Dear People Who Keep Company With God,

It is a Biblical fact that grace and truth always come together. Arthur Burt called grace and truth the “Siamese twins of the New Testament”. You can’t have one without the other. This comes from John 1:14-17, Jesus was full of grace and truth. So every revelation of grace comes with truth and vice versa.

As a young believer I was taught that grace apart from truth leads to lawlessness and truth apart from grace leads to legalism. The picture is that we are on a road and on each side of this road is a ditch. One is legalism and the other is lawlessness. Grace and truth working together keep us going down the middle of the road and not wrecking into the ditch on either side.

We have all experienced truth that seems rigid, demanding, controlling and feels harsh. That is usually an indication of truth without grace and it will lead to religion. Grace without truth is trickier because of our godly desires to avoid any form of legalism. However, I learned early on the dangers of neglecting truth in order to not appear legalistic.

I was saved out of an immoral lifestyle that included much partying and the abuse of drugs and alcohol. Many of my friends were saved during this time also, but after a season some began to use marijuana again. I was tempted to do this myself, but thanks to God and my wife I didn’t. Because of this I was was accused of being legalistic, but I knew in my heart if I went back down that road it would wreck my life.

For me, the marijuana thing was just a deceitful lust (Eph. 4:22). There was a perverted interpretation of the creation story being used that went something like this; God created the herbs of the field and said it was good (Gen. 1:29-31). Therefore marijuana was created by God and was good so there was nothing wrong with using it. That sounds ridiculous now, but lust and deceit are the devil’s counterfeit to grace and truth. Together, they too make a powerful force.

Grace and truth become a dilemma when we attempt to bring truth to a logical conclusion because truth is not always logical. Brother Kenneth Hagin Sr. in his fabulous little book The Believer’s Authority illustrated this well.

“It seems like it is the most difficult thing in the world for the Church to stay balanced. You can take any subject – including the authority of the believer – push it to the extreme and it becomes harmful and ceases to bless.

“Father Devine” was once saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. He had the real thing. Then he began studying these very Scriptures we have been studying. He reasoned, “If we are Christ, then I am Christ. Christ is God, so I am God. He founded a cult that was very popular. The people worshipped him.

It is easy to get into the ditch on either side of the road – into excess, wild fire and fanaticism. Let’s go down the middle of the road and maintain balance.”

Balance is what we need if we do not want to wreck our lives, but not a balance of 50 percent grace and 50 percent truth. Jesus was full of both so we need a balance of 100 percent grace and 100 percent truth.

Many Blessings, BW

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