Like Job’s friends, we naturally conclude that good people get good stuff and bad people get bad stuff. The idea that bad people get good stuff is counterintuitive; it seems terribly unfair and offends our sense of justice. Even those of us who have tasted the radical saving grace of God find it intuitively difficult not to put conditions on grace. The truth is that a “yes grace, but” posture is the kind of posture that perpetuates slavery i
n our lives and in the church.
Grace is radically unbalanced. It has no “but”; it’s unconditional, uncontrollable, unpredictable, and undomesticated. As Doug Wilson put it recently, “Grace is wild. Grace unsettles everything. Grace overflows the banks. Grace messes up your hair. Grace is not tame. In fact, unless we are making the devout nervous, we are not preaching grace as we ought.”
UNLESS WE ARE MAKING THE DEVOUT NERVOUS, WE ARE NOT PREACHING GRACE AS WE OUGHT! Pretty radical statement, especially if you misunderstand grace. If you have a "yes grace, but" mentality or you are working to make somehow make yourself righteous.
Grace is more important than religion. Grace is more important than healing. Grace is more important than prosperity. Grace is more important than success. Grace is more important than favor. Grace is more important because it gives you and I the one thing that none of those things can give any of us.....that one thing is...
REST!
Grace changes your DO to DONE. When Jesus said "It is finished" we, in Christ, were finished. If we are not resting in God, WE CAN"T RECEIVE FROM GOD! Grace, unmerited favor, right standing, complete total forgiveness brings with it life changing rest in God.
What is this rest? Why haven't we heard about this supernatural resting grace we possess that stretches as far as the east is from the west? Why isn't it not just forgiveness?
Grace is radically unbalanced. It has no “but”; it’s unconditional, uncontrollable, unpredictable, and undomesticated. As Doug Wilson put it recently, “Grace is wild. Grace unsettles everything. Grace overflows the banks. Grace messes up your hair. Grace is not tame. In fact, unless we are making the devout nervous, we are not preaching grace as we ought.”
UNLESS WE ARE MAKING THE DEVOUT NERVOUS, WE ARE NOT PREACHING GRACE AS WE OUGHT! Pretty radical statement, especially if you misunderstand grace. If you have a "yes grace, but" mentality or you are working to make somehow make yourself righteous.
Grace is more important than religion. Grace is more important than healing. Grace is more important than prosperity. Grace is more important than success. Grace is more important than favor. Grace is more important because it gives you and I the one thing that none of those things can give any of us.....that one thing is...
REST!
Grace changes your DO to DONE. When Jesus said "It is finished" we, in Christ, were finished. If we are not resting in God, WE CAN"T RECEIVE FROM GOD! Grace, unmerited favor, right standing, complete total forgiveness brings with it life changing rest in God.
What is this rest? Why haven't we heard about this supernatural resting grace we possess that stretches as far as the east is from the west? Why isn't it not just forgiveness?
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