Daily Christian living, in other words, is daily Christian dying: dying to our trivial comforts, soul-shrinking conveniences, arrogant preferences, and self-centered entitlements, and living for something much larger than what makes us comfortable and safe.
Your identity is firmly anchored in Christ’s accomplishment, not yours; his strength, not yours; his performance, not yours; his victory, not yours.
The people who tend to be the most gracious are those who know how badly they need grace.
Here’s one way I can know that I’ve forgotten the gospel of grace: when your sin bothers me more than my sin.
I was a surfer so I hung out with people who were surfers and made fun of people who weren’t surfers and I listened to surf music and made fun of people who didn’t listen to surfer music.
The law demands that we do it all; the gospel declares that Jesus paid it all.
Nothing makes me want to obey more than knowing that God unconditionally loves me and forgives me even when I disobey.
The desperate addict is closer to the heart of grace than the devout moralist.
I was always in places where I was widely accepted, approved and loved and I was finally in a place where people did not approve of me, did not accept me and did not love me. It was killing me.
God’s acceptance of us cannot be gained by our successes nor forfeited by our failures.
God’s ability to clean things up is infinitely greater than our ability to mess things up.
If you feel compelled to respond every time you’re criticized it reveals just how much you’ve built your identity on being right.
The gospel is not about a lifestyle that we live, it’s about the law-fulfilling life that Christ lived.
Legalism says God will love us if we change. The gospel says God will change us because He loves us.
Self-righteousness is the fruit of a low view of God’s law and a lite view of your own sin.
If the depths of everyone’s sin was made public, we would all be much more gracious to each other.
I think there is tribalism is a big deal inside of the church, that the church thinks of themselves as a tribe and not a mission.