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The law condemns, the truth sets free

Martha Kolb-Wyckoff

In my limited exposure to church conference conventions over the past 10 years, I have been intrigued by the way grace and truth are set against each other. For example, in the middle of a debate on a difficult issue, someone will go to the microphone to remind us of the grace-filled story in John 8. The teachers of the law bring an adulterous woman to Jesus in hopes that He will condemn her. Instead, Jesus says to the woman, “Has no one condemned you?... Neither do I condemn you... Go and leave your life of sin” (John 8:10-11).

It doesn’t take long until someone responds with something like, “Grace is well and good, but we also must speak the truth. We dare not get soft on sin; we must call sin sin.” It appears we must choose whether we are for grace or for truth.

In light of this, I have been reflecting on John 1:17: “The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” If both grace and truth came through Jesus, they can’t be at odds with each other. The two concepts must reinforce each other.

Can it be that the call for truth on the convention floor is more a call for law than for truth? The law is about meting out judgment. It’s about condemnation. The law says that you are a sinner, while the truth of the gospel is that I am a sinner. Those two ideas are worlds apart. It is so easy for me to self-righteously call you a sinner, much harder to acknowledge the truth that I am a sinner. Yet, “if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (I John 1:8).

The teachers of the law brought the woman to Jesus because they judged her to be a sinner according to the law of Moses and they wanted Jesus to condemn her. But Jesus extended grace to her, not condemnation. He recognized the sin, but He did so in a way that enabled her to acknowledge the truth of her own sinfulness.

I had a conversation many years ago with a friend and spiritual mentor who was divorced. Divorce was, and is, a troubling issue for me, and on that sunny afternoon by the pool I said to her, “Help me understand that you are divorced.” She looked at me and, with tears in her eyes, said, “It’s sin.” No excuses; no alibis. She did not hesitate to acknowledge the truth of her situation.

As I reflect on my early years growing up in a Mennonite church, I am aware of a strong sense of being under the law. I knew it was important to be obedient and to get it right so that I would not be condemned. Sinners were the other folks that didn’t get it right.

It is important to live faithfully and obediently; discipleship is immensely important. But I dare never lose sight of the truth that I am a sinner, desperately in need of God’s grace. I can never experience Gods grace until I acknowledge that I am a sinner. Grace that does not first acknowledge sin is no grace at all. Our inability to acknowledge and confess sin in our lives continues to make it difficult for so many of us to experience and live in God’s abundant grace.

Jesus came to free us from the law with its demands and condemnation; the law has no remedy for sin. Grace and truth, on the other hand, make sure that sin does not have the last word. Paul said to the Romans, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace” (Romans 3:23-24).

The truth that I am a sinner is not a license to live sinfully. On the contrary, the truth that I am a sinner keeps me on my knees at the foot of the cross. That location is not a likely setting from which to issue condemnation. It is a wonderful place from which to invite others to the truth and grace that come through Jesus Christ.

Martha Kolb-Wyckoff is on the pastoral team of Waterford Mennonite Church in Goshen, IN.

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Last modified August 31, 2000.

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