Grace and Truth

Today’s reading is John 1:9-18

Since God made man there have been questions. Satan started creating them right away in Genesis 3:1 saying, “…Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” This lead to the Fall when sin came into the world. Today, we live in time when there are arguably more questions than ever due to all the craziness in the world coupled with the access to so much information through social media and the internet. Let’s name a few. Was there fraud in the presidential election? What is true and not true about Covid 19? Do masks work? Is the vaccine safe or not and should our family get it? Is global warming a threat and caused by man or just natural and normal climate change? These questions probably ignite feelings and opinions you believe to be truth. They might even invoke anger, and if they don’t, there are probably other ones I didn’t even want to list that would. Isn’t is also ironic that access to more information than ever only seems to bring more questions than answers.

From the start, man was curious and wanted to know the truth and believed some things to be true which were not. John 1:9-18 reminds us that advent is a time where we remember God gave us truth through His Son Jesus born in a manger in Bethlehem that first Christmas. He is the One and Only source of true light and the one and only source of truth (John 1:9). He is Truth.

We are also told by John in these verses He came with grace, and we know He ultimately showed us this grace through His sacrifice on the cross. Romans 5:8 reads, “but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” It is not by our doing or works that we are saved. It is purely by His grace which we do not deserve.

As I mentioned earlier, most all of us (including me!) have a lot of beliefs about what is true as it relates to what is going on in the world right now. Let us all remember this advent season that Jesus, the Word, is the only real Truth. We don’t need to look any further and for more information than is found in the Bible. Let us remind others of this as well. But, let’s also remember this advent that every time the Bible talks about grace and truth, grace always comes first. Again, Romans 5:8 tells us He gave us this grace when we didn’t deserve it. When we hear people talking or posting on social media about what they believe to be truth which we may not feel the same, let us model what Jesus taught and gave us by giving them grace first. I don’t see a lot of this grace from Christians these days. By giving this love and grace we can then point them to the Truth that is Jesus. They can then find for themselves what they are looking for this Christmas (but likely don’t know it) which is the grace and truth God gave us through that babe in a manger on the first Christmas over 2,000 years ago. Only in His grace and truth will they find peace.