Pour oil and water into a container, and you will see that they don’t mix. The oil droplets are evident in and on the water.
That’s how it is with truth and grace, if you’re human. The two don’t mix together. Grace without truth stops growth.
God, our Father, blends grace and truth together. He loves us while we are yet sinners and yet tells us “to go and sin no more.” And the He paid the debt for our sins.
Read God’s word below. Discuss and compare these explanations of truth and grace.
- TRUTH: Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. (Rom. 3:19-20, NIV)
GRACE: Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. (Romans 5:15-16, NIV) - TRUTH: For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!) (Romans 4:15, NIV)
GRACE: We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” (Acts 15:11, NIV) - TRUTH: God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21, NIV)
GRACE: Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the LORD. (Isaiah 26:10, NIV) - TRUTH: For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. (James 2:10, NIV)
GRACE: For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. (Galatians 5:4, NIV) - TRUTH: But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.”So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. . . (Galatians 3:10-11, NIV)
GRACE: But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. (Romans 5:15-16, NLT)
PRAY WITH ME: Lord, you know all of my faces. You know the false front I can put on to conceal the sin-filled person I am. It is impossible for me to be perfect, but you made a way for me to be with you anyway. Thank you that you are both truth and grace. Amen
Pictures: oil and water by David Clode on Unsplash; faces by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.
Kathleen S Evenhouse 