but I am only telling you the truth...

What is the way of Christ? What does it primarily consist of? For many it is the only true way as well as the way of truth. And this would be correct. Christ said, "I am the way, the truth and the life…" However is this way only about truth? 

What about grace? Isn't the way of Christ also the way of grace; the good news/gospel way? It is. 

So which is it? The way of truth or the way of grace? It is both. 

What is interesting is the Bible mentions both of these as vital to who Christ is, but in a particular order. It says Christ came full of grace and truth. Notice grace comes first. 

Joh 1:14  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And if you go down two more verses we see this: 

Joh 1:16  And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. While vs 14 mentions truth this verse mentions only grace and multiplied. Clearly grace was a central part of his message and not just truth.

It is also worth noting that this passage is dealing with God incarnate i.e. God himself (the Word was God Jn1:1) revealing who he is in and through Christ.

Why does God the Father describe Christ in this manner i.e. Grace before truth? Is this deliberate? Does it matter?

I propose that the order and emphasis -- 3 mentions of grace to 1 of truth -- isn't incidental. Not only because it is the emphasis and order given but also because we are unable to hear and receive the truth unless we think it is coming from someone we are persuaded loves us first. 

 
We are also not even able to hear, see or experience the love of God in our broken state without grace first. God's love is offered, experienced and entered into on the merits of someone else's efforts (i.e. by grace), not ours. If our experiencing his love was based on our efforts, we would never experience it. We can never do enough to merit his love. If so, Christ wouldn't have needed to step into our broken world to take on the consequences of our rebellion and die. 

Christ also died for us long before any of us accepted or experienced it. We only trust the words of Christ to be true when we come to believe and receive this unmerited love of God first.

 

The old saying, "I don't care about what you know until I know that you care" is worth considering when we are thinking of sharing the truth with someone. 

To illustrate, think of someone, a total stranger, being brutally honest about a characteristic of yours that is not very flattering. Let's say you had bad breath or seriously needed a shower and they told you. How would you respond to their speaking the truth? Would you receive it well even if it was 100% true? Truth is important, after all. Unless your identity was strongly rooted in God's love for you and you had Rhino skin -- actually more of a heart grounded in God's love than a strong exterior -- probably not. 

Now, what if someone also spoke the truth, who had proven their love and faithfulness to you through thick and thin and lost everything for your sake because of an incredibly huge sacrificial act on their part? Would your response be different?

I propose that most within the church who are quick to go for the jugular with truth or always trying to convince others that they have, believe and are promoters of the truth etc OR always seeking to show others how, when and where they are in error, is because they have not experienced the grace of God themselves to any extent (if at all). Their view of God is not of someone loving but someone who requires perfect performance and is disappointed in them or others when they don't perform well. 

The desire to correct others can come more from our own personal insecurity than from a desire to defend the truth or God's honor. 

We must always be sure we are speaking the truth. The truth must never be compromised. But in order for others to hear that truth, it is up to us to also sow those seeds of love and trust into their hearts so they might receive it. How do we do so? By only preaching the truth to them? No, by first loving them as Christ loves us i.e. sacrificially with mercy and grace. He sought us and came to us when we were not looking for him. 

For a further discussion of how we are to approach others click here. 

For a further discussion on Christ being full of grace and truth click here.

Living by grace... saved by grace. The same or different?

We have heard the expressions "saved by grace" and "living by grace" (sometimes referred to as "living by faith") but are these different? If so, what is the difference? Are they similar? How?

They are the same, but also different.

They are the same in that both address God's love for us based on and secured by:

1. Christ! His work on our behalf, i.e. the gospel/good news.

and 

2. Both are received and experienced by faith.

  

How are they different:

Saved by grace addresses 

1. Our sin problem, i.e. our legal status and standing of guilt and condemnation before God prior to being in Christ. Plus, our internal turmoil of guilt and shame (our internal pain and suffering) that comes from this. 

In Christ both are gone. We are now fully accepted and loved by God in Christ and will never be loved more than we already are. 

Living by grace addresses

2. Our circumstances/ suffering/ hardship problem i.e. our practical everyday experience. This addresses how our external turmoil and suffering from painful circumstances are used by God to advance us. Nothing, no hardship, no loss, no struggle, can or will ever separate us from the love of God in Christ. 

Summary:

1. Saved by grace – God loves us no matter what our sin, i.e. our inside issue of guilt and shame, which is our internal pain and suffering.

2. Living by grace – God loves us no matter what our circumstances, i.e. our outside issue of circumstantial pain and suffering.

We suffer pain both internally and externally. 

