The Kingdom of God: 7 | Grace & Truth

We live in between the two comings of Jesus, and while we eagerly await the return of the King, we have clear and concise instructions on what we are to be doing with our lives, what God’s overarching agenda is, how we should live:

make disciples, live holy, worship the king, gather with other believers, and serve one another in love.

Through Moses, God gave us the law, and at first it appeared as though it was a list of rules we could follow in order to be ‘right with God’. But really, the law was meant to expose our inability to live holy lives and lead us to the revelation that our only hope is the grace and mercy of God.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them”…. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith – Galatians 3:10, 21-24

Moses introduced the law, but the full revelation of both Truth and Grace came in and with Christ at his appearing, and through Christ the Grace and Truth of the Father is made known to us,

“For the law 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 has made him known.” – John‬ ‭1:17-18‬

Grace and Truth = Kingdom Culture

The culture of the kingdom is both grace and truth, they are not mutually exclusive, they are not separate ideas but two deeply interconnected realities of the Kingdom that Jesus himself came to reveal. Without truth, grace is void of its power to convict and save. Without truth, we have no capacity to know that we are sinners. Without grace, the truth of our sinfulness would crush us, leaving us with no capacity to escape our sin nor it’s consequence. Truth, without grace, leads to utter despair and hopelessness, or it leads to a deluded idea of salvation by good work. The Truth, however, is more than just the truth of sin. In reality, that is what the law of Moses was given for[mfn] which is Paul’s main point in the first few chapters of his letter to the Romans, the law can’t save us, it convicts us[/mfn]. Truth is also the revelation of the Christ, after all, Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life. So Truth is not just the absence of falsehood or the exposing of sin, but Truth the presence of Jesus.

AS CHRISTIANS, It’s not enough to be “good”, or to be “honest”, we must first and foremost be people of his presence.

Moses was the first to truly understand the significance, and ultimately the need, for God’s people to be a community whose chief characteristic was being known as the people with God’s Presence,

The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” – Exodus 33:14-16

To be a people of the Truth is to be a people of his Presence, yet the presence of God is given to us, not because of our excellence or purity, but by sheer grace. Without grace we would not able to enter the presence of God, without grace we would not know the sweetness of fellowship and his presence would would be utterly terrifying.

grace via the cross

The truth of our sinful condition required a judicial response from the throne of heaven. The holiness and righteousness of God demanded it and he could not deny himself[mfn] 2 Timothy 2:13; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8[/mfn], meaning he could not act towards us or our condition in any way that violated his character or was a contradiction of his nature as a Good, Holy, Just God[mfn] Exodus 34:6-9[/mfn] who was and incapable of tolerating sin.

In short, the Gospel of the Kingdom is this, ‘that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep‘ – 1 Corinthians 15:3-6

On the cross Jesus who knew no sin, became sin for us[mfn]2 Corinthians 5:21[/mfn], hanging on a cross he became a curse[mfn]Galatians 3:13[/mfn] on our behalf. The punishment our sin deserved[mfn]Isaiah 53:5[/mfn] was taken off our account and placed onto Jesus. He bore the sin of many[mfn]Isaiah 53:12[/mfn] in order to satisfy the wrath of God (this aspect is what scripture referes to as propitiation[mfn] Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2, 4:10[/mfn], and it is amazing! There are those who don’t like the idea of God being angry with sinners, but they forget that God himself poured his wrath out on himself, in Christ on the cross, in order that his wrath would be satisfied and so he could turn toward us in love, mercy and grace – he so loved us[mfn John 3:16[/mfn] that he stood in the way of his own wrath!)

The truth is, we were/are sinners in need of a saviour; we need grace. But grace could not be given without truth being satisfied. The law that lead us to this understanding came through Moses, but Grace and Truth came through and in christ Jesus. For this reason, the culture of the Kingdom of God is characterised by both grace and truth, this is often referred to, or fleshed out, as living according to the Word and the Spirit, and knowing how to hold these in tension is crucial to the life of a believer.

Word and Spirit

The Kingdom of God is a kingdom where the word of the King is sovereign, what King Jesus says comes with power and all authority in heaven and on earth[mfn] Matthew 28:18[/mfn]. His word is a stable foundation upon which to build and base our lives on, much like the wise builder in Jesus parable, the firm ground he built his house on was the hearing and obeying of the words of the King[mfn] Matthew 7:24-7[/mfn].

We must be people of his word if we are to be faithful citizens of his kingdom, after all, obedience to Jesus is the key to friendship with God[mfn]John 14:21, John 15:14-15[/mfn]. This is precisely why the devil, that serpent, came to Eve in the garden and immediately began to question what God had said, deceiving her into disobeying God’s commands concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil[mfn]Genesis 3:1-2[/mfn]

The pendulum

Church culture, throughout history and even more so today, seems to keep swinging between the two extremes of grace and truth. An over-emphasis on the truth, and on the Word, tends to create a legalistic, rigid, and religious culture. An over-emphasis on grace, or on ‘the spirit’, tends to result in loose boundaries, no shame for sin, and a self-indulgent culture that ends up looking too much like the world. In an effort to not be legalistic, these environments that overemphasise grace don’t place enough value on the Word, on correction, discipline, or authority. In the other camp, those trying to not be super spiritual are wanting to avoid being flakey and shallow, but end up only having the Holy Spirit in their doctrine, not in their experience.

Both camps get it wrong. Grace and truth are not opposing ideas or entities, but they do need to be balanced, like on scales, or held in tension. They are not, however, meant to be the left and right of church politics and culture. That’s the way the world does it, creating an us-and-them culture. There should not be ‘Grace’ movements nor ‘Reformed’ movements. There should not be ‘Word’ based churches or ‘Spirit-led’ churches. There should just be “churches” that hold desperately to both Grace and Truth, the Spirit and the Word. Because they are both equally revealed in Christ and part of His Kingdom.

So how do we reconcile the two together? How do we develop beliefs and practices that are truly biblical (faithful to the Word), and filled with grace (and the Holy Spirit)? It’s simple, by acknowledging that both Truth and Grace, both the Word and the Spirit have their source, their purpose and their function in the same place, or better yet; same person – Jesus. The real key though is the denial of personal preference and comfort. Many ‘word’ people resist the spirit because it’s ‘weird’ and feels abrasive to their personality and personal culture. They like to be in control. Many ‘Spirit’ people are shallow in their knowledge of the Word because they don’t want to be ‘legalistic’, which is just a smokescreen for being spiritually lazy and unwilling to put in the effort to know the scriptures… or submit to them. We must merge the two.

In order to be Kingdom people, we must be like our King, and embrace both the grace of the Holy Spirit and the Truth of the Word of God, giving each equal weight while pursuing both with passion. We must be like the Bereans[mfn]Acts 17:11[/mfn] who were diligent to study and examine the scriptures, making them ‘more noble‘. And we must also pursue the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of grace he gives communing with the Father through the empowerment of the Spirit[mfn]Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 14:1; Ephesians 5:18; Colossians 1:9; Acts 19:1-6[/mfn]. Don’t be shallow or flakey, be a person of the Word, read it and study it for from it flows the wisdom revelation of God, for Jesus himself is the Word made flesh. And don’t resist Pentecost, be a spirit-filled believer, don’t stop at Johns baptism like those in Ephesus did[Actt 19:1-6[/mfn], but be baptized in the Holy Spirit, don’t just settle for the indwelling, Jesus said the Spirit would also ‘come upon’ us! Learn to hear his voice and to move in the grace and power he so freely gives. Grace and Truth came through Jesus, so as we cling to Christ, we should cling to both The Spirit and The Word.