Reflection of Service: Truth AND Grace (Or truth and then grace, grace and then truth or grace until I'm angry.)

Thinking this morning about God's amazing truth and His grace.  

His truth sets us free and His grace sets us free.  

Both bring freedom.  Check this out.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--Ephesians 2:8

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You will become free '?"  John 8:31-33

I love the concept of truth and grace and yet I struggle with its reality in my own life and in offering to others.  

It is truth or grace, grace and then truth or truth and then grace.  

Or is it grace until I'm mad and frustrated and then pull out the truth on em!

Or worse, it is much easier to speak on grace and truth then it is to live it.

Control is such a menace in our lives, that I believe we hear these words of Jesus and immediately try to figure out how we are doing them.  

I know I justify, minimize my sin and I resist the authority (and spiritual freedom) both truth and grace bring.

I miss out on the peace and freedom of His reality in my life.

Because I struggle with the reality of His truth and His grace active in my own life, I struggle with the reality of giving it to others.  

I tend to give one or/and the other.

If you want the freedom both truth and grace and the reality of them in your life as I do, then we have reading, mediating and seeking to do.  

Mathew Henry's words are a great place to begin.

Mathew Henry's Commentary on Luke 8:30-36 Such power attended our Lord's words, that many were convinced, and professed to believe in him. He encouraged them to attend his teaching, rely on his promises, and obey his commands, notwithstanding all temptations to evil. Thus doing, they would be his disciples truly; and by the teaching of his word and Spirit, they would learn where their hope and strength lay. 

Christ spoke of spiritual liberty; but carnal hearts feel no other grievances than those that molest the body, and distress their worldly affairs. Talk to them of their liberty and property, tell them of waste committed upon their lands, or damage done to their houses, and they understand you very well; 

but speak of the bondage of sin, captivity to Satan, and liberty by Christ; tell of wrong done to their precious souls, and the hazard of their eternal welfare, then you bring strange things to their ears. 

Jesus plainly reminded them, that the man who practised any sin, was, in fact, a slave to that sin, which was the case with most of them. Christ in the gospel offers us freedom, he has power to do this, and those whom Christ makes free are really so. But often we see persons disputing about liberty of every kind, while they are slaves to some sinful lust.


Matthew Henry on Ephesians 2:1-10 Sin is the death of the soul. A man dead in trespasses and sins has no desire for spiritual pleasures. When we look upon a corpse, it gives an awful feeling. A never-dying spirit is now fled, and has left nothing but the ruins of a man. 

But if we viewed things aright, we should be far more affected by the thought of a dead soul, a lost, fallen spirit. 

A state of sin is a state of conformity to this world. Wicked men are slaves to Satan. Satan is the author of that proud, carnal disposition which there is in ungodly men; he rules in the hearts of men. From Scripture it is clear, that whether men have been most prone to sensual or to spiritual wickedness, all men, being naturally children of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath. What reason have sinners, then, to seek earnestly for that grace which will make them, of children of wrath, children of God and heirs of glory! 

God's eternal love or good-will toward his creatures, is the fountain whence all his mercies flow to us; and that love of God is great love, and that mercy is rich mercy. And every converted sinner is a saved sinner; delivered from sin and wrath. 

The grace that saves is the free, undeserved goodness and favour of God; and he saves, not by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Grace in the soul is a new life in the soul.  

A regenerated sinner becomes a living soul; he lives a life of holiness, being born of God: he lives, being delivered from the guilt of sin, by pardoning and justifying grace. Sinners roll themselves in the dust; sanctified souls sit in heavenly places, are raised above this world, by Christ's grace. 

The goodness of God in converting and saving sinners heretofore, encourages others in after-time, to hope in his grace and mercy. Our faith, our conversion, and our eternal salvation, are not of works, lest any man should boast. These things are not brought to pass by any thing done by us, therefore all boasting is shut out. 

All is the free gift of God, and the effect of being quickened by his power. It was his purpose, to which he prepared us, by blessing us with the knowledge of his will, and his Holy Spirit producing such a change in us, that we should glorify God by our good conversation, and perseverance in holiness. None can from Scripture abuse this doctrine, or accuse it of any tendency to evil. All who do so, are without excuse.