Van Moody is the founding pastor of The Worship Center Christian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and host of the Advanced Leadership Intensive: Raising up Kingdom Leaders to Influence Society and Culture, on May 4-5
Just as secular America has become more and more polarized over politics, the fracture among the Christian community, between liberal Christians and the movement they refer to as “Christian Nationalists,” which describes many evangelicals, has also grown.
On one side, liberal Christians have moved to the extreme left. Their desire to highlight the importance of social justice and the compassion of Christ appears at times to sacrifice core Christian values and standards. On the other side are the conservative Christians, who have moved further away from grace and compassion by supporting a president that many believe doesn’t represent Christian values. Each side has accused the other of being un-Christ-like.
On that note, they are both right. Each side has lost touch with what it truly means to be Christian, which is to live by Christ’s example. By choosing one or the other – grace over truth, or vice versa – they have betrayed the life and example of Christ upon which the Christian faith rest.
During his life, Jesus had numerous encounters with difficult people and issues, not unlike the ones we face today. In every one of these encounters, He embodied the balance of grace and truth. In one of these encounters (Matthew 22), Jesus was confronted about whether people should pay taxes to the government. His response was, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” In short: we must respect the laws and government while, at the same time, understand that there is a bigger truth that transcends. The answer is not either-or; the answer is to exhibit both grace and truth. Anyone who calls themselves a “Christian” must understand this obligation to be “Christ-like.”
At its core, this battle of extremes is the classic issue of legalism (conservatives) vs license (liberals). Choosing one over the other results in a faith that looks nothing like Jesus. Grace without truth is compromise, and truth without grace is condemnation.
However, Jesus stood at the intersection of both extremes. He offered a different path forward by embodying balance.
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Source: Christian Post
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