Grace & Truth: They Just Go Together
by Mike Killebrew
Certain things just go together.
Peanut butter & jelly
Bacon & eggs
Chips & salsa
Salt & pepper
Thunder & lightning
Hammer & nails
Baseball & glove
Batman & Robin
Question & answer
I could easily keep going…
I just got laughed at by some of my family for using peanut butter as an ice cream topping because we didn’t have any peanuts to go with the last little bit of caramel sauce I found in the fridge. Peanuts and caramel are my favorite ice cream topping because they “just go together!” While I missed the crunch, the peanut butter and caramel still tasted great. I still ate the entire bowl, despite the groaning and laughter from my family.
Some things simply belong together.
Grace and truth just go together. Without each other, they fall short of the complete biblical picture. Yet we live in a world that often plays them against each other. On one side, grace is taken to mean unconditional acceptance without any change. On the other hand, truth is often wielded like a weapon, delivered without compassion. Damage is done either way.
When we look at Jesus, we see both. John 1:14 tells us that Jesus came “full of grace and truth.” Just a few verses later, John 1:17 adds, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” He didn’t do half and half. He didn't alternate between the two but was full of both, at the same time.
Grace and truth working together sit at the very center of the gospel. Grace without truth is shallow and unhelpful. Truth without grace is legalistic and unhelpful. Jesus shows us they just go together.
As His followers, we are called to reflect that same combination in our lives, homes, churches, and communities.
We often lean one way or another, perhaps even situationally, depending on the circumstances or who is involved. Some lean naturally toward grace. We forgive easily, stay patient, and move on, but sometimes we avoid a hard, necessary conversation or overlook sinful behavior. Others may lean more toward truth. We speak boldly and call things out…but our tone leaves people feeling condemned instead of loved.
Do you feel that tension? I do. There have been many times I’ve replayed a conversation and wish I would have been either more gracious or more truthful, knowing I had missed a key ingredient.
But Jesus never chose between grace and truth. He offered both, fully. It’s not easy. It’s far simpler to pick one side. But when we do, we lose the heart of the gospel message. The biblical picture is distorted.
Think of His encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. He offered her living water before addressing her brokenness. Grace came first. Then He spoke the truth about her life. He didn’t compromise one for the other. He offered both as he declared in John 4:26, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
So how do we live this out?
Stay rooted in Jesus. We can’t create this balance on our own. It comes from living in step with Christ, knowing His Word, and relying on His Spirit.
Lead with grace, follow with truth. Jesus often began with compassion—meeting needs, showing love, offering hope. Then He spoke truth. We tend to respond best to truth after we’ve experienced grace. Not only do we see this in John 4, but we also see this with His encounter with the woman caught in adultery in John 8:11. First he forgives, then he tells her to leave her life of sin.
Speak the truth in love. Ephesians 4:15 calls us to this as mature believers: “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.” Truth without love isn’t really truth. Love without truth isn’t really love. We must love enough to have a hard conversation.
Reflect the gospel in relationships. In your home, workplace, church, neighborhood, or friendships, ask: Am I showing the grace of Christ here? Am I pointing to the truth of Christ here? Both questions matter.
Our world doesn’t need more voices that shout truth without compassion or extend grace without direction and accountability. We need men and women who look like Jesus, who welcome sinners without excusing sin, who tell the truth without losing tenderness. When we focus our lives on Jesus, we will be people who don’t swing wildly between softness and harshness but who, by the power of the Spirit of Jesus, can be full of both grace and truth. Our theme for the year is found in 1 John 2:6, “If I claim to be a Christian, I must live as Jesus lived.” When we live like Jesus, with grace and truth, it just goes together.
Let’s carefully not pick sides between grace and truth but live in the fullness of both. Like peanut butter and jelly, they just belong together. And the only way to live that out is by living like Jesus.
