After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.'” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
—John 5:1-15 ESV

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
—John 8:2-11 ESV

There are two courses that the Church of Jesus Christ can take into a ditch as she travels along the narrow road. Those two erroneous paths are prevalent in the Church today. Sadly, as our culture diverges into warring camps, those who adhere to one or the other of these viewpoints are tossing increasing amounts of vitriolic rhetoric over each other’s ivory tower walls much the same way that warring armies would catapult anthrax-ridden livestock into impregnable fortresses. Suffice it to say, it’s not a happy day when your front yard is on the receiving end of what’s left of Farmer Eli’s mad cow.

I highlight the above two passages (the John 5 text being one of my all-time favorites), because true disciples of Christ cannot fall into either camp. That sinking feeling I get in my gut comes from watching folks stumble over John’s writing here without a second glance. No two passages illustrate the problem better than these.

The portion of both passages highlighted in blue italics is what you hear from a lot of Emerging Church folks, many of the hopelessly liberalized mainstream denominations, and all the “sensitive” Christians out there. Theirs is the rainbow at the end of the storm. It’s a message of grace. There is no finer message. If there were no grace in the Gospel, then it would be stripped of its very heart.

The portion of both passages highlighted in red italics is what you hear from many Christians who do a great job pointing out where people are wrong. They’ve got an eye for anything out of place. They are the modern oracles of God’s holiness and they want everyone to know that God cannot tolerate sin. There is no finer message. If there were no holiness in the Gospel, then it would be stripped of its very heart.

Where both sides err is that they believe that their particular emphasis is all there is. Sure, they say that’s not what they’re about, but some people see through the PR. Their tunnel vision is the perfect prescription for steering people into the ditches on either side of the narrow path. You can’t finish the race if someone knocks you into the stands or shoves you onto the track infield. Yet both these common approaches do just that.

A person can’t experience the grace of Jesus and go on living an unchanged life. If someone who claims to love the Lord and has experienced His grace can’t stop acting like the Marquis de Sade’s favorite nephew, then something’s wrong. Likewise, laboring under a checklist of do’s and dont’s without grace will effectively kill most people’s love for Christ deader than dead. It may not be immediate, but it will come eventually—as will a completely haughty attitude of “us” vs. “them.” And we all know who “them” is.

You can’t make blue and red distinctions, yet the Church is rife with folks who want to read only the blue part and skip the red, or vice versa. Christ asks us to bestow grace on them who know no grace and to warn of the dire penalties for ignoring holiness. That’s exactly what He says here in John 5 and 8. Anything less is not the Gospel.

No one is claiming it’s easy, but incorporating both colors in our doctrine and lifestyle is the only way to stay out of the two ditches and on the road that leads to life.