The Paradox of Grace and Truth

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.
~ John 1:14

So God is calling us to be and become joyfully evangelical and intentionally multi-cultural. Which means we are also being called to be purposely paradoxical. I have shared before with this group my delight in the dilemma that John gives us when he proclaims that Jesus, as the Word Become Flesh, is full of both Grace and Truth. This stands as one of the great paradoxes of our paradoxical God. Grace is utterly free and utterly welcoming. But Truth sets limits and demands accountability. And God calls us to live and breathe and honor this tension in our lives.

Jesus loves children and touches bleeding women and eats with sinners and weeps when he sees the broken-ness of Jerusalem. But he also turns over tables of materialism, rails at liars and hypocrites and calls us a brood of vipers when we fail to honor covenant God. forgives the prodigal unconditionally, but then separates the selfless sheep from the greedy goats at the moment of judgment. Yes, graceful truth and truthful grace is the great paradox of our faith - a faith that is both radically free and rigorously accountable.

~ Susan Andrews, November 2003
Moderator of the 215th General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (USA)