Rules without grace produce a pretty sour existence.
Instead, contemporary evangelicals have opted for grace. Grace is the absolute of this generation. Grace is always the answer.
This orientation reflects itself in its embrace of the concept of unconditional acceptance. It is always right to accept. To do otherwise is to judge. That, obviously (to them), is always wrong.
I talked with a cohabiting couple who claimed to be believers about the unbiblical nature of their lifestyle. Their response was: “How dare you judge us.” Actually, I have had that conversation and received that response more than once.
And if grace trumps the biblical teaching on sex outside of marriage, it will trump about anything. This approach to life captures the slogan adopted by Outback Steakhouse: “No rules, just right.”
This generation avoids being bothered by the rules by avoiding serious Bible study. They may read short devotionals, especially if they feature grace, or read some books, especially if they feature grace. But serious exegesis and theology are nowhere near their scope of interests. One Christian bookstore owner indicated that 80% of his sales consisted of music and tee-shirts.
However, this fixation on grace is not all bad. Giving high priority to grace can be quite nice, especially if the alternative is the judgmental attitude of the past. It is a blessing to enjoy a church atmosphere free of critical spirit, but rather characterized by a kind and friendly ambiance.
However, at some point there is a need for a commitment to righteousness. The absence of this emphasis is destructive to the contemporary evangelical culture.
In our last post, we warned against idealizing the good old days and asserted that evangelical reformation should not be an attempt to go back to the past. Rather, it is an attempt to move beyond the errors of the present by striving toward a biblical worldview and lifestyle.
This matter of grace and truth is another area where we should emulate neither past nor present. The Christian life, and life in general, works only if it embraces both grace and truth and assigns the rightful place to each.
This requires serious Bible study and commitment to the principles of Scripture. That must include the concept of grace. If we, like Jesus, were full of both grace and truth, we might start an evangelical reformation.
There indeed seems to be much knife throwing in an effort to keep “grace” and “truth” firmly divided. There are numerous reasons for this:
One lies in the fact we have so many “translations” that we are confused which Bible is the right one. Maybe all our “versions” translate “grace” and “truth” differently. I know of only one translation of the Book of Mormon, yet with their continuous revelation system, who knows? I know of only one Koran. Maybe we have so redefined “grace” and “truth” that we have removed it from the sphere of Scripture thereby failing to understand they are God’s and therefore because they originate from Him must remain His to give and are not subject to our demands for them.
In 1 Timothy 4:2 the Apostle Paul tells Timothy to “preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” It appears that the majority of our “teaching” today focuses on the longsuffering aspect of this entreaty and, by default, spurns reproof, rebuke, exhortation, and doctrine their necessary places within the body of Christ. Perhaps we should balance our “teaching” with the heavier weight of “preaching” thereby balancing the scales of the pulpits in our churches. Would this not be in keeping with the admonition to declare the whole council of God?
I was discussing in a blog at Worldmagblog.com with a professor doing DNA research at the University of Virginia who claimed to believe in God and His Word but could not accept the Creation account of Genesis. Using Scripture, I demonstrated that because God’s Word was absolute truth his position was untenable. He could not understand why I would challenge his position simply because he denied the veracity of Scripture. He took offense when, again through Scripture, I demonstrated his belief system would end in apostasy. In short, I was judging him.
How far do we allow the abuse of the concept of legalism to go? It does not seem to matter how gentle we are, we have no right to question anything or anyone anymore. Once, Salvation plus Law equaled Legalism. So I read in Galatians. Somehow, that definition has exponentially expanded over recent years to include anything that might cramp an individual’s personal desire or which may damage or hinder that person’s quest for self-esteem. “Grace” or “unmerited favor” is now “freedom to do as I please” and “If you can’t handle it, you must be the weaker brother”. “How dare you question what is my due!” Who am I to question anything anyone wants to do, as long as it hurts no one else? Somehow, we are legalistic if we question sin. It appears that relativism’s philosophical morass has breeched the thought processes of many Christians.
My suggestions are:
1. concentrate on dealing with personal pride: revert to an ancient practice of bowing our knees at the feet of a holy, righteous God
2. surrender our teaching, belief systems, and personal desires. (God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.)
3. believe that all Scriptures are true: that all of Scripture is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works”
4. realize that “Grace” and “Truth” fit perfectly together when viewed through humility’s eyes.
What say you?
May I suggest that we are so familiar with
Prov. 3:5,6 but I rarely hear reference to verses 3 and 4 where mercy is used (in the KJV) rather than grace. Even further, if we look at verses 1 and 2, we are urged to obedience.
Of course, pondering that, some today might rather be popular, through their cheap “grace”rather than live long, as verses 1 and 2 suggest.
The portion of grace by which we must rest our discussions of grace and truth rests wholly upon the definition of grace and then, of course, it’s context. I copied the definition as Strong’s Concordance defines it. For blog space, I will only print part of it: 2) good will, loving-kindness, favour
a) of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.
Using this as foundational, I say that grace has been lost from many Fundamental circles. I grew up surrounded by this and vowed never to return to its folds. Recently, however, I have become distressed over the lack of sound doctrine in denominational churches. I have also seen elder’s abuse grace for power and control beyond its intended scope. For these and other reasons, I have looked again at that conservative movement. By God’s grace (that word again), I found a Preacher (title affectionately used by the members) who himself is concerned with the lack of grace exhibited by Fundamentalism. He preaches the extension of grace and truth to those who have no relationship with Christ and gently to believers who lack maturity.
How we progressed to the concept that grace means license or total freedom from the restraints placed on us by Scripture smacks the Apostle Paul in the face when he affirms that we should not sin that grace may abound. From what exactly are we free? Obviously, it is sin, within its past, present and future emphasis. Paul says because of this we are debtors. We base our status as debtors on our love for God because of all he accomplished through Christ.
(Imagine what could be accomplished for Christ and His church if we were to act toward the sinner and our fellow believers the way God demonstrates His Grace toward us as defined above!!)
By the way, using the “O” word in this generation, might lead to a shortened life span if some irate soul wishing to end yours by suggesting compliance.
The nerve of some people…. Kidding aside, I also wish to have long life rather than cheap grace.
I appreciate the thoughtful comments above. All of these responses seem to highlight the reality that not only does truth without grace hurt people, but also grace without truth does.
Contemporary evangelicals tend to think that grace, however far it transgresses its biblical boundaries, can never hurt anyone, but it does. Showing grace to the drunk driver is hurtful to the last victim and the next one.
Neil made the point that in today’s evangelical world anything is permissible (we should extand grace) as long as it does not hurt the other person. The reality is that in our secular and evangelical worlds, even injury to the other person is not viewed as sufficient cause to withhold grace. We should embrace the cohabiting couple, even though the children coming from this relationship will bear scars.
These comments convey that there are some in our society that is rising up against the damage caused by cheap grace. May their tribe increase.