Grace and Truth

Background Story: John was a disciple of Jesus who walked in closeness with Him on earth and teaches us how to walk in fellowship with Him as believers.

Read 1 John 1

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

Big Idea: Fellowship with God requires equal measures of the grace and truth found in Christ.

Fellowship. I love that word. It calls to mind friends around a table… talking, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company. But this word, “fellowship” means something deeper than just hanging out. It means communion and an intimate bond. It refers to oneness. I want to walk in fellowship with God, to be in His presence, and feel close with Him. And I’m sure you do as well. And as I was examining the idea of fellowship with God, I read these words found in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

To walk in fellowship or closeness with God, requires equal measures of the grace and truth found in Christ.

Grace: We receive grace from Jesus at the time of salvation because we didn’t deserve His mercy. He gave it to us freely because He loves us and knew His death was necessary for our salvation. As we live as believers, we continue to need His grace. Although we want to live without sin, until we are home with the Father, sin is among us. So we rely on His grace to walk out our salvation knowing we will still falter and fail. (Romans 5)

Truth: Salvation requires truth. We see our sin and our need for a Savior, and we come in truth before a holy God for forgiveness. As we continue in our faith, God calls us to walk in truth and honesty before Him as children of the Light. Not to hide from Him or walk in shame. But to live in undivided devotion pursuing truth, holiness, righteousness, and the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin. And even though His grace is present, we don’t use grace as an excuse for sin. We continue to live in the light bringing all before Him. (Romans 6)

That means that today when you or I say something, do something, or think something that we recognize as sin… there is both grace and truth equally present in Christ. They both call us to the altar to be authentic before God and to feel the warmth of His love. Satan wants us to hide and pretend, creating space between us and God. Don’t listen to his lies today. Take time to dive deeper into Romans and hear the message of both grace and truth present in these verses from Romans 8:1-3, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.” (Romans 8

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