"Full of Grace and Truth"

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’”

And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

John 1:14-16 (NKJV)

In these verses we see another glorious contradiction so often present in our savior. In our human mind we see actions of things like mercy and justice as mutually exclusive. They cannot occur simultaneously. They can be exercised in part parallel with each other but cannot coexist in totality with each other. In an act of counterintuitive love these two met and kissed at the cross. “Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.” Psalm 85:10 is a prophesy about the work of the cross. The cross is the only point in history where perfect righteousness (demand for justice, perfection, and truth) coexisted in one action – in the work of one person – in complete form with mercy (grace, peace, forgiveness and love). The Old Covenant was one of truth (demanding perfection, righteousness, and justice). This was the Law of Moses. However when Christ came and ushered in the New Covenant, He brought one that entailed satisfaction of both perfect righteousness and offered the greatest and most perfect display of love imaginable.

The verses from John 1 above comment on how Christ was full of both grace and truth. As humans it is extremely hard for us to be full of, or even to display at the same time these two seemingly diametrically opposed concepts. We tend to only be filled with one or the other. As a male I am a truth person. I love the down and dirty doctrines that require studious thought and research. I love earnestly defending the faith against attacks. I am by no means saying here that truth is tied with masculinity. Some of the most respected men in my mind have been grace people. In some ways these are the most manly of men as they seek to display Christ in their lives (as in my opinion the standard we should set for masculinity is Christ-likeness – see end note). I also know many women who are truth people. In general though, I think that men tend to be truth people and women tend to be grace people.

What I challenge you with (regardless of which side of the truth-grace continuum you fall on) is to be more like Christ. Christ’s display of grace in no way diminished his staunch defense of truth. His defense of truth in no way diminished his showering of grace. Power is found in the combination of these two concepts. This is not easy. I’m not even talking here about a balance (a balance implies falling in the middle of these two ends). What I’m saying we need is to be filled with both. Truth people, I am not challenging you to become less devoted to truth. Rather, I am exhorting you to grow in grace. Exercise discipline in grace when you advocate unapologetically for truth. Grace people, I by no means want you to diminish the grace you have, instead grow in knowledge of our Lord by studying His word. Speak with conviction and boldness in situations that require unshakable belief and determination in speaking the truth. Which of these two we display will change with circumstances. Christ at times demonstrated a strong display of truth while at other times his grace was seen in greater form. But never did his display of one contradict or diminish the presence the other. Knowing which to show when takes wisdom. As James encourages us, we need to faithfully pray for wisdom from above.

Regardless of whether you consider yourself to be a grace or truth person Ephesians commands us that we should be “speaking the truth in love, that you may grow up in all things into Him who is the head that is Christ” and 2 Peter exhorts us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” May we grow to be filled with grace and truth as we strive to imitate Christ in us!

Endnote: As I’ve thought about what true masculinity looks like I’ve gone back and forth between to extremes. In general I rebel against the highly immature common conception of men being über-macho individuals with very minimal class, etiquette, and intelligence. On the other extreme I suppose I should label this as refined pansies is not much better though. As I ponder what men should look like I find no popular objective standard that does not necessarily exclude a wide range of individuals for things completely outside of their control (for instance some people are not born with strong frames and will never be strong or athletic) and yet these individuals can display the most masculine form of character. I am left only to conclude that the only objective standard by which masculinity can be measured is by the degree to which they pursue Christ-likeness in their lives. Christ as perfect in every way is the most manly man ever to have lived. The Word says He grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Growth is important but there is an order here He grew spiritually (in wisdom) first and then stature. I exhort men then to pursue wholeheartedly Christ-likeness in their lives.