When God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in a garden which had boundaries. They were told to respect those boundaries and obey the truth. They chose to cross God's boundary line. The rest is history.
The apostle John wrote, "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:17) Notice that the contrast is not between grace and truth. It is between the Law of the Old Testament and the Gospel of the New Testament. Grace and truth came to us secured tightly together in Jesus Christ and never to be separated. This is a critically important fact for a Christian to grasp.
Moses was given boundaries by God to pass along to the people. Like Adam and Eve, the Israelites at times crossed God's boundary lines in disrespect and disobedience. Jesus did not come to remove the boundary lines, but to go to the cross and pay for our sins of disobedience to God.
The grace and truth which Jesus brought are the best of friends. In fact, neither of them go anywhere without the other. Wherever you have the grace of God, you will also have the truth of God. And vice versa. It is actually impossible to ever have only one of them. It would be like saying, "Some of my coins have only heads, while others have only tails." It doesn't work that way with nickels, or with grace and truth.
God's boundary lines have never been abolished or removed. The only way to see these boundaries is to go to the Word of God. Without the Scriptures, all we would have to go on is what we feel is right and wrong. Our feelings can deceive us, as Adam and Eve discovered.
Grace and truth save the souls of believers and also teach us about God's will for our lives. "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age." (Titus 2:11,12) Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment