Reformed, Book Reading, Apple Loving, Beverage Snob, 23 Year-Old Husband, In Need of Grace.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
It’s very hard for a man to believe that God is gracious to him. The human heart [alone] can’t grasp this.
Martin Luther, http://cl.ly/AAuJ
Theologically it is of the greatest importance to recognize that the idea of demerit is an essential element in the definition of grace. In its proper theological sense as the opposite of law-works, grace is more than unmerited favor. That is, divine grace directs itself not merely to the absence of merit but to the presence of demerit. It addresses and overcomes violation of divine commandment. It is a granting of blessing as an act of mercy.
Meredith Kline, Kingdom Prologue
People do not, will not, drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.
We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance;
we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom;
we drift toward superstition and call it faith.
we cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation;
we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism;
we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
D.A. Carson, For the Love of God Vol. 2
Therefore when a man feels this battle of the flesh, let him not be discouraged therewith, but let him resist in the Spirit, and say: I am a sinner, and I feel sin in me, for I have not yet put off the flesh, in which sin dwells so long as it lives; but I will obey the spirit and not the flesh: that is, I will by faith and hope lay hold upon Christ, and by his word I will raise up myself, and being so raised up, I will no fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Martin Luther, Commentary on Galations 5:17
Only the gospel can truly save you. The gospel doesn’t make bad people good; it makes dead people alive…the gospel is God’s acceptance of us based on what Christ has done, not on what we can do.
Tullian Tchividjian, Surprised by Grace
