How does Jesus receive us? I know how he treated me. I was a twenty-year-old troublemaker on a downhill path. And though I’d made a commitment to Christ a decade earlier, you wouldn’t have known it by the way I lived. Finally I came to Jesus, and he welcomed me back.
Please note: he did not accept my behavior. But he accepted me, his wayward child. He said, “Come back. I’ll clean you up.” He was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Not just grace, but truth. Not just truth, but grace. Grace and truth.
Grace told the adulterous woman, “I do not condemn you.” But truth told her, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Jesus shared truth but graciously, and Jesus offered grace but truthfully. Grace and truth. Acceptance seeks to offer both. This is how happiness happens.
