Grace & Truth

I’ve heard many teachers take this verse from John and make it about balance. “We have to balance grace and truth,” they say. “We need to be careful about too much grace. Jesus is full of grace AND truth.” Language, however, tells a different story. The Greek word used for “truth” here means reality. Jesus is the reality of grace. He is not grace that is ethereal, conceptual, or abstract. He is divine favor that became man and made His home with us so that we might know & experience the true nature of a God overflowing with unconditional love for fragile people. John goes on to tell us just two verses later that the gift Christ brought with Him was not a balanced grace, parceled-out grace, or safe grace, but rather, from His fullness, hyper-abounding, over-abundant, beyond-imagination-grace. See, that’s the reality of Heavenly favor, beyond what we could ever ask or think. God’s rad like that.

John 1:14-18; Ephesians 3:20; Romans 5:20