Grace and Truth

Day Twenty Two                   

Grace and Truth           

II Corinthians 12:1-10

It’s interesting that, in his description of the coming of Christ, the Word made flesh, John puts grace before truth. “We have seen His glory,” he writes, “the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” This reminds us that grace comes first. It is God’s action in pursuing us that precedes our response. His amazing grace provides the first step toward us. We are not drawn by the concept of God, or by some commitment to natural justice; we respond in faith to the winsome, winning love that we encounter in Jesus Christ. Grace comes first.

Theologians, as is their way, disagree about this. They tell us that we should not elevate any of the attributes of God above another, since they are all important. They are probably right; we don’t need to argue about whether Jesus is the Good Shepherd before He is the Light of the world, He is simply both. Nevertheless, it does seem at least appropriate that, in John’s description, grace comes before truth. The first and highest attribute of God, as Christians understand Him, is love. Grace is love in action. The old carol has it right – “Love came down at Christmas.”

Grace has many technical definitions. George Stroup called it “the thread running through the whole fabric of Christian theology.” Thomas Goodwin called it “the freeness of love.” For Calvin, grace was the means by which sinners are reconciled to God through Christ’s blameless life and His sacrificial death, so that “we may have in heaven instead of a Judge a gracious Father.” An easier definition is a simple acrostic. Grace is: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. We receive forgiveness through grace, the unmerited favor of God, who pours His love upon us as a result of the finished work of Christ. So, grace is God’s favor given to us when we had nothing to commend ourselves to Him. It is God’s love for the unlovely. It is God’s acceptance, given to us when we were far from acceptable. It is God’s redemption, given to the irredeemable.

John Wallace used to say that, although the favorite word of angels might be love, the favorite word of sinners is grace. Love reaches out on the same level, he explained, but “grace is a word with a stoop in it.” In Christ, God stoops low in order to lift us up. How glorious! And, we have seen that glory, full of grace and truth.

Lord Jesus, You came to me when I had nothing to commend me to anyone, and You raised me up. Out of the mire of sin, You lifted me to the heights of Your glory. Thank You for the grace that reaches out to me, for the grace that sustains me, and for the grace that will bring me back to my Father’s heart. Amen.