A new grace-zinging article from my son, Jonathan McNeely! – Jim McNeely For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast. On the first day of the festival, remove every trace of yeast from your homes. Anyone who eats bread made with yeast during the seven days of the festival will be […]
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12 NASB For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14 NASB I came across a novel […]
Well, the terrible news has come out this week that Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, has confessed to having an affair and has stepped down from the pastorate. I have met him and talked to him personally a number of occasions at some of the conferences I go to, and I really […]
15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. 16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would […]
Real love for one another is found in belief in group redemption and lavish grace. It means thinking, concerning everyone, that Jesus has died for us. He has loved us together and redeemed all of us with His blood. And this becomes the new way of doing community – belief.
You know why Piper has to get so shrill about loving God? Because He paints a God for us who is conditional and weird and hard to love. The joyous news is this: God isn’t like that! He died for us while we were yet sinners! (Romans 5:8)
And so He has lavished grace and eternal mercy on all of us who believe. Our mutual sins are lavishly forgiven as a whole. This works because it really is our trespasses which are the problem. My sins were not born in isolation.
I am just returning from the Mockingbird Spring conference in NYC, where I heard Nadia Bolz-Weber give a talk. Of course, I should be doing a whole conference review, and maybe I will. However, she told some extremely powerful stories that hinged on confession. Confession is of course a HUGE part of my idea of […]
The law demands that we seek God, but the gospel declares that God seeks us! Death can’t even stop Him! We are so distracted, so sinful, so fearful, and so bad at persistence. We never seek with enough genuine fervor. We have not really striven to find God or obey Him (Hebrews 12:4, 1 John 1:10). But even death can’t distract Jesus Christ.
There is a transformation that happens to us right exactly when we believe. However, it is not the transformation we were looking for, having been immersed our whole lives under the threat of the law. The real change is a shift in trust away from self to God. If the change were a change in success at keeping the law instead of a change of trust, why would we need the new testament imperatives?