A snapshot of God …

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You would think it would be beneficial to police when there are eyewitnesses to crimes, but that’s not always the case.

That’s because we’re not as aware of others and our surroundings as we like to think. When police officers question witnesses for descriptions of someone they saw commit a crime, few people can offer a helpful, accurate description of the person they saw.

What color hair? Tall or short? What color shirt? Young or old?

You might be surprised at just how few details the average witness can offer with any confidence.

To really be able to describe someone, you have to have a good look at them. At Christmas, we finally get a good look at God, who entered the world He created as a baby human. John gives us a couple things that make for a reliable description:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth,” John 1:14 (NIV), and then just a few verses later, John would add, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” John 1:17.

If you had to give an accurate description of Jesus, you might miss some obvious details, but what was clear to John was that He is full of grace and truth.

It’s not uncommon today to hear some people suggest that to be a follower of Jesus means being people of grace, and others counter we must be people of truth. But our clear picture of Jesus reveals that He was full of both, grace and truth. Jesus would say of Himself, “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me,'” John 14:6. Jesus taught and lived out (IS) truth, graciously.

To give a reliable description of “Immanuel,” which means “God with us,” you have to describe both truth and grace; to leave out one for the other would be to provide an inaccurate rendering. Randy Alcorn, author and founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries, notes of these seemingly opposing attributes:

“Truth hates sin. Grace loves sinners. Those full of grace and truth — those full of Jesus — do both.”

Scotty