I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since the Duck Dynasty controversy heated up last week over Phil Robertson’s comments in a GQ article. (Albert Mohler’s post gives a good summary of the controversy in case you’re one of the three people who haven’t heard.) Many Christian bloggers and posters defended Robertson. They applauded his bold stand for God’s truth and tossed their support his way.

Phil Robertson, Duck DynastyAlthough I’m a Duck Dynasty fan, I wasn’t going to blog about it. I didn’t feel a need because there was so much being said already. That was before I read Jen Hatmaker’s post.

It’s beautiful and thought provoking. She writes about the need for Christians to extend Jesus’ love and grace to a lost and suffering world, how public words of condemnation only cause hurt, and that conversations within the context of relationship are best. And I wholeheartedly agree. Christians must lovingly share the grace of God, which He so lavishly poured out on us.

Hatmaker proposes that Christians must extend love and grace. And her comment section shows that many agree with her. This past week, many Christian bloggers also wrote that we must extend God’s truth.

So which is it? Grace or truth? Yes!

It’s not grace or truth. It’s grace and truth. As Christians, we cannot leave either by the wayside. Jesus, “who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), is our example.

The Effects of Sin and The Need for Truth

Yes, the suffering world desperately needs the love and grace of Jesus. But it’s sin that has caused the suffering in the world. Our culture is saturated with its devastating consequences.

Sin is a cancer eating away at the fabric of our society. We see its effects everywhere. Our prisons overflow. The family is disintegrating. Sex fuels the popular culture. This cancer needs a cure before it’s too late for the patient. We need God’s grace and His truth.

In her post, Hatmaker wrote she chooses to “preach the scandalous love of Jesus in the face of any issue, demographic, or debate.” Yet, how can we share the love of Christ without sharing His greatest act of love.

“But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  The Gospel isn’t the Gospel without the “Jesus died for our sins” part (1 Corinthians 15:3).

Jesus died for our sins. He died because we are sinners. Without the acknowledgment of sin, there will be no recognition of a need for a Savior. And there will be no salvation. No spiritual healing.

Gracious Truth

The world needs both grace and truth, but they also won’t respond to a dogmatic diatribe of right and wrong. While we must not hesitate to share God’s truth, our conversation must always be “full of grace” (Colossians 4:6), presented with “gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). Let’s focus on the grace and mercy of Jesus and the forgiveness of sin He offers. And let’s be bold but gracious when God’s truth must be applied to specific topics.

Robertson obviously responded to direct questions about specific issues. While I agree that Robertson spoke words of truth, they could have been more gracious and gentle. Even the Robertson family alluded to that in their official statement.

Duck Dynasty, Robertson familyOf course, there will be times – no matter how graciously we present God’s truth – that the hearers will respond with anger and hate. The message of the Cross is foolishness to the world (1 Corinthians 1:18). For some, it is a sweet aroma of life, but to others it is the smell of death (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). But that should not keep us from sharing the Good News. And we should not water it down to make it more palatable. (Jim Daly’s post at Focus on the Family elaborates on the offense of the Gospel.)

Come as you are!

The Gospel is good news because Jesus will receive any and every sinner! There is no sin too great, no background too sordid, no heart too rebellious. Jesus’ sacrificial death covers it all. The cross is able to heal all wounds.

Yet on the redeemed side of the cross, He calls us to live holy lives. Just as He lifted the woman caught in adultery and said, “Go and sin no more,” He raises us up in new lives and tells us to “live a life worthy of the calling we have received” (Ephesians 4:1).

Yes, Jesus invites us to come to Him just as we are. But, He doesn’t want us to stay just as we are.

  • God calls the prideful to humility.
  • God calls the selfish to give.
  • God calls the gossip to speak only word that build up and encourage.
  • And calls the sexually immoral to purity.

In other words, God calls believers to holiness (Ephesians 4:24). We cannot sweep continued, unrepentant sin under a “rug of grace.” Jesus died for our sins because they were heinous enough to separate us from God. Our sins cost Jesus His life. How can we simply continue to live in them? But that’s what we do when we ignore the truth about what God calls sin.

Yes, Jesus is loving, but He is also just. Jesus is merciful, but He is also holy. We must not misrepresent Jesus to either the world or the Church.

It’s not grace or truth. It’s grace and truth. Both/and. Amen and amen.

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