Internally because we rebelled and broke away from the source of love and life, thereby living in a state of guilt and shame with a constant need for assurance that we are significant, important, of value, etc.

Externally because we live in a fallen and broken world due to humanity's rebellious distrust of God - including our own - resulting in the mistreatment of each other. 

Not only are all men and women broken and inclined away from God but the rest of creation as well i.e. the planet is in bondage, resulting in disease, decay, and death. We always encounter "thorns and thistles" in all our endeavors. 

By God's grace, we are assured that he loves us no matter how messed up our world is both inside and out!

Amazing grace!!!

A primary passage addressing how we are saved by grace – Romans chapters 3-8:25. 

A key verse is Rom 5:8 "... but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

A primary passage addressing how we live by grace – Romans chapter 8:26-39. 

Key verses are Rom 8:38 "... For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

For a fuller discussion click here

Cultural vs grace driven Christians

Broadly speaking there are two kinds of "Christianity" in ¹America:

1.  Cultural Christianity (the majority)

2.  Grace-driven followers of Christ

The first is more of a worldview. The second is a relationship with God or state of being if you will. 

A. Cultural Christianity acknowledges certain fundamental truths of the Christian faith. Some of the most basic and common elements in contrast with a secular worldview are...

·      Man has the capacity for good but is naturally inclined toward selfishness i.e. corrupt by nature.

·     There are moral absolutes and values i.e. objectively there is right and wrong, and these don’t change i.e. they are absolutes.

·      Mankind should be and will be held accountable by His Creator (God) for his choices and actions if not in this life, the next.

These are very important and distinct from a non-Christian worldview, which generally asserts or assumes three contrary beliefs...

·      Mankind is basically good and corrupted by his environment - i.e., from without vs within.

·      Morality is relative and subjective. We have our own truth. What is right for you is not necessarily right for me or others. There are no absolutes -- a key tenet of postmodernism.

·      This life is all there is, so eat, drink, and be merry, i.e. make the most of it... if it feels good, do it, and the like.  

Prior to postmodernism, a cultural Christian worldview was common among the majority of Americans - particularly after the 1st Great Awakening from the early 1730s on - though it has slowly declined from when it was a majority-held view in America (not only among the general population but, to a great extent, among institutional heads and centers of influence) up until the 1960s. Since Postmodernism, the contrast between a Christian and non-Christian worldview has become more pronounced and clear. 

The fundamental differences of cultural Christianity are very significant when compared to a non-Christian worldview and, for this reason alone, are important. So I do not want to dismiss its significance entirely. As a result, how a cultural Christian approaches life is very different compared to a nonbeliever. Holding these different views is not insignificant. 

B. Grace-driven Christianity is rooted in the good news that God did all that was needed to restore us to himself and free us from our inclination to serve ourselves. He did this because we could not free ourselves. It agrees with and holds to the same fundamental truths/values as the Cultural Christian, but goes beyond these i.e. these cultural aspects will still be a key part of a grace-driven Christian's worldview but is not the essence of what defines or drives them to action. To say it another way, their worldview influences their approach to the world but does not alone or in itself empower them to rightly act, i.e. for the glory of God. Only the Spirit of God via the grace of God extended to us in and through the gospel can empower us to live for God, not simply willing ourselves to. 

The distinction between cultural and grace-driven Christians is important for two reasons:

1.  Non-Christians do not understand this difference (because they have not partaken of and experienced the power of grace and God's perfect forgiveness) and therefore lump these different "kinds" of Christians into the same group. 

     Does this matter? Many attitudes and approaches to various cultural issues can be very ³different between cultural and grace-driven Christians. As a result, grace-driven Christians are attributed certain views and attitudes the cultural Christian holds which they don’t necessarily agree with. For these reasons, these two approaches may look and sound the same on the surface to a non-Christian (and on the surface, they are in fact similar) but they are driven by a very different reason-motive. 

2. Those who adhere only to cultural Christianity do not necessarily understand or agree with the message of grace and may in fact be Christian only culturally in how they view the world (the first 3 bullet points above). They are not, in fact, true followers of Jesus as the bible defines it, i.e. they may not be true believers when it comes to the central message of Christianity — the gospel of grace.

So the differences are not immediately apparent on the surface to a nonbeliever (or even necessary to those who claim to be Christians - what I am ⁴calling a cultural Christian). It’s not until you look “under the hood” that you see the difference that drives these externally similar yet very different flavors of Christianity. 

