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Here are a few highlights:
1. There is such a thing as cheap grace. And I have generally believed that I had to be oh so careful because I might fall into the trap of making grace cheap. I have tended to follow a line of thinking that it would be better to err toward legalism than to err toward abusing grace. I'm not sure I will do that anymore. As in all things, balance is necessary. I'm coming to believe that it's probably most important to realize that fear of cheap grace can rob from us the joy of the freedom offered in Christ by true grace. And if that occurs, His sacrifice to offer us "abundant life" was made in vain.
“’Cheap grace’ justifies the sin rather than the sinner. True grace, on the other hand, justifies the sinner, not the sin. Let me encourage you not to be afraid of true grace because some have misrepresented it as cheap grace.”
2. Eugene Peterson:
“The word Christian means different things to different people. To one person it means a stiff, uptight, inflexible way of life, colorless and unbending. To another it means a risky, surprise-filled venture, lived on tiptoe at the edge of expectation.”
Which do you prefer?
“If we get our information from the biblical material, there is no doubt that the Christian life is a dancing, leaping, daring life.”
3. Yet legalism abounds in the church. Perhaps now more than ever. Perhaps simply as much as always. Regardless, as Peterson asserts, “ . . . the very place where we are most likely to experience the free life, is also the very place where we are in most danger of losing it.”
J.B. Phillips sharply paraphrases Paul’s words to the legalists in Galatia (Chapter 3:1-3):
“O you dear idiots of Galatia, who saw Jesus Christ the crucified so plainly, who has been casting a spell over you? I shall ask you one simple question: Did you receive the Spirit of God by trying to keep the Law or by believing the message of the Gospel? Surely you can’t be so idiotic as to think that a man begins his spiritual life in the Spirit and then completes it by reverting to outward observances?”
4. Break-ups and broken bonds aren’t always bad (look at Paul and Barnabas):
“Disagreements prompt fresh starts, new works, broader visions. The event that caused it to happen isn’t good. It is more like a rock hitting a placid lake, creating a sudden wake where there are hurt feelings, at least initially. But the ripples continue on until people are greathearted enough to forget the pain and stop licking their wounds and proceed into new directions . . . We need to be people who can disagree in grace and then press on, even if the disagreement leads to a separation.”
5. One of the hardest things we can do as Christians, with unbelievers, but probably more importantly and more difficultly with fellow believers, is let go:
To let go doesn’t mean to stop caring,
It means I can’t do it for someone else
To let go is not to cut myself off,
It’s the realization that I can’t control another.
To let go is not to enable,
But to allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness,
Which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another,
I can only change myself.
To let go is not to care for,
But to care about.
To let go is not to fix,
But to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
But to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
But to allow others to effect their own outcomes.
To let go is not to be protective;
It is to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny,
But to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold, or argue,
But to search out my own shortcomings and to correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
But to take each day as it comes.
To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone,
But to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
But to grow and live for the future.
To let go is to fear less and love more!
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