Why I Appreciate Trinity Reason 3: Orthodox Belief and Liberal Hospitality (4/13)

Jesus came “full of grace and truth” (John 1.14). His church only seems to be able to do one or the other. There are truth churches and there are grace churches, but very few grace and truth churches. Ken Costa, the Churchwarden at Holy Trinity Brompton said, “Without graciousness, conviction is sharp-edged and abrasive. Without conviction, graciousness has a soft ineffectiveness.” Someone else said, “Truth without love kills. Love without truth lies.”

I love that Trinity desires to be full of grace and truth. One phrase we have been using is “strengthen the core and soften the edges.” Our teaching is not ultimately our teaching. We received teaching, and pass it on. We can’t think of a way to improve Biblical revelation. We also want absolutely everybody to have access to it. We want our language to be accessible. We want our campus to be accessible. There are times we limit our own liberties in Christ for the sake of the guest. We believe that repentance doesn’t precipitate God’s kindness, but that the kindness of God leads to repentance (Romans 2.4). We want people to meet the kindness of God when they meet us, whether it is at the door of the church or at the desk at school or work or on the docks.

Conservative and liberal are ultimately unhelpful adjectives to describe Trinity. Jesus was so conservative, he didn’t change an iota of received revelation, the Hebrew Scriptures (Matthew 5.17-20). Jesus was so liberal, he had (has) table fellowship with sinners (Matthew 9.10-11).