Posted on 07/23/2014 9:24:10 AM PDT by xzins
During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods' appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."
After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law -- each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.
Aware of our inbuilt resistance to grace, Jesus talked about it often. He described a world suffused with God's grace: where the sun shines on people good and bad; where birds gather seeds gratis, neither plowing nor harvesting to earn them; where untended wildflowers burst into bloom on the rocky hillsides. Like a visitor from a foreign country who notices what the natives overlook, Jesus saw grace everywhere. Yet he never analyzed or defined grace, and almost never used the word. Instead, he communicated grace through stories we know as parables.
[Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 45.]
Ga 2: 17 "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.Ga 3: 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4 Have you suffered so much for nothing--if it really was for nothing? 5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
Paul leaves no doubt. Our only hope is grace. So, would you rather have the prodigal son's father, or would you rather have Reuben's father?
Grace is the single thing that separates Christianity from man made religion. I’ve understood this a long time but it is because I was introduced to Christianity a long time ago and Lewis’ teaching not long after that.
Christianity doesn’t make sense to the natural man.
It describes something that I was once taught that (just about) said the same thing: That every other religion is about man trying to elevate himself in some fashion to godhood, usually through some stepwise process, but Christianity is God reaching down to man, and all we must do is accept the offer of His hand.
I don’t know that he got accused of that. But he did bring it up as a hypothetical.
The amazing answer to the question is that Grace would indeed abound, but so would chastisement, for the Lord chastises those whom he loveth.
Paul says in Colossians 2 that the law is useless in restraining human passions. John says in 1 John that saying we don’t sin shows us to be liars.
Grace, therefore, must be about a different way of being righteous that has nothing to do with me. It’s a righteousness that’s given to me as a gift. That must mean that I continually get it without deserving it. In fact, it means that I continually am granted grace even though my behavior is continually saying I don’t deserve it.
Old Testament=Justice
New Testament=Mercy
Romans 3:8 Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—”Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved.
Grace, therefore, must be about a different way of being righteous that has nothing to do with me. It’s a righteousness that’s given to me as a gift. That must mean that I continually get it without deserving it. In fact, it means that I continually am granted grace even though my behavior is continually saying I don’t deserve it.
Brand on cow...do mean in the sense that it’s always there showing to whom the cow belongs?
Well, a brand doesn’t change the nature of the cow.
Well, a brand doesn’t change the nature of the cow.
Old Testament: Obedience
New Testament: Faithfulness
you have two religions in the world.
there’s christianity, where you learn you can’t save your sinful self and that God’s paid the price for you if you want it.
the other religion is the religion of works. every other religion has you working to save yourself. you never know if you’ve done enough. you never get true peace.
Roger that. It’s an imputed righteousness that we have. God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us, and treats the elect as if we were as perfect as He was/is. Just as He imputed our sins to Christ, and on the cross treated Him as if He was as imperfect as we are.
Grace is unmerited favor.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Like the Holy Spirit directed the Apostle Paul to say above, (paraphrasing) “For by unmerited favor are you saved through faith; and (that faith) absolutely does not originate in yourselves: it is the gift of God. Absolutely not originating in works, lest any should boast.”
It’s so sad that just about every denominations still tries to attach some sort of effort on man’s part. Those who realize that it’s God working through us and not what “we” do that enjoy the true peace.
Okay, so he was accused.
bkmk
If the Apostle Paul was so far out on the limb regarding grace that his opponents thought they could make the charge that he was advocating “sin lots so you get lots of grace” stick, then Paul was telling them some radical things about grace. He was telling them that sin in believers could be forgiven because there was “grace to help every time of need” heb 4:16
I can see someone twisting that to ‘sin lots so you get lots of grace.’
Grace Abounds!
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