And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 NASB)

The Bible says the Jesus was full of grace and truth.  It does not mean he was half grace and half truth.  There needs to be grace in our truth and truth in our grace.

Jesus is portrayed Biblically as the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Lamb of God.  Without these opposite bookends characterizing Jesus, we have a distorted view of the Son of God.  Our scriptural reference does not say part grace and truth.  It says, “full of grace and truth.”  Most of us humans are motivated toward one or the other end of the mercy or justice spectrum, which is problematic.  Whereas Jesus was full of grace and truth, most of us are full of grace or truth. We react either only as a lion or a lamb.

If we are to represent Jesus, we must demonstrate a measure of both of these character traits of Christ.  If we have predominately one or the other, how then does this happen?  It occurs when the grace givers and the truth sayers interact, and iron sharpens iron.  Those with humility can always learn something from those with whom they disagree.

Grace without truth leads to easy believism; vice versa, and you have legalism.  Neither of these two results will reveal Jesus to a sick and dying world.  Is there someone in your church that always seems to disagree with you or rub you the wrong way?  You might want to ask yourself if it is iron sharpening iron; where God is making you full of grace and truth.

I worked for seventeen years as a missionary with Youth With A Mission.  My missionary work has taken me to Mexico, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Spain, and Ukraine.  I hold a Masters of Education in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University.  [email protected]