Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation. 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness. Our message is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the message of salvation through His person and work. That sounds simple enough, but it is not nearly as simple as it sounds. The simple message, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved,” has been assaulted from early on. Since the message is crucial to salvation and since anathema is pronounced on those who misrepresent it or change it (Gal. 1:6-9), we need to know the message and guard it carefully. If we are to be true to the Bible and to the grace of our Lord, we need to be able to share the gospel clearly and avoid the distortions. For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error. 2:19 Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality. For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved (2 Pet. 2:18-19). I am grateful to the one who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful in putting me into ministry, 1:13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I was treated with mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief, 1:14 and our Lord’s grace was abundant, bringing faith and love in Christ Jesus. 1:15 This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and I am the worst of them. 1:16 But here is why I was treated with mercy: so that in me as the worst, Christ Jesus could demonstrate his utmost patience, as an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life. 1:17 Now to the eternal king, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen (1 Tim. 1:12-17). In the Greek, “has appeared” stands emphatically at the beginning, stressing the manifestation of grace as a historical reality. The reference is to Christ’s entire earthly life—his birth, life, death, and resurrection. The verb epephane, from which we derive our word “epiphany,” means “to become visible, make an appearance,” and conveys the image of grace suddenly breaking in on our moral darkness, like the rising sun. (It is used of the sun in Acts 27:20.) Men could never have formed an adequate conception of that grace apart from its personal manifestation in Christ, in his incarnation and atonement. 17

Review: What’s So Amazing About Grace?, by - 9Marks Book Review: What’s So Amazing About Grace?, by - 9Marks

Let’s again allow the apostle Paul to speak to this matter first through his argument in Romans 5 and then from his own testimony regarding his pre-salvation condition. Legalism is an attitude, a mentality based on pride. It is an obsessive conformity to an artificial standard for the purpose of exalting oneself. A legalist assumes the place of authority and pushes it to unwarranted extremes. As Daniel Taylor states so well, it results in illegitimate control, requiring unanimity, not unity. 36 To clear the field for His own activity, God eliminated every work of man—past, present, and future. His action had to be pure, uncontaminated by our own best efforts. He had to act alone. Our self-effort was put on a shelf labeled “Unsuitable for Use.” 19 Grace Is Absolutely Free

The potential convert is thinking, If I have to pledge my allegiance to Jesus Christ or promise to follow Him, what will happen if I make such a decision and then break my promise the next day? Certainly, accepting God’s grace will result in a change of lifestyle. But we cannot expect the dead to walk until they are raised and the blind to see until they are healed. Sinners who have never been reconciled to God do not have the power to change their lifestyles, even if they were to get “really serious” about it. Because of this spiritual blindness, people naturally think in terms of meriting God’s blessing. As previously discussed, with the exception of biblical Christianity, if we look deep enough into every other religion of the world we will find that salvation is based on some kind of religious works designed to gain the blessing of God. This blindness or darkened understanding leads to two common errors. First, people fail to see the depth of their sinfulness and so overestimate their ability. Second, because they do not truly know God, they underestimate the impact of God’s holiness on their spiritual condition and need. As a result, they operate from a skewed perspective of both God and man. Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 7:14 But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matt. 7:13-14). In the final analysis, when compared to the absolute holiness of God, we all fall far short of His holiness and stand as wretched sinners who are separated from God, spiritually dead and without life (Eph. 2:1, 5), and under the condemnation of the moral Law of God. This moral Law (which we have so foolishly removed from the walls of our schools) reveals all the world guilty as sinners (Rom. 3:19), as separated from God, and in need of reconciliation and redemption (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18-20; Col. 1:20-22).

Philip Yancey Quotes About Grace | A-Z Quotes Philip Yancey Quotes About Grace | A-Z Quotes

Where, then, do we draw the line? Those who believe we can lose our salvation tend to classify sin as though God overlooks some sins while He judges others. It becomes a matter of degrees and the question arises, “Just how bad must we become before we lose our salvation?” Which sin does us in? What we may think of as sin may be totally out of touch with God’s perspective.It only takes a minute to create your own Bible Gateway free personal account and you’ll immediately upgrade your Bible Gateway experience. Do it right now!

What’s So Amazing About Grace - Genius What’s So Amazing About Grace - Genius

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter into the kingdom of heaven, only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 7:22 On that day, many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?” 7:23 Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you. Go away from me, lawbreakers!” (Matt. 7:21-22). One chorus that sounds repeatedly through Yancey’s book is the story of a prostitute whom he invited to church. (p.11) Her response was, “Church! Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.” Yancey heralds that pronouncement as an indictment of the church’s judgmental and negative attitude. I agree whole-heartedly that the church is to love sinners and tell them the gospel of Christ, but did Yancey never stop to think that maybe the church is supposed to make that prostitute feel bad? Perhaps conviction of sin is not categorically a bad thing, and perhaps it is actually loving to make someone feel uncomfortable about their sin. Paul didn’t have any problem at all telling the whole world that they were “worthless,” “deceitful,” and had the poison of vipers on their lips.” (Rom. 3:12-13) He has no problem telling them that they are sinners and that they will therefore die. (Rom. 6:23) Jesus Himself says that it is the very work of the Holy Spirit to “convict the world of guilt in regard to sin.” (John 16:8) Imagine that! “The Holy Spirit! Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. He’d just make me feel worse!” For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. 2:12 It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 2:13 as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 2:14 He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good. 2:15 So communicate these things with the sort of exhortation or rebuke that carries full authority.Grace, then, is the free and undeserved provision and love received from another; it especially epitomizes the characteristic attitude of God in providing salvation for a sinful world. For believers in Christ, the term grace is virtually synonymous with the gospel message of God’s gift of unmerited salvation in Jesus Christ and includes everything associated with our life in Christ from beginning to end. Grace Governs and Empowers the Christian Life In so many words, legalism says, “I do this or I don’t do that, and therefore I am pleasing God.” Or “If only I could do this or not do that, I would be pleasing to God.” Or perhaps, “These things that I’m doing or not doing are the things I perform to win God’s favor.” They aren’t spelled out in Scripture, you understand. They’ve been passed down or they have been dictated to the legalist and have become an obsession to him or her. Legalism is rigid, grim, exacting, and law like in nature. Pride, which is at the heart of legalism, works in sync with other motivating factors. Like guilt. And fear. And shame. It leads to an emphasis on what should not be, and what one should not do. It flourishes in a drab context of negativism. 37 License When did Christ die for the ungodly? When they were helpless. The book of Romans teaches us that this is not the state of a few, but of all mankind. All have sinned—the immoral, moral, and religious alike no matter how hard they may work at being good (Rom. 3:9-10, 23). All are dead in sin and without any ability to save themselves (Eph. 2:1f). Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. Of course it is better to be a decent citizen than to be John Wayne Gacy. Of course it is better to be honest than to be embezzling funds at work. From our point of view these distinctions are very significant, and they are also important to God. But spiritually speaking, even the best of us is still an infinite distance from God. If we forget this, it is because we have overestimated our goodness and underestimated God’s holiness. 14