Help on avoiding legalism

From Lee Irons:

"The way to avoid legalism is to believe that, as the Law teaches, only the perfectly righteous may be admitted into heaven. This counterintuitive premise accomplishes two things in a single blow: it crushes legalism and clarifies the meaning of grace. First, it crushes legalism because legalism cannot get off the ground unless the standard has first been lowered. But if the Law requires perfect righteousness, clearly the half-baked, imperfect obedience promoted by legalism will not do.

"Second, it clarifies the meaning of grace. Grace is that God provides and accepts the imputed righteousness of Christ, in place of our own inherent righteousness demanded by the Law, as the righteousness by which the unrighteous can attain heaven. Now that’s grace! The true Gospel, then, presupposes the Law as its antithetical counterpart. Otherwise grace is no longer grace."

Ortlund on Bible-reading with perspective

Highlighting the difference between reading under law or in grace here.

Grace bids me fly and gives me wings

John Bunyan's wonderful summary of law and grace:

Run, John, run. The law commands

But gives me neither feet nor hands.

Better news the gospel brings;

It bids me fly and gives me wings.

Jerry Bridges on grace

From The discipline of grace:

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.

And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.

Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God’s blessing through their behaviour. Guilt-laden believers are quite sure they have forfeited God’s blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience. Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God.

HT: Justin Taylor

We can't do everything!

Bishop Ken Untener (though often attributed to Oscar Romero, Bishop of El Salvador) wrote:

"We cannot do everything. And there is a sense of liberation in realising that this enables us to do something and do it very well. It may be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are the workers not the master builders, we are the ministers not messiahs, we are the prophets of a future not our own."

Why the law was given

From a sermon by John Piper:

"We must obey the OT commandments the same way we obey the NT commandments—not in order to win God's favor, but because we already depend on his free grace and trust that his commands will lead to full and lasting joy."

"Since Christ has come and fulfilled the sacrificial side of the OT (1 Corinthians 5:7), and has declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19), and has founded a new people of God which is not a national or ethnic group, many of the OT commandments do not apply to us (e.g., dietary laws, laws about sacrifices, laws pertaining to political organizations and national action). But vast portions of the OT describe dimensions of obedience which are true for God's people in any age."

"Romans 8:3, 4 teaches that the law itself is powerless to produce this kind of obedience. The letter kills; it is the Spirit that gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). Therefore, God sent Christ to atone for sin (Romans 8:3), that he might pour the Holy Spirit into our hearts, "in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:4). Thus Paul teaches that we should not leave the law behind, not reject the law for something else, but fulfill the law in the power of the Holy Spirit through faith which works itself out in love."

Leadership responsibility vs freedom

Craig Groeschel prays:
- I pray you have the freedom to make decisions that are best for God’s Kingdom, your family, and your ministry.
- I pray you will feel the responsibility to make wise decisions and be a righteous example.

DIY grace?

Terry on relying on God's grace.
- "Keep yourselves in the love of God." (Jude 21)
- "Build yourselves up in your most holy faith." (Jude 20)