Years ago a group of British thinkers on comparative religion furiously debated whether one belief set Christianity apart from other world religions. C. S. Lewis wandered in late, took a seat and asked, “What’s the rumpus about?” They told him they were trying to determine Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions. Without hesitation he replied, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”
Would you say that? Without hesitation? If not, you’ll never experience the life Jesus wants to give you. Only those who embrace grace by trusting in His Son receive eternal life. Only those willing to join Christ in risking grace by extending it to sinners without vacillation or compromise will know the spontaneous spiritual joy that sparks spiritual revolution.
Undeserved, unending, unearned, unconditional, uncontrollable, unblinking, unbound, undefiled, undeniable, unequivocal, unfaltering, unhinging, unlimited, unmistakable, unprecedented, unsettling—grace—God’s gift of life to all who believe in His Son, unheard of anywhere else but here—Christianity.
I just finished a wildly popular book the entire Christian world seems gaga over. I found a lot to challenge me in the pages of the book—if I were a Mormon, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or the follower of any teaching that tells people to get to work to get right with God. One enamored reviewer wrote, “It’s really deep, there’s a lot there!” I agree…
- A lot to cause believers to wonder if they really do belong to God.
- A lot to shame the reader into shaping up the outside of his or her life.
- A lot to motivate the reader to measure up to the author’s standards of righteousness.
What I didn’t find was grace.
What are we doing? Where did we go wrong? When did we forget that the Christian life begins and ends with the one distinction of our historic faith: grace!
Don’t write me asking the name of the book because I don’t want you to read it. I don’t want one more person to read it. And I’m praying that everyone exposed to this lie will someday read Paul’s writings. And when they do, they will realize they have been deceived by the latest holier-than-thou-excoriating-grace-protestant version of “righteousness by works, and that of yourselves.”
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Thank you for this Ed. It is so true and I'm glad you are telling it. I thank God for His grace and pray daily that I will give it out as well as I received it.
Blessed by your teaching,
Yvonne
Posted by: Yvonne Bock | July 12, 2009 at 12:22 PM