To quote from my friend Jack Miller's book, Repentance:

"Penance... is a religious attitude deeply rooted in the human heart which prompts men to attempt to pay for their own sins by their good works and sufferings. Self-justification is the goal of this effort. In practice this means that man always has one more scheme for geting thigns right with God and conscience... He is a preparationist, that is, a sinner who is forever getting ready for grace. He wants to make himself worthy of grace so that God will reach out to him when once this work of preparation is completed... But he does not know that this is a terrible insult to God's grace... [but] the repentant man repudiates this whole process, with its self-justification and pretense" (pp. 21-22).

Tonight as I prepare to lead my Creekstone friends in worship, I want to be reminded that we do not come to prepare ourselves as worthy recipients of grace. We come to receive as unworthy sinners. All we have to offer God is our sin and self-righteousness. He is the giver—the one who died for the ungodly, that we might now celebrate the glory of his unmerited kindness, love and favor. In light of the cross, we can be confident that we are now sons and daughters. Accepted. Beloved. Righteous.

So will you repudiate penance (even repent of our penances), and embrace the gift-righteousness of Jesus with me? 

I had a conversation this week with a friend who shared that he had been reading an author who believed that preaching with too much of an emphasis on grace will adversely affect the mission of the church. He said that grace will lead to laziness, license and apathy with regard to the command to evangelize. I immediately thought of the new iPad- seriously! I watched the entire Apple Keynote presentation on the iPad, and was totally blown away. I can hardly stop talking about it. Others have only watched a snippet, or heard about it second hand, and THINK they understand iPad technology. Therefore, they are not that impressed. I realized that is the way it is with the gospel and mission. The problem with a lack of mission is not that we’ve made the gospel too good (too much grace). The problem is that we have not made it good enough!  In preaching we only show snippets, and people think they get it—but it doesn't blow them away. I think that the only way mission will be set free from the umbrella of guilt and duty is if we see the grace of Jesus more like the full iPad presentation. Revolutionary. Captivating. Life altering. No longer will I see life from a religious grid where I am forgiven, accepted and blessed on the basis of MY obedience and sacrifice. I will have a new lens on life, whereby in the gospel, I am forgiven, accepted and blessed COMPLETELY on the basis of the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus. This is the gospel. Revolutionary. Captivating. Life altering. It is not something that I have to share. It is something that I am compelled to share. It is the propulsion of grace.

The gospel is news, declaration and invitation; not a set of instructions. 

As Tim Keller says, “I am more sinful than I could dare to admit, but at the same time, because of my substitute Jesus, I am more forgiven, loved and accepted than I could ever dare to dream.” 

The gospel is not religion. Religion says that I am blessed because of my work and sacrifice for God.  The gospel says that I am blessed because of Jesus’ work and sacrifice for me.  Yes, I am saved by works, but not my works. I am saved by his works... the works of Jesus. 

Jesus received the justice for my sin so that I could receive the mercy of God.

The gospel tells me that I am reconciled to God not because of what I do for God, but because of what God has done for me in Jesus.

Reconciliation with God is not something that I achieve. It is something that I receive (through faith alone). Seriously. I receive it like a beggar must accept a gift, with no hope of repayment. 

It is a beggar thief being told he is now a beloved son.

"The doctrine of the atonement is very simple. It just consists in the substitution of Christ in the place of the sinner; Christ being treated as if he were the sinner and then the transgressor being treated as if he were the righteous one. It is a change of persons. Christ becomes the sinner. He stands in the sinner's place the sinner becomes righteous. He stands in Christ's place and is numbered with the righteous ones. Christ has no sin of His own, but he takes human guilt and is punished for human folly. We have no righteousness of our own, but we take the Divine righteousness; we are rewarded for it and stand accepted before God as though that righteousness had been worked out by ourselves.""

Charles Spurgeon, The King's Highway

HT: Tom Wood @ Graced Again

This is the brief message given at Creekstone's Launch Team Workshop, setting up our Preview Service teaching series, "Immeasurable Riches: Mining for Grace in Romans 8."

Click here to download:

Immeasurable Grace Introduction - Eph. 3.7-8.mp3 (3672 KB)

This afternoon my eldest, who is 14, made an insightful comment. While reading Jane Eyre, she was struck by how outwardly "respectable" and "moral" people appeared, but that, while looking down upon and disdaining the "unrespectable," they seemed to know very little about grace. The comment that struck me as insightful was when she observed that it is the sick who need a doctor.  After all, it was Jesus himself who said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick... for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (from Mt. 9:12-13).  In other words, the gospel allows no well visits. There is only one waiting room. The gospel says that we are all sick and in need of saving and sustaining grace. At least I am. God forbid that I become respectable. I so deserperately want to know much about grace.