There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life."1 Our deeds are ugly. Our actions are harsh. We don't do what we want to do, we don't like what we do, and what's worse—yes, there is something worse—we can't change.

A guilty conscience becomes a curtain that separates us from God.

CHAPTER 2: THE GRACE-SHAPED LIFE 1. Jim Reimann, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables (Nashville: Word Publishing, 2001), 16. 2. Ibid., 29—31.

I have a sin nature. So do you.

The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human. And God's treatment is prescribed in John 3:16.

Before presenting the grace of God,we must understand the wrath of God.

God's mercy does not make sin tolerable; it makes sin forgivable. The proud and the depraved alike must kneel at the same feet for mercy. For those willing, God turns sin's empty cistern into a deep wellspring overflowing with love.

Oh, from what heights of blessing it is possible for a man to fall! To what depths of sin a man can descend, even with all that spiritual background! The higher the pinnacle of blessing, authority, and publicity he has attained by grace, the deeper and more staggering can be his collapse. There is never a day in any man's life but that he is dependent upon the grace of God for power and the blood of Jesus for cleansing.

God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and by it, defiling many. Hebrews 12:15

We're too flawed and too challenged by history, circumstance, and chemistry to hoard grace for long.