So, is cultural Christianity truly Christian? Yes, in so far as it adheres to these fundamental principles but not in so far as one's relationship with and posture toward God. As his child, our relationship with God is solely based on God’s work in and through Christ, not our work or views. There are many within and without the Church who are cultural Christians i.e. Christian in name only. 

To say it another way, the views of a Cultural Christian may be aligned with the Bible and in that sense are Christian, but this alone does not make one a true believer (a follower/disciple of Jesus) as defined by scripture. The Bible is clear that one’s standing before God is based on the good news (gospel) of grace (the work of Christ on our behalf) and accepting God's offer of righteousness earned by Christ, not in trying to adhere to a certain worldview or moral values or even being able to explain the gospel. I have known several nonbelievers who can explain the gospel well and who professed to be a Christian but never expressed true affection for God. I also know those who claimed to be a believer but later professed true faith, acknowledging they never understood grace or had genuine saving faith before then. 

For a grace-driven Christian, these same views held by cultural Christians are also adhered to but are the fruit of their relationship with God, not the grounds or cause of it. It is only by grace we are restored to a right standing and heartfelt relationship with God and not believing certain things taught in the Bible or about God. As James says, demons believe in God and tremble... but they're still demons. 

For a discussion on why there are hypocrites in the church click here. 

For a discussion on the church's tendency to legalistic morality, click here. 

For a discussion on the difference between the gospel and religion click here. 

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¹and elsewhere though this appears to be more common in the western church and particularly in America. 

²there can be some blending of worldviews between cultural Christians and nonbelievers but generally, if someone adheres to one of the distinguishing fundamentals of a cultural Christian worldview, they tend to adhere to all of them i.e. they all tend to hang together or not at all.

³"Cultural Christians" tend to be more rigid and unyielding in their approach to life. Their emphasis is more about being right than caring i.e. loving your neighbor. Grace-driven Christians tend to be more patient, understanding, and loving (though not automatically). To say it another way they bear the fruit of the Spirit. Like their Lord, they operate by grace and truth, and in that order. They understand the key essence of how we live is based on loving God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves i.e. truth is vital but love - is the primary driving force of their lives. They also understand to love God with all our heart... we must first know the love of God personally -- our love for Him and obedience to him is a response to His love for us. For more on this click here and here. Of course, there are always exceptions among any of these various groups. 

⁴I make this distinction based on my own experience not theory. What do I mean? I used to be a cultural Christian to a great extent up until around 1998 (I came to Christ in 1971). And this was after I had gone to Bible College and been involved in lay ministry for several years. I have found there is a huge difference between being able to articulate the gospel message (which I could do well) and actually experiencing grace. I think I genuinely knew Christ before then but it was far more in my head than my heart. I have concluded there are many (maybe most) within the church today that are like I was rather than how I am now. I think many of those folks are truly Christians as the Bible defines it, but I have observed many who may not be. Only God knows their hearts we do not. Christ did say however by their fruits you will know them. Loving God and our neighbor is the greatest evidence and fruit of grace (Spirit) driven followers of Christ; not how we feel or how much we know but much do our words and 

honor God and advance His kingdom and not our own. 

We know Christ said he will separate the wheat from the weeds one day (i.e. they both exist within the church and will until Christ returns) and it is not our job to do so or decide who is and isn't a true follower of Christ, but for now, they are mixed together. To hear the words "depart from me, I never knew you" by someone who has done "many wonderful works" in God's name is a scary consideration. One we should all examine our hearts carefully over. 

Full of grace and truth

When Christ walked among us He was characterized as being full of two qualities...

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth..." John 1:14

To describe him in this way indicates that both grace and truth define him and are central to his character.

At first glance these qualities may appear at odds and in tension with each other. Are they?

Truth points out the right way of doing things and exposes error. It is the opposite of a lie and can feel harsh on occasion e.g. to discover we are living a lie or a not being honest is unpleasant - i.e. it doesn't feel very gracious. But if we are living according to a lie this causes harm to others as well as ourselves. Lies have real consequences that must be addressed if we are to be loving to those negatively impacted.

Grace extends to us kindness we do not deserve (even when we are occasionally less than truthful and honest). This can appear to promote the opposite of living according to truth i.e. that it's ok to not be truthful when it isn't.

What makes Christ so unique and glorious is he did not back off the truth; that our rejection of truth (and His Son who declared himself to be the truth) causes harm and must be addressed (to allow lies to go unaddressed is not fair to those who are harmed by them). 

But he also didn't let the destructive consequences of our dishonesty or deception fall on us. He fully addressed it by taking those consequences onto Himself so we might not have to. That is grace. 

In doing so He did not compromise truth or abandon love but was faithful to both i.e. he was full of grace and truth.

