WAKE FOREST, N.C. — On May 16, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) and Judson College celebrated their spring commencement exercises and the graduation of 220 graduates, representing 28 states and nine countries.
During his commencement address, SEBTS President Danny Akin gave the graduates a challenge centered around “five words that can change the world.”
“They are words that come directly from God in His inspired and inerrant Word,” Akin said. “And they are five words that I pray will accompany you all the days of your life and your ministry, wherever you go and whatever you do.”
These words are written by the apostle Paul and are found in Ephesians 4:15: “Speak the truth in love.”
“Our God is a God of truth, and truth matters to our God. Our God, indeed, teaches us that His truth is eternal. It’s not relative,” he said. “His truth is essential.”
Akin emphasized the importance of speaking the truth — even when the world does not want to hear it. Turning to the graduates in front of him, Akin said, “What kind of truth do I pray will accompany you along your life and ministry as you graduate from this place today?”
Akin proceeded to highlight essential truths of the Christian faith, challenging graduates to stand firm in the gospel of Christ, unashamed of the truth of His salvation and the exclusivity of the gospel. He urged the graduates to hold fast to the truth of the sanctity of life and its start at conception, to defend those who are vulnerable and to uphold every human being as a person made in the image of God.
Akin told graduates to hold fast to the truth of marriage between one man and one woman as laid out in the Word of God, recognizing it as “God’s plan for human flourishing.” He challenged them to stand by the truth of grace over legalism and to remember God’s love for humanity. It is this very love that drives Southeastern’s passion for the Great Commission.
“We have no option to do anything other than speak the truth of God,” Akin said. However, this truth cannot be spoken in just any type of way, he explained.
It is “in love” that Christians should speak the truth, Akin said. Many believers, he expressed, fail to follow and honor Christ in this way, and yet it is a vital part of the believer’s witness. This love is rooted in Christ and in His gospel; it reflects His love for the church.
Akin closed by quoting John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV).
“I believe those words were ringing in the ears of the apostle John,” Akin said, “when he wrote in 1 John 4:10: ‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’”
It is through the love and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ that Christians then love others and are able to speak the truth in love.
Also in the ceremony, Provost Scott Pace presented the annual Excellence in Teaching award to Tracy McKenzie, professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, recognizing and honoring his outstanding work as a scholar, teacher and mentor. The award is presented annually to a Southeastern faculty member who has distinguished himself or herself in the classroom.
Afterwards, friends, family and faculty gathered on the lawn to celebrate the new alumni of Southeastern and Judson.
