I've been giving this issue a lot of thought today, and I'm starting to think that Grace trumps truth everytime.
Let me be clear - I think Truth is personified in Jesus Christ. And yes, I do believe there is absolute truth... I just don't think any of us know what it is. Or, more to the point, what it is not.
I think Grace is a God-thing. It's kind of fuzzy. It's hard to put your hands around. Truth, on the other hand, is mostly a human-thing. It's yes or no, a 1 or a 0. We like things that are easy to understand... to quantify. I think God is bigger than that. To one, Christ said, "Follow me." To another, He said, "Go and sin no more." To another, "Sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor." To another, "Go home and tell no one what happened." To yet another, Go home and tell everyone what happened."
Truth is whatever God decides it is. Grace is whatever covers us as we stumble around trying to put Him in a box.
The point is proven by the fact that I could very well be wrong about this... (finish the sentence yourself.)
Jesus came to raise the dead.
The only qualification for the gift of the Gospel is to be dead.
You don't have to be smart.
You don't have to be good.
You don't have to be wise.
You don't have to be wonderful.
You don't have to be anything...
You just have to be dead
Robert Farrar Capon
(Quote taken from Ikon, which you should check out.)
G'day Mike
Hmmmm... immediate reflection = if grace 'beats' truth then why is Jesus simply referred to as the man full of both? (John 1) I really can't see scripture placing one above the other.
Perhaps grace is so vital to us right now because we have been a truth focused church for so long - maybe the pendulum is swinging the other way.
I'm always a bit wary of swinging pendulums!
Good discussion mate
Posted by: hamo on October 2, 2003 05:53 PMGood point, Hamo.
You'll get no argument from me that Christ is Grace and Truth personified. I think I'm looking at it more from the human perspective. We need to reflect the grace extended to us to others. The trouble is we often think we need to reflect the "truth", as we see it, to others as well.
So, can we live to try and reflect Christ's Grace to others (and very often come up short)? Absolutely. I'll even go as far to say that we can also live to uncover the elusive truth as well. The problem is many of us think we already know what it is!
Posted by: Mike on October 2, 2003 06:06 PMCheck the Daily quoation on the C.S. Lewis link for Friday Oct. 3. Maybe it sheds light on the whole truth-grace debate.
Posted by: Peter K on October 3, 2003 04:56 AMWhat if Grace=Truth? Because grace=the God kind of Love; and God=Love, right (1 John 4:8)? And God=Truth (duh). Therefore, Grace=Truth. Maybe they are not so opposed to each other as we make them.
What am I talking about? It's 2 am...
Late once again, but here goes --
I'm not sure you can rank grace and truth and I'm not sure you can really have one without the other. Grace leads to truth and truth to grace. If I have one without the other, what I have is just a perversion.
If I were Jesus (you may have your moment of worship that such was and is not the case), I'd have said, "You shall know grace and grace shall set you free." He said that truth not grace is freeing. I've been taught that truth = that which is correct or accurate. That "truth" by and large has been anything but liberating and I certainly don't see Jesus being full of that. So what I need is a very different understanding of truth.
Posted by: ronz on October 9, 2003 02:27 PM