Grace and Truth Make a Powerful Team
Have you ever been on a powerful team?
Verse of the Day
‘For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’
Today’s Devotional
There are some things that are really good by themselves. Like peanut butter. Sometimes, a good thing becomes a great thing when it is paired with something else. For instance, the pairing of peanut butter and chocolate is outstanding. Sometimes a great pairing is unexpected. Today, I tried a snow cone that had ice cream on the bottom. When I first heard of this pairing, I thought it sounded weird and that those two things could not taste good together. I was wrong. It is a delightful combination.
Truth is a wonderful thing by itself. However, part of the truth of God is that we cannot do enough on our own to achieve the necessary righteousness to be reconciled with our Creator. But when you pair truth with grace…. You now have something so amazing that it’s hard to wrap our minds around.
Just like the winning combination of chocolate and peanut butter are found in one entity (the amazing Reese’s peanut butter cup), the miraculous combination of grace and truth are found in one Person. His name is Jesus.
Look at this excerpt from bibleref.com about today’s verse:
“Verse 17 explains an important difference between the ministries of Moses and Jesus. Moses’ ministry brought knowledge of the law. But the law could only show us how sinful and broken we were (Romans 3:20). Rather than just bringing us truth, Jesus also brought us grace. Instead of simply telling us that we were broken, Christ gave us a way to fix what was wrong. This is an important, common theme of the Bible. Human efforts will always fall short, and everyone is corrupted with sin (Romans 3:23). Instead of leaving us to face that uncomfortable truth alone, Jesus provided a way for us to experience forgiveness. Merely doing good deeds can never save us, only God’s grace, through faith, can do that.”
Jesus is the perfect combination of truth AND grace. Jesus provides us an answer to our human dilemma. Jesus shows us the truth of our brokenness and fixes our brokenness with His grace. It’s a powerful combination that can only be accessed through faith in Jesus. Once we have this faith, we can then be filled with the grace and truth of Jesus. This is a daily process. As we are filled, we can then pour out grace and truth onto others. All because of Jesus.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How do you understand the pairing of grace and truth?
How can you show your gratitude for the undeserved favor of God?
Who in your life might benefit from some undeserved favor and how can you demonstrate that?