So much better than a rule book: Jesus, ‘Full of grace and truth’
By Dean Collins
Have you noticed that when dealing with another person’s faults, mistakes, and sins, we often want to “play by the book,” but when we make mistakes and sin, we would prefer a little grace?
Typically, playing something by the book implies following all the rules or protocols exactly. After all, rules are rules and they are intended to make things fair for all. Of course, rules are managed by humans who, as you know, are not perfect. So every day in courtrooms all across the country, lawyers present arguments to prove that someone did or didn’t abide by the rules. Rules and laws are subject to interpretation, and as smart as some people are, there seem to be disagreements about when we are and are not playing it by the book.
In some situations, it seems that if we could just have a conversation with the person who wrote the rules, then we could get to the actual intention of the matter. But of course, then we would likely take issue with whether the author was speaking truthfully or not. We tend to want to adjust everything to our understanding of the world and how it should operate.
‘His own people did not receive him’
About 2,000 years ago Jesus, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, came to earth in the flesh. The apostle John explains how he was received: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” Think about that for a moment. The very one who formed us and breathed life into us came to earth, and we did not receive him. I think it is fair to assume that had we been alive when Christ appeared on earth, we would have likely responded in the same way.
‘But to all who did receive him’
While the world in the first century did not receive him, and often neither does the world now, some do believe. And to those who believe, an amazing thing happens: “He gave the right to become children of God.” Some of us had wonderful earthly fathers and we are proud to be called by their name. Others of us did not have great fathers or may have never known our earthly father. But on the level playing field of faith, all of us have the right to claim God as our Father. We are his sons and daughters. We can know the Father through the gift of Jesus.
‘Full of grace and truth’
Jesus played things “by the book.” God is just, and someone had to pay for our sins. Jesus took our place and paid the ransom price for our sins so that we could be justified before God. Jesus met the true requirements of the Law. But it gets even better for us, he offers us grace and truth. Jesus not only satisfied the Law completely, but he offers us grace upon grace because he meets us with his love every time we stumble. His death settles the price for all of our sins past, present, and future.
The world is filled with so many problems, large and small. They didn’t just randomly appear; the challenges in the world are the result of our disobedience. We struggle to fix our problems. But the truth is, we cannot fix them apart from embracing the one who came to the world full of grace and truth.
The more we allow God to transform us, the more we have grace and truth to offer to others. Unfortunately, we try to offer solutions that are all truth or all grace when both are needed. We often try to write laws, rewrite laws, and enforce laws as our solution to the problems of the world. But law upon law will never bring the solutions needed for our broken world. According to the One who came to his own, the solution is found in the only Son of the Father who was full of grace and truth.
Law upon law will never bring the solutions needed for our broken world.
When we come to Jesus, he offers us grace upon grace. As we surrender to Jesus and allow him daily to transform our hearts, his love and grace will flow through us and his kingdom will come on earth as it is in Heaven. If we want Heaven on earth, then we must offer to others what the King has offered to us.
Father, thank you for sending Jesus to satisfy the penalty of our sins. We were hopeless to make payment for our sins until you stepped into the world and into our lives. Forgive us for the many times we demand that others live and act by your truth when we have never been able to do so ourselves. Transform our hearts so that we might offer grace upon grace to those around us and everyone might see and know your love and forgiveness. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your time with God’s Word
John 1:11-17; 14:16-17 ESV
Photo by Mark Duffel on Unsplash
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