Full of Grace and Truth

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Over the past couple of weeks, God has been showing me how important it is to balance grace and truth in our relationships. In the past, I look back and see so many mistakes I've made by being overly assertive. I tend to look at things as completely black and white; I rarely see any gray area in between my views and the wrong views. I've strained many relationships with friends, fraternity brothers, and many people that I try to share Christ with. I've been seeing that even though absolute truth exists, I am not the source of that truth. My thoughts, feelings, beliefs, etc do not constitute truth. I've had numerous discussions with friends over theological issues, convictions about sin, and so many times I push people not towards the cross, but towards my opinions. It is not my opinions that will change hearts, but God's word and grace. I'm in the progress of working through what this balance looks like. I want my life to be a reflection of the gospel, not only in word but also in deed. Jesus Christ was the perfect Son of God, and he was full of grace AND truth. I think this quote by Randy Alcorn from "The Grace and Truth Paradox" summarizes my thoughts better than I can:

The apparent conflict that exists between grace and truth isn’t because they’re incompatible, but because we lack perspective to resolve their paradox. The two are interdependent. We should never approach truth except in a spirit of grace, or grace except in a spirit of truth. Jesus wasn’t 50 percent grace, 50 percent truth, but 100 percent grace, 100 percent truth.

In Christ's sinless perfection, he was able to find this balance. He was never judging, but always honest, speaking truth. Always loving but never wavering. This is definitely an area that I need growth in. As I strive to become more like Christ, it is completely necessary that I begin to truly love people, and show truth to people in the way that he did. Full of grace and truth.

It's easy to imagine how I'll be confronted with this issue in my trip to Australia. I'm about to be plunged into a culture that I don't know or understand. I'll be surrounded by people who have completely different beliefs about God than I do. How do I reach these people? How do I minister to people who don't know the God that I do? The same way Jesus did, by being full of grace and truth....