16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law (truth) was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he (Jesus) has made him (the Father) known. - John 1:16‭-‬18 ESV

The fullness of Christ is that he manifests the full spectrum of who God is. He is a God of truth but also a God of love.

...he has made him known...  

Christ being full of grace as well as truth showed us the loving nature of God i.e. He is not just a God of justice and judgment for our rebellion to and violation of His design (Gods will-truth - i.e. the true nature of how things are and were designed to operate) but He is also the God of love, compassion, kindness and grace.

Christ died to address the consequences of our rebellious distrust (because of truth i.e. violation of God's design-truth matters and the harm it causes must be addressed and because of His compassion-love). He provided a solution to our rebellion from His design without comproming the value and importance of that design, while at the same time taking action that prevents our rebellion from destroying us i.e. He also died because of love. He now leaves it up to us to accept His offer and provision to be in right standing (righteous) before God, but as a gift, not something we earn or can achieve. 

This is not only talking about God's faithfulness to us in our rebellion (grace) but His faithfulness to righteousness and truth.

We are also told Christ is a King and priest after the order of Melchizedek. Who this character is, is not as important as what he represents. 

1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. - Hebrews 7:1-3

Christ came declaring the good news of the Kingdom of God; the good news of His reign (rule) as King. But His is not just a righteous rule of justice (truth) but of love (grace, compassion).

There are even hints of this in the Old Testament before Christ came to us as a man.

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. - Psalm 85:10 ESV

God still demands faithfullness to what is right (truth) but he also meets those demands himself. Christ is both the Judge and the one who is judged (who took our judgment upon himself) within the same person. And that for our sake i.e. for love. Do you accept His offer?

For a discussion on why our rebellions distrust matters click here

For a discussion on why judgment is necessary click here

For a discussion on the value of tension and paradox click here.

The law, grace, and God's will

We cannot see or receive the full demands of the law until we grasp the fullness of God's ¹grace. Without a clear grasp of grace, the ²law crushes us when we fully grasp what it asks of us.

On the other hand, in order to have a clear understanding of God's direction and will, we must have a clear understanding of the law i.e. God's moral standards and direction-will. The law spells out, in no uncertain terms, the conduct God desires (wills) and designs for us. That conduct and design are God's expressed, revealed, or written will - vs his secret, vocational or providential will. 

Nevertheless we cannot properly benefit from the law or receive its direction the right way until we have a clear grasp of grace. 

Both the law and grace are vital in our relationship with God and must both be held in their proper place and order. 

Grace is the oil (lubricant) and ³fuel of our relationship with God and the law is the track (directions) we run on (not as a requirement to be accepted by God but as the means by which we reach our maximum speed - potential - and how we honor Him most). 

Loving God with everything we have and our neighbor as our self - i.e. the 1st and 2nd greatest commands - are the ultimate standard and our highest design.

We tend to focus on one side or the other i.e. legalism (law/obedience) or antinomianism (grace/faith). We are inclined to do so due to our lack of trust in God. 

But when properly understood, law and grace (as God intends it) are not in conflict. They go hand in hand. True trust (faith) filled, love-driven obedience is neither of these.

Walking with God by grace is truly freeing. Once we fully grasp God's infinite grace, we will never be the same. There is no longer any condemnation or rejection for our distrust, failure, or disobedience. Only God's complete embrace and perfect acceptance are ours in and through Christ. 

But that doesn't mean walking with God is mushy or wishy-washy. It is solid and has teeth. Because God's law clearly lays out the best way to operate - i.e. according to His design - to not live according to His clear direction (love God and neighbor) is to our harm, lose, or eventual destruction and that of others. It has real consequences, just like running a jet on gas instead of jet fuel has consequences. It's not a question of judgment but of operating as God designed us to.

Living contrary to His design-will-law matters, similar to using equipment according to the owner's manual matters. If the equipment doesn't operate as it was designed, it does not run properly and eventually breaks down -  not to mention never reaching its maximum efficiency and potential. Not operating according to the manual (the "law" on how the equipment works best) always results in negative consequences i.e. equipment failure.

If we are to know and walk with God well, we must know and walk with him exactly as he prescribes. The law isn't a list of  requirements we must complete to be acceptable and accepted by God but neither is it mere recommendations. To operate optimally, we must operate according to His direction, which is also the way He designed us to operate. Walking with God is grounded in truth/reality. There are no ambiguities within God or his direction. Any ambiguities lie only within us and our lack of understanding of God; his directions, design, and purpose.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1‭-‬4 ESV  

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Matthew 5:17 ESV

For a discussion on legalism click here

For a discussion on walking in the spirit and not under the law click here

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¹Grace consists of God fully receiving us in all our brokenness and having his eyes set upon us in perfect love and care even when we stray...no, actually, especially when stray.

