Week 3—Wednesday Titus 3:3-7
Titus 3:3-7
“FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH”
We continue to look at this amazing passage: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, . . . full of grace and truth.” “Full of grace and truth.” The first thing in the Christian faith is “grace”—an act—an act of outgoing, forgiving, redeeming grace. Grace is first, for the first thing in God is love, and grace is love in action—it is the word of love become flesh. If grace is “unmerited favor,” so, here, it is Love favoring us when we are not favorable, loving us when we are not lovable, accepting us when we are not acceptable, redeeming us when by all the rules of the book we are not redeemable. Grace is love applied, the word of love become flesh. That is the distinctive thing in the Christian faith.
Suppose it had read: “Full of truth and grace.” Then the emphasis would have been upon “truth” in God. “God is truth,” said Mahatma Gandhi, for he, inheritor of the emphasis on philosophy from the Hindu centuries, would approach it with emphasis on truth. But that would be the Word become word—“God is truth” is a word about the Word. But the first thing in God is not truth but love. The Christian Scriptures never say, “God is truth,” for that would have classed the Christian faith as a philosophy. But the Christian faith is not primarily a thought; it is primarily an act—an act of Love invading history to redeem us. It is Grace in action.
Then where does “truth” come in? It comes in after “grace.” For you have to see “truth” and not merely hear about it. If truth is not seen in action, it is not seen; for truth not in action is less than truth—it is truth verbal, not vital. I am not truth unless I am truth in my relationships, in my acts. For truth that is not acting is truth static, which is less than truth.
So we see “truth” through “grace”—grace is truth in gracious act. We see the nature of truth through the revelation of the act. Otherwise truth would be the Word become word; now we see it as the Word become flesh.
O Savior, you not only save us, you save truth—saved it from being a proposition and made it into a Person. You said, “I am truth,” and lo, Truth is lovable and livable and not a dry-as-dust proposition. I am at your feet, Gracious Truth. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: All my justice shall have kindness in it, and all my kindness shall have justice in it.