1 John 5:9 - We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.

There are two kinds of stories that we hear in our lives, and one of them is much more prevalent than the other. We could call them the human story and the God story. John calls them "the testimony of men" and "the testimony of God." Perhaps most simply, they could be called the law story and the grace story.

The law story, unfortunately, is the prevalent one. You know this story well. It'll probably be the dominant story you deal with today. This-for-that, tit-for-tat, you-scratch-my-back, I'll- scratch-yours - all of these things typify the law story. The law story is the one you must familiarize yourself with and participate in if you want to get ahead in life.

If you want to be the one to get the promotion at work, you tailor your output to what will catch your supervisor's eye. You might do a favor for someone with the expectation that, should the need arise, they'll do a favor for you in the future. You might be willing to say something that you don't really believe in order to be seen in a certain light.

The God story, however - the grace story - isn't like this at all. Since God has already given us everything we need in Christ - all the affirmation, all the value, all the significance - we don't have to get any of those things from other people. That means we don't have to worry about scratching their backs in order to have ours scratched; our backs have been scratched in Christ, so we can find ourselves free to serve our neighbors without regard for what we might get in return.

Here;s the good news: the God story always trumps the human story. The law is the way of the world - the people in your office will never let you forget it - but grace is not of this world. That's the truest testimony according to John: "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son".

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,