Bob Russell
New Day Christian Church
“JESUS THE FORGIVER – BALANCING GRACE AND TRUTH”
John 8:1-11
February 15-16, 2025
INTRO.
A. Balance is the key. Not always, but usually, the key to success is maintaining a healthy balance between two extremes.
- Balance is the key to successful parenting – (too strict – overly permissive.)
- Balance is the key in the workplace.- (workaholics vs, laziness.)
- Balance is the key to good preaching. – (exposition and application.)
B. One of my favorite descriptions of Jesus is John 14:1 because it emphasizes His balanced character.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
- One of our challenges in living the Christian life is this balance the Bible calls “speaking the truth in love.”
- Most of us instinctively gravitate to one or the other.
- Jesus is described as perfect balance spiritually –“Full of grace and truth”..
a) If you look closely at His encounters in the gospels you can see both those character traits in Jesus.
b) It’s especially evident in the story of the woman caught in adultery recorded in John 8. Here Jesus is the forgiver of sins.
I. (Exposition) John 8:1-11
SCRIP. “Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.” (John 8:1-2)
My friend Joe Donaldson points out that Jesus’ grace and truth is evidenced in his body movements in this passage.
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (John 8:3-5)
“They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.” (John 8:6a)“But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.” (John 8:6b) “When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up” (John 8:7a)
“…and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7b)
“Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.” (John 8:8b)“At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.” (John 8:9)
“Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” (John 8:10) . ‘No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11)
II. (Application) That’s the challenge for us- as we grow to be more like Christ we need to develop a healthy balance of grace and truth.
A. When you’re dealing with people who don’t know Christ, be balanced.
- To those of you who identified as truth people – keep standing for
truth. But do so with grace. Speak the truth in love.
- To those of you who are by nature grace people. Be careful not to be
wishy washy with the truth. Stand firm in the faith.
3. So many churches today have focused on being seeker friendly that they become sin-friendly. They water down the truth about sin for fear they offend someone. They shout God’s grace and whisper repentance.
In Mark 10 Jesus had a much different encounter with a self-righteous man. The rich young ruler came running up to Jesus and fell on his knees asking “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus confronted him with the truth about his own sin. Jesus said, ‘You know the commandments, Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, cheat and honor your parents. Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” (Mark 10:20-22)
Jesus never required anyone else to sell everything and follow Him. Why was He so demanding on this one guy? There doesn’t seem much grace here. Jesus let him walk away. But Jesus was so demanding because this guy didn’t need a lot of grace. Unlike the woman caught in adultery he felt good about his righteousness. But he wasn’t righteous. He broke the first commandment every day by allowing his money to be his God. So Jesus was full of truth and made him confront his sin.
Someone wrapped it up like this “Truth without love is brutality. Love
without truth is hypocrisy. Speaking the truth in love is authenticity.
B. The same is true in our relationships in the church. When we disagree with other Christians we need to be balanced between grace and truth.
- The church is like a large family. We love each other but there are going to be disagreements and family conflicts are inevitable.
- Sometimes conflict exists because no one has the courage to confront the truth.
Proverbs 27:5-6 “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. (Don’t pretend every-thing’s wonderful when you both know it’s not)
Paul and Barnabas teamed up for a missionary trip. They were a great team. Paul was strong on truth. Barnabas was full of grace as evidenced by the fact he was the first to welcome Paul and verify his conversion as being authentic.
During their missionary trip something disturbing happened. (Acts13:13)
“Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphilia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem”. Then 3-4 years later Paul and Barnabas plan a return trip. They decide to go back & visit the churches that had been established.
Barnabas suggests, “Let’s see if John Mark can go with us again.
Paul responds, “No way!” I don’t want to have that headache again. What
a disappointment he was.”
Barnabas responds, “Paul, he’s matured. He learned his lesson. He’ll be
helpful. He deserves a second chance.
Sadly, the result of this disagreement was separation.
(Acts 15:39-40) They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.”
a) It’s inevitable that church people are going to have disagreements. We are imperfect and occasionally get on each other’s nerves.
b) Don’t let those disagreements destroy relationships. Make a conscien-tious effort to be balanced. Listen to both sides. Be full of grace & truth.
“A soft answer turns away wrath but harsh words stir up anger.” (Prov. 15:1)
c) Many potentially divisive issues can be defused by humor and grace.
Ephesians 4 is an entire chapter about the importance of unity in the church. It begins “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body… (Eph. 4:2-4)
In the middle Paul writes (15-16) “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph 4:15-16)
He closes out with this statement in verse 32 “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Eph. 4:32)
C. You know where we need this balance most? -In our homes.
- Most of us marry someone the opposite of us.
- We admire someone who is strong in areas where we’re weak.
ILL. My wife is a truth person. Accuracy matters to her a lot. I’m a little more flexible than she. She thinks I’m too loose.” Did you see that sign said no U turn?” Judy, it’s 1:00 a.m.!”
a) I need to understand and practice grace because her focus on details is such an asset to our marriage- We go on trips guess who makes the reservations and gets them accurate? Income tax is due guess who assembles all the receipts down to the smallest detail?
b) Think about how hard she’s had to work for 59 years to extend grace to me when I’m thoughtless or overly merciful.
3. You know who needs grace and truth – our kids.
a) So many parents let their kids run wild – no rules- no accountability no truth.
b) On the other hand some overly strict parents are so demanding their kids know nothing about God’s love and grace because they never see it in the home.
c) Balance is the key- to be full of grace and truth.
ILLUSTRATION: Jeff Walling’s story of a strict father who discovered his daughter was pregnant. He eventually said, ‘You are still my daughter. Your mother and I love you. We forgive you. There’s nothing you can do to take away that love.”
CONC.
A. Do the people in your life know that?
- Do non-believers sense that? Do other church members see that? Do family members know?
- No matter what you’re feeling, no matter what your theology, that you, like God would say, “I will never stop loving you.” – “neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more.”
B. Jesus offers you grace and forgiveness. He died on the cross to pay the price for your sins. He said, “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved.”
a) Why don’t you come to Him and receive His grace while there is time.
b) Hear Him say to you, “Neither do I condemn you, go and leave your life of sin.”
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