To Live By Grace Means ...

To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side, I learn who I am and what God's grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, "A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God."

The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches. For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours, not by right, but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there is much we may have earned — our degree, our salary, our home and garden, a Miller Lite, and a good night's sleep — all this is possible only because we have been given so much: life itself, eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt. This and so much more is sheer gift; it is not reward for our faithfulness, our generous disposition, or our heroic life of prayer. Even our fidelity is a gift. "If we but turn to God," said St. Augustine, "that itself is a gift of God." My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it."

— Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, pg. 25

Goodreads

Grace

2 Corinthians 9:8 "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

     "Grace is the work of God on behalf of those who could never accomplish the task themselves. He did it and continues to do it for them. Grace is God's power to perform. Grace is the power of God given to men, enabling them to do things that otherwise would be impossible. It is God working in men to will and do His good pleasure. Grace is the life of God showcasing the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control of God in and through the surrendered human life. It is God living in us and showing the world what He actually looks like."

     "So what does it mean to be "saved by grace"? It means that we are saved by the work, effort, and Spirit of God. He does the work on the cross that enables us to be inhabited by His presence, and then He continues to do the work in and through our lives, shaping us into a dynamic picture of His holiness. We are not just saved at the inception of our belief by grace. Rather, it is God's intent that we be "saved" by this grace every moment of every day of our lives moving forward. We need this grace not just for Heaven but for Earth. And not just for the beginning of the journey, but for the middle, and for the end, and for every occasion in between. Grace is the life of God imparted to us."

     "...God is in the business of building saints. He is the universe's foremost expert on overhauling the human existence and making it work the way it was originally intended to. And He does this overhaul with a tool known as grace. He saves us with it, He breaks us with it, He rebuilds us with it, and He fully equips us with it to turn this world upside down.

     "Grace is the life of Jesus imparted and living, moving, working, and thundering within our very bodies to accomplish the errands of God on planet Earth.

     "We are nothing without this grace. We can accomplish nothing without this grace. ..."

— Eric Ludy, The Bravehearted Gospel, page 234-235