Grace, Sin, and Balance

Often in life we seek and desire some sort of balance.  We neither want to be too hot or too cold.  We don't want to be hungry but we also don't like the feeling that we have when we have eaten too much.  We recognize that often being in the extremes of a given situation is not the best place to be.  Never the less, balance is something we seldom achieve.  It is rare, if ever true, that you find someone who is truly moderate in politics.  Do you know anyone that is always emotionally even keel?  Everyone has some sort of imbalance.  We drink too much, spend too much, get too angry, get too loud, get too quiet.  We talk too much or not talk enough.  We exercise too much or we don't exercise at all.  Balance is not something we easily find.


Now, I've been in the Church for 40 years and in that time I've heard a lot about grace and a lot about sin.  It seems that there are those in the church who spend the majority of their time talking about sin, fighting sin, and condemning sin.  Virtually everything is about homosexuality, adultery, pornography, drinking, drugs, liberals, Hollywood, and just this week the MTV VMAs and Miley Cyrus.  Then there are those that spend a majority of their time talking about grace, showing grace, and experiencing grace.  Virtually everything here is about love, respect, no exclusion, openness, relevance, social justice, and just this week about showing Miley Cyrus that we care.  Now perhaps their should be a balance to these.  After all, one cannot really know grace without knowing sin. However, as we've noted balance is not something we are particularly good at finding.  That being the case, if one is to ere on focusing more on grace or more on sin than where should one ere?  All things not being equal, what should be weighed more in our conversations and our teachings: grace or sin?