Tullian Tchividjian: Grace Reaches Farther

"The good news is that God’s ability to clean things up is infinitely greater than our ability to mess things up. Yes, our sin reaches far in time and place, and to all types of people—moral, immoral, religious, irreligious. But God’s grace reaches farther. God’s grace is so massive, so expansive, so wide-ranging, that it tracks down both kinds of runners from God—those who try to rescue themselves by breaking the rules, and those who try by keeping them. 

There’s no place where you might be now, or where you might have been in the past, or where you might go in the future that will ever be beyond the reach of God’s grace—nowhere." via LIBERATE

J. Gresham Machen: Grounded in a Gospel

"The central characteristic of our religion; the central characteristic of Christianity is that it is not founded merely upon what always was true but primarily upon something that happened — something that took place near Jerusalem at a definite time in the world’s history. In other words, it is founded not merely upon permanent truths of religion but upon a ‘gospel,’ a piece of news.” via Z.

Tim Keller: Christianity and Homosexuality

Can We Go Too Far With Grace?

Here is a good article by Max Lucado answering this question.

Justin Buzzard: Grace is for Broken and Sinful People

"Grace is for sinners—for broken, sinful, wounded, flawed people. Grace is for people who have realized that they cannot fix, rescue, or save themselves or those around them.

Receiving and enjoying grace requires honesty. No more pretending. No more attempts to prove yourself. No self-righteous fig-leaving. But instead, nakedness, exposure, and cries for help. Humility.

To receive a relationship with Jesus (the one love who will never leave you and always love you) you need to bring something to the table. The one thing you must bring to the table is your sin.

Sin, Grace, and Faith—these are the three ingredients for a life of freedom. I am a sinner. Jesus is a great Savior. Jesus has more than enough grace for me and all my faith is in him, not myself.

Grace is for sinners. Not a sinner? Then no grace for you!"

“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” -Jesus (via)

In What Do We Boast?

"I can't brag about my love for God because I fail him every day, but I can brag about Gods love for me because it never fails." - unknown

Piper & Keller: Are You Motivated to Pursue Christ by the Gospel, by Future Joy That Awaits You, Or Both?

This is fascinating. You can see a subtle difference here (especially in the first half of the video) between "Christian Hedonism" and gospel-centered motivation.

One view looks to what lies ahead (future joy), and the other looks backwards to the cross. 

HT: everyone.

Tullian Tchividjian: Believing Better

"Christian growth... does not happen first by behaving better, but believing better — believing in bigger, deeper, brighter ways what Christ has already secured for sinners."

Grace Upon Grace

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth... For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. - John 1:14-16 

Erwin Lutzer: Ready For Grace

“When the mask of self-righteousness has been torn from us and we stand stripped of all our accustomed defenses, we are candidates for God's generous grace.” 

Martin Luther: It's the Gospel's Turn

"[T]he Law is not to operate on a person after he has been humbled and frightened by the exposure of his sins and the wrath of God. We must then say to the Law: “Mister Law, lay off him. He has had enough. You scared him good and proper.” Now it is the Gospel’s turn. Now let Christ with His gracious lips talk to him of better things, grace, peace, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life." via Jared Wilson

Jared Wilson: Three Vital Deductions From the Gospel

We deduce from the gospel a few important points, things that are personal commitments to remember:  

1. I am a sinner like they are sinners. The ground is level at the foot of the cross.  

2. My salvation did not come from being better than them but from the finished work of Christ. 

3. Because I know me better than I know them, it is true, acknowledged or not, that I am the worst sinner I know. 

 via Gospel Driven Church

Michael Horton: Christian Growth

"Sanctification is simply a life-long process of letting the Good News sink in and responding appropriately: becoming the people whom God says that we already are in Christ." 

via The Gospel Driven Life

"If men will not understand the meaning of judgement, they will never come to understand the meaning of grace." - Dorothy Sayers

Tullian Tchividjian: Ultimate Meaning is Found in Christ

J. I. Packer: The Grace of God

"The grace of God is love freely shown toward guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and had no reason to expect anything but severity." via CQ

B. B. Warfield: We Never Move Beyond Our Need Of Christ's Righteousness

"There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.

- from Perfectionism, Part One, vol. 7 of The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield.  HT:Tullian

Free Music Recommendation: Beautiful Eulogy

This album is artistically beautiful and theologically solid. Download Beautiful Eulogy: Satellite Kite for free here.

Henry Law: The Riches of Grace

"How blessed is the thought that God is rich in grace! His throne is a throne of grace. His scepter is a scepter of grace. His covenant is a covenant of grace. His thoughts are thoughts of grace. His ways are ways of grace. His word is the word of grace. His treasure house is stored with grace.

Hence all His gifts and manifestations to His people are results of grace. Grace called Jesus to His work. Grace found the ransom. Grace accepted it. Grace determined who would be redeemed. Grace made them willing in the day of power. Grace keeps them through faith unto salvation.

Oh! the riches of the grace of our God! While we have breath let us extol and magnify it.” via OFI

Free eBook: Indescribable by Louie Giglio

"Modern science allows viewers to see farther into space than ever before, and every step draws them closer to the God who breathed each star into existence. In Indescribable, the authors intertwine devotional insights with remarkable scientific facts that awaken both mind and spirit. As Giglio and Redman write, God turns wonderers into worshipers."

Right now you can download this eBook for FREE over at Amazon. Check it out here.

John Bunyan: Your Righteousness is in Heaven

This is so rich:

"One day as I was passing into the field, this sentence fell upon my soul: “Thy righteousness is in heaven.” And with the eyes of my soul I saw Jesus at the Father’s right hand. “There,” I said, “is my righteousness!” So that wherever I was or whatever I was doing, God could not say to me, “Where is your righteousness?” For it is always right before him.

I saw that it is not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness IS Christ. Now my chains fell off indeed. My temptations fled away, and I lived sweetly at peace with God.

Now I could look from myself to him and could reckon that all my character was like the coins a rich man carries in his pocket when all his gold is safe in a trunk at home. Oh I saw that my gold was indeed in a trunk at home, in Christ my Lord. Now Christ was all: my righteousness, sanctification, redemption.

– from Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners via Jared Wilson

John Calvin: Awareness

"Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty."

Covenant Theology 101: The Covenant of Grace

“[The covenant of grace] tells us that we are not under a covenant of works and therefore do not relate to God on the basis of our own law-keeping.  In the covenant of grace, God promises to accept us as righteous by virtue of the righteousness of his Son, the second Adam.  In other words, God’s covenant of grace draws attention to the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  Whereas the covenant of works (law) says, ‘Do this and you will live,’ the covenant of grace (gospel) says, ‘Christ did it for you.’  

This allows us to go through life on the solid foundation that God receives us because of Christ.  There is no greater contributing factor to our joy and comfort as Christians than the reality that God accepts us in spite of the fact that we still struggle with sin and disobedience.  Knowing that God loves us on account of Christ protects us from the roller coaster of our own conscience and emotions.  With its emphasis on the person and work of Christ, the covenant of grace tells us that we are not under a covenant of works”

Michael Brown and Zachary Keele, Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored (Grand Rapids: Reformed Fellowship, 2012). via Reformed Reader