Quotes about Grace

For Christians, then, the question is not "Who gets the Bible right?" The question is and has always been, "Who gets Jesus right?" The Gospel writers and Paul couldn't have made that any clearer.

a common burden so many Christians have unwittingly carried, namely, that watching over us is God, an unstable parent, who is right off the bat harsh, vindictive, at best begrudgingly merciful, and mainly interested in whether we've read and understood the fine print; if not, God has no recourse but to punish us.

I still think and talk about what I think God is like, but I've hopefully learned (feel free to keep me honest here, people) that being right and winning isn't the endgame here. Loving as God loves is.

But at least I didn't do any harm. Along the way I came to see more and more that being right about God and making sure everyone else agreed with what I knew might not be the most important thing I could do in God's eyes.

Grace grows best in winter.

Paul transforms a tribal story, of kings, land, and the purity of one group of people, into a global story of God's grace and peace to all nations. As famously confusing as Paul's letters are, if we keep this in mind, a lot of what Paul says will make more sense—such as the following.

We do not stand in any experience which we have had, we do not stand in any progress which we have made, we do not stand in our success in the battle against sin. We stand in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which he has justified us.

We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and He saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love.

And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock. And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,

Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.