This is only because Christ fully satisfied the demands of God's law on our behalf and credited us with His perfect obedience as if it was our own. He now sees us in the same way He views Christ, with perfect affection and delight. In Christ, God now sees and receives us as perfect, without flaw. He could not set his love upon us otherwise.

²By law, I mean God's moral standard - not ceremonial rituals that were done away with by Christ fulfilling them. 

God's moral standard is summed up in the greatest commandment to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the 2nd which is like it... loving our neighbor as ourselves. This is what we are called to live out, not in order to be received by God but in response to His relentless love, we desire to honor God for who he is - loving, merciful, patient, gracious, and kind etc. - and our fellow image bearers for who they are i.e. like God, worthy of our love.

³To be precise love is the fuel that drives our obedience but this is love granted to us only in and through grace. 

the heart of legalism

Does wrong doctrine pervert our understanding of truth or does our natural propensity towards a lie make us susceptible to wrong doctrine i.e. which comes first, a natural inclination to rebellious distrust and independence from God - wanting to be "our own god" - or teaching that leads us in that direction?

We are drawn to anything that appeals to our natural inclination to be our own savior, deliverer, or god. In a word, we prefer independence to ¹dependence; performance to grace, i.e. a wage to a gift. Legalism is merely a disposition and manifestation of what is already in our hearts. It is our attempt to save ourselves; to prove our worth and make ourselves acceptable to God through our efforts, i.e. "good deeds." 

Legalistic teaching may reinforce this natural inclination, but it doesn't create it. To use the language of Genesis, it is the desire to be "like god" that our first parents embarked on that is our problem. We - humanity - have been on this same path ever since.

In our present state of rebellion, we are naturally inclined to be our own god. Legalism doesn't cause this; it is the other way around; our fallen state is naturally drawn to it i.e. I can make things right with God by doing right for God.

This is why any current organization or form of God's community - be it a local church or a "para-church" organization - may start well, with a sound grasp of grace, but over time slip into a performance-based endevor. This was the very problem the church in Galatia had and why Paul wrote his letter to them. Something starting well does not mean it automatically continues well or ends well. We must be ever vigilant over our natural inclination to wander from grace and gravitate to performance. This is a kind of rebellion to God deeply embedded in all our hearts.

I think the reason we are instructed to revisit the last supper via communion (with no frequency schedule given) is specifically to counter this inclination - though, ironically, we also turn this very reminder of grace (or any other prescribed practice such as prayer or church attendance) into a performance-based means of self-righteousness i.e. "look at me and what a great Christian I am. I regularly take communion." This further confirms legalism is more a heart than a doctrine issue. Communion and prayer are good things, but we turn them into bad things i.e. use them to the praise of men.  

We must always be reminded our good standing with God is solely based on what Christ did for us, not what we do for God. We must always be on guard for legalism's possible encroachment because our hearts already naturally and continually gravitate towards it. Not simply the teaching of legalism but the spirit of it. 

Legalism is more an attitude or disposition rooted in not "knowing" - i.e. believing - the gospel of grace than it is a teaching. 

Any organization that starts with a good grasp of the gospel must continuously be reminded of it e.g. regular communion. Grace is simply contrary to how our distrusting hearts are naturally inclined to approach God and earn His love. 

The expression "upside-down" gospel is an indication of how contrary we are to it e.g. To find our life we must lose it, to live we must die. This is the very opposite of how the world pursues life. 

Our inclination towards performance and away from grace is so deep, subtle, and pervasive that it reared its ugly head at the very beginning of the early church. The promotion of a performance-based approach to God was common enough that Paul had to call a local body of believers back to the foundational message of grace on several occasions. Many of Paul's letters besides Galatians touch on this problem. This letter was written primarily for this very reason. We do well to study it and others to be sure we are on the path of grace. 

For a discussion on living by grace click here

For a discussion on why grace is constantly needed, not just at conversion click here.

For a discussion on the value and importance of the law click here.

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Footnote:

¹the irony is this posture of dependence is actually a basic aspect of the very essence of God's being. God Himself, by virtue of being three persons in one being, is an interdependent being.

However, it is a dependence not on others outside of the Godhead but within Himself, which makes Him independent of all other beings or things. He is independent of needing anyone or thing outside Himself because he is interdependent within Himself as a truine being. For more on this, click here.