The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Inseparable Companions"
"Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).
Without grace, truth would destroy us. Without truth, grace would deceive us. Inseparable companions came to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and truth abide with us through Him, both now and forevermore.
No reception of God's freely given favor in Christ can be considered genuine apart from the Biblical parameters by which He offers the gift. "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said" declared the Lord Jesus of those who genuinely receive God's grace offered in His Son (John 7:38; emphasis added). Our spiritual enemies are more than happy to present "another Jesus" to the unsuspecting, that is, a Christ who bears little or no resemblance to the Savior revealed in the Bible (II Corinthians 11:4). Without truth, and without our awareness of how easily we will misinterpret grace apart from it, we will inevitably be led astray by a false worship and response to God. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians regarding their early detour from God's grace in Christ, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel" (Galatians 1:6).
Along similar lines, we must have grace in order to survive truth. Certainly, all believers realize the vast spiritual and moral gulf that exists God and humanity apart from the Lord Jesus. Only the Person and work of Christ on our behalf can provide forgiveness and favor in the singular way God made possible through His Son.
"God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you… He hath made us accepted in the Beloved… By grace are ye saved through faith" (Ephesians 4:32; 1:6; 2:8-9).
The truth of who God is and the truth of who we are apart from grace would condemn the best and brightest among us. In fact, it does. "He that believeth not is condemned already" (John 3:18). Truth must act accordingly. God must maintain His integrity. He must summarily reject that which does not accord with His character and nature. Truth demands this. Thankfully, however, grace delivers us. Through His freely given favor in the Lord Jesus, God made a way to be both "just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). "He that believeth on Him is not condemned" (John 3:18). Moreover, this grace not only pardons us when we trust in Christ. It also begins a "good work" of conforming us to the spiritual and moral image of our Lord as we consistently "have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear" (Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 12:28).
Grace and truth forever serve as inseparable companions in God's redeeming work in Christ. We'll not encounter one along the path of righteousness without being greeted also by the other. The realization of receiving grace in the context of truth, and responding to truth in the light of grace, will go far in keeping our feet secure on the path by maintaining our hearts safe in the glory of "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
"And the Word was made 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 1:14)
Weekly Memory Verse
He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
(John 3:18)
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