idea magazine

Holding the tension

March / April 2007

In part four of his six-part series on grace and truth, General Director Joel Edwards looks at a positive Christian approach to our secular society...

Last time, you expressed concerns about how some evangelicals have a "culture war" attitude in their engagement with society. What's a more positive approach?

This series of articles explores how we hold grace and truth in tension. It is not always easy, but without grace, truth is not truth. And without truth, grace is not grace. I think therefore that we have to continually remind ourselves of how Jesus resolved this tension.

And how was that?

I think a useful model is found in John 8. Jesus is in the temple, very early, teaching. Suddenly there's a commotion, and a group of people escorting a woman confront Jesus: "Now good master, what shall we do with this woman, because she was taken in the very act of adultery?"And Jesus does a curious thing. He stoops down and with His finger writes on the ground for a while.

So the crowd get agitated and press Him some more: "What are we going to do about this? Do we stone her, as the law of Moses commands, or what?"

After writing in the ground for a bit longer, He says, "OK, the sinless one among you, let him throw the first stone." Eventually He looks up to discover that they have all cleared off. So He looks at the woman and says, "Where are the people who wanted to stone you to death?"

She says, "They've all gone."

So He says, "I'll tell you what - I don't condemn you either. But here is an idea: go away and live a better life."

Now I want to be an evangelical like that.

How do we apply this to our lives?

I think there are four key principles we can draw from this example:

1. Take your time. Jesus teaches us to be slow to speak when difficult cases are proposed to us. The situation He is faced with is an urgent and important one. The law of Moses is clear (although it does say both parties to adultery are to be stoned - a good example of how selective fundamentalists can be about their fundamentals), but Jesus doesn't rush.
   
   I would love to serve in an evangelical constituency with the courage and the confidence in the truth to allow us to take our time before we make pronouncements and fire off yet another press release beginning with the phrase "we are concerned about such and such". Let's not be afraid to wait, so we can respond with wisdom and restraint.
2. We all mess up. "The first one among you who has no sin throw the stone." This is quite incredible: Jesus takes an individual sin and puts it in a community context. As evangelicals we seem so often to miss this point. Some of us think the most prophetic way of dealing with individual failures is to drag a person out of the crowd and stone him or her in isolated conditions. This is not to say that individuals have no personal responsibility, but we must be mindful that all of us fall short of God's glory. God is the only one who knows an individual's whole story. We simply cannot see clearly enough to judge somebody else accurately.
   
   How sad is it that followers of this merciful, gracious Jesus have earned a reputation as judgemental moralisers. Perhaps when we put sin in the context of our own failings we can find a little more grace and humility to engage with those who, like us, fall.
   
   What do we do when a Christian member of Parliament tells the world he's a homosexual. Do we never talk to him or pray for him again? Or do we ask what it is about our society that makes it so hard for public figures to be truthful - and, by the way, can we talk to you about that thing you've disclosed?
   Jesus took a woman's sin from personal piety and made it a community issue. And when the men heard the challenge they went away, dropping their stones. We need to drop our stones.
3. Ask questions. Once the men disperse, Jesus' first encounter with the woman is a question: "Where are those people who were accusing you?" Jesus was always asking the questions that unlocked a situation, making a person consider what was really important and find their own way to an answer. Coming up with the right questions can be harder than coming up with what we think are the right answers. I think curiosity is an evangelistic tool that we under-use. We need to rediscover it.
   Jesus could ask so many questions because He was confident of His identity and of the truth. Evangelicals have a habit of thinking that being right with God means we are right about everything else, so we've got no questions to ask. It's a nervous Christianity without the courage to dialogue or debate. Asking questions shows a confidence in who we are. Who wants to go to a doctor who doesn't ask you how you feel?
4. Don't condemn. Jesus didn't condemn the woman. He could have said, "You are in sin." But He doesn't need to say what the law of Moses has demonstrated. What He does need to tell her is that she can do better, and that God has better for her.
   
   This is not to say that Jesus never points out sin. He does, when the person is not aware that sin is the issue (the man unable to walk who was let down through the roof, for example). We will sometimes need to use the language of sin, as it is still relevant for any discussion about community cohesion.
   But we have to understand that grace and truth are always relational. They are tailor-made. They don't come by committee, by big statements or aggressive press releases. Jesus' grace spoke God's truth to a woman's life at one specific moment.
   
   We need to follow His model - to be the ones who take our time, who have the humility of being fellow sinners and the curiosity of those assured of their identity, but who seek to understand others. To be the ones who speak truth with grace, and grace with truth.