The word ‘sanctification’ has become another one of those words that makes people uncomfortable, like ‘repent’, where it needs to be defined otherwise legalistic definitions automatically spring to mind and weigh you down. I read an article on sanctification yesterday and it was full of requirements, burdens, unrealistic expectations and false doctrine. I think what…
Category: Growing in Grace
The Christian life is a growth journey. We are growing in the full knowledge of God, and growing in the knowledge of His grace. This journey involves unlearning as much as it inolves learning – we unlearn everything the natural man has grown to think about God’s nature and Character, and we also have to unlearn all of the teachings of religion that have taken the blessings and gifts of the gospel and turned them into demands and requirements! As this unloading process occurs, we also grow in the knowledge of the grace in which we now stand!
Pauline Spirituality teaches sanctification not as a patchwork of works but of Christ in Me
Thoughts on “Not Loving the World”
Works (legalism) and Grace lived out
What does it look like when I’m responding to God’s grace in Christ vs. when I’m caught up in legalism/works?
The Gifts of Grace in Christ
To be a person of grace, we really need to understand what grace is. Unfortunately we’ve heard the word grace and its definitions so many times that we’re almost immune to it.
Grace vs. a Works “Exchange” system.
The Bible doesn’t really use the term “legalism”. The bible uses the word “works”, but it basically means the same thing. It’s really critical that we understand God’s system of grace and faith, and how it differs from a meritorious / works approach to God. Grace “works” by faith, and Merit systems “work” by effort,…
Thoughts on Legalism vs. Grace
Do we realize that we’re struggling with a legalistic view? Here’s a test: If you believe that you will or won’t be blessed by God, or close to God because of something you’re doing or not doing, you’ve stumbled into legalism.
FAILING into grace
There are many grace truths that I have learned that I would never have been exposed to if I had been a “success” as a Christian. Some truths seem to only come to light if you’re prostrate on your back looking up at everything. One of the best helps to knowing grace is to fail.
Led by the Spirit – Responding to God as His Son.
“The mind set on the Spirit is the mind that has been fundamentally touched so that it no longer responds as a slave in bondage to fear, but a son beloved by the Father.”
Suffering in Romans 8 – Heirs longing for expected inheritance.
“The more we are conditioned to the tone of grace, the more we find that it is at odds with almost every voice in the world. We cannot feel at home in the world when we have known this voice!”