Grace and Truth - Friday March 29, 2013
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NIV
During Easter I especially enjoy thinking about the character qualities found in the life of Jesus. While reading John 14 recently, I loved the thought of how He was always filled with grace and truth. Experiencing one without the other in a friend is very ineffective. Truth without grace can make us feel defeated and unworthy. Grace without truth can enable us to excuse and rationalize our sin.
Jesus never shrank back from speaking truth to His disciples or to the Pharisees, and He stills speaks truth to us today. But in His grace He continues to love us, pursue us, and walk with us through our struggles.
Isaiah 42:3 (NIV) says, " A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice." Often in our lives we feel like a bruised reed that could easily break with one harsh word, or a faint flame that would burn out in hopelessness over another rebuke. Yet despite how weak and defeated we may feel when faced with truth about our sin, Jesus will never break us beyond repair. His goal is to "bring forth justice" (or in The Message translation: "he'll steadily and firmly set things right") in us, but in faithfulness He will keep our flame alive and encourage us as He helps us confront areas in our lives that we need to deal with.
Grace and truth: beautiful gifts from an incredible Savior. Ones to appreciate at Easter and all year long.
Submitted by:
Kelly Lewis
Gracepoint Community Church
Lewis Center, Ohio
One-Year Reading Plan:
Deuteronomy 11:1-12:32
Luke 8:22-39
Psalms 70:1-5
Proverbs 12:4
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SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.