I thank God for His grace because if it were not for His grace, none of us would have qualified to be called children of God. However, one can’t preach grace without also preaching truth. These two are inseparable. Jesus came “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Grace is the foundation of everything in our lives as believers. It is what has made everything possible in our lives such as the blessings of God, eternal life, prosperity, healing, deliverance forgiveness of sins among many other numerous things that God has done for us.
On the other hand, while grace is the anchor of our relationship with God, it is important to also look at the role that truth plays in this equation. We need to know the truth about God’s forgiveness and that He is not punishing us anymore. All our sins have been forgiven; past, present and future. To the regular readers you are aware that I have explained this issue of forgiveness of sins in my previous articles and will therefore not elaborate on that again. In order for us to fully appropriate the grace that is available to us, we have to know the truth about forgiveness of sins, the truth about healing, the truth about prosperity and the truth about deliverance. Ignorance in these areas will make you easy fodder for the cunning and pseudo ministers of God who will hoodwink you into believing false teachings and doctrines manufactured solely for the purposes of getting hard-earned money from their unsuspecting congregants due to ignorance. This is why the Bible says, my people perish because of lack of knowledge.
When you know the truth, it will set you free. While there is an emergence of the gospel of grace which I am very excited about, (I have even called this column Grace Tidings), there are also some serious abuses, misuses of grace and things said about grace that are absolutely heretic and damaging to the body of Christ. There have been lies propagated from literally most sections of our society, families, business, politics, schools and even churches. We have to desire to know the truth to be liberated from these lies. The only way you will know the truth is by continuing in God’s Word, then you will be
His disciples indeed and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. This means that lies keep you in bondage.
We have to look at Jesus as the model. In John 1:11-14, we read: “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name”
When we look at the last sentence of the above quoted scripture, we find that it is at times offensive to people. I remember offending a very close friend when I stated that not everybody is a child of God. I know as you read this you may also be offended, but that is the truth according to this scripture. It clearly states that “He gave the right to become children of God” to those who received Him. This means that if you haven’t received Him, you don’t have the right to be called a child of God.
Do you know that even the church has deceived people and said everybody is a child of God? I have news for you, from what we have just read, everybody is not a child of God. Indeed, everybody came from God, everybody is loved by God, but not everybody is a child of God. I know this is offensive in a culture filled with lies. The fact that everybody is loved by God doesn’t mean that everybody is right with God. This has to be explained, especially by the church. We need to tell people the truth that unless they receive Christ and believe in Him then they are not a child of God. If you receive Jesus as your Lord then you are a child of God “not born of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but born of God”.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Verse 14 states that “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”.
Jesus was not only full of grace but He was also full of truth. He never compromised the truth, He never denied the truth, He was never ashamed of the truth and yet He was very gracious. Jesus was “the Bible with eye balls.” We have the opportunity to see how God treats people, how He loves people and how He speaks the truth in love through His Word. It is very sad to note that the Jesus of the Bible is not the same Jesus we see preached in most churches today.
You and I have to be like Jesus. His plan is to predestine us to be conformed to the likeness of Him (Romans 8:29). If we are to be like Jesus, we have to be filled with grace and truth. We have to be kind, gracious and compassionate like Jesus and also never compromise on the truth. Jesus was a perfect balance of grace and truth and we should be the same.
When we mention grace, we are talking about God’s favour, compassion, kindness, love and how we are accepted in the beloved. He will never leave nor forsake us. This is grace. We should know the truth as it relates to the grace of God. Truth relates to God’s Word and the Kingdom principles. God has a moral code which will always be there forever. His right and wrong never changes. There is truth that governs the natural world. For example, the law of gravity is truth, if you violate it you suffer and if you respect it you don’t have any problems.
Grace is God’s nature (1 John 4:8). God is love. He does not have love, He is love. Love is of God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God. So we can’t know love if we don’t know God. So people who don’t know God who talk about love don’t know what they are talking about. If love is of God, then love is not of this world. If love is of God, then it means love is not of my flesh neither is it of my feelings. This means that if love is of God then to know true love, I have to know God and I have to be born of God.
Furthermore, truth is God’s character. God has got character. God has integrity (Romans 4:21). We see how Abraham discovered that whenever God promises something, He is faithful to deliver on His promise. He is a faithful God.
We don’t have to compromise truth to be the people of grace. You can’t deny truth in the name of grace. You can’t tell people that they are going to heaven when the truth is that they haven’t received Jesus as their Saviour. Grace without truth is meaningless. Truth without grace is mean. We need the balance.
God’s love and God’s wrath don’t contradict. God’s wrath against sin comes out of God’s love for His creation. God hates sin and his hatred for sin comes out of His love for you and I. Sin is dangerous and deadly and it hurts and creates depression and destroys you.
There are people with the truth but don’t have the foundation of grace. These people are very mean. I remember when I was at the university, I received Christ as my Saviour. There was a brother we used to fellowship with at the Christian Union, that brother was so mean. Whenever I saw him, fear would engulf me. He would ask me if I had prayed and what time I prayed. He would ask if I woke up early in the morning to pray? What I had read in the Bible?
And what was God saying to me? It was as if I was in a kangaroo court. While it was important that I should pray and read the Bible, one did not have to be this legalistic about it. These are some of the people who would make people run away from the Gospel instead of running towards it. When we look at the Bible, Jesus was a friend of sinners and tax collectors because He is a gracious God. This is why He was always fighting with Pharisees and Scribes who considered themselves an elite group of holy people. His response was always that He came for the lost. This was grace personified.
It is important to interpret all truth in the light of God’s grace. We will look at grace as it relates to forgiveness, prosperity, healing and deliverance in the next edition.
Dr Doug Mamvura is a graduate of Charis Bible School. Feedback: [email protected] or Twitter @dougmamvura
