Truth is not readily accepted or discussed in today’s culture. In fact, the standard today is to believe that there is no truth, rather each person has their own truth that they adhere to whatever is best and easiest for them.
Yet, this is contradictory to what Scripture has to say. The Word says that Christ was filled with grace and truth.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Christ revealed that grace and truth to us through His completed work on the cross.
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17).
When the Lord was teaching a group of people in the temple courts of Jerusalem, the Pharisees brought to Him a woman who had been caught in adultery, and they said, “Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” (John 8:5).
Jesus ignored their question and bent over to write something on the ground with His finger. When they continued questioning Him, He stood up and said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (John 8:7).
As He continued to write on the ground, the critics began to walk away until only Jesus and the woman were left. He turned to her and asked:
“Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:10–11).
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He said, “Neither do I condemn you”—that’s grace. “Go and sin no more”—that’s truth.
Perhaps truth and grace have been severely misunderstood by our world today. If you don’t understand what grace or truth is from a biblical perspective, then they suddenly become abstract concepts.
Nearly every time I discuss the grace of God someone will ask, “Doesn’t the Bible tell us that we have to work out our own salvation?”
Here is what Paul said: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). But we need to look at the context of that statement.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12).
But that is not the end of the story. It is not our work but the Lord’s that makes it possible. The next verse says, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).
So the Christian life is really working out or exercising the salvation that God has provided because of Christ’s blood—and He gives us both the desire and strength to do what pleases Him.
It is impossible for us to know truth aside from the person of Jesus Christ. It is Him who saves us and Him who makes it possible for us to live a life of faith and virtue through the Holy Spirit.
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Stephen Strang