Grace always stoops
“To be saved we must seek a fundamental change in our faith. We must quit trying so hard and start surrendering more. We must slough off our self-reliance and our “Do-it-yourself” religion and rely more on God’s faithfulness.
We must start believing in the gospel of the grace of God, the basis of which is that salvation is His free gift to us. . . .
Once we realize that acceptance with God is not a matter of our goodness or our works or our perfect knowledge and obedience, but a matter of surrendering to God’s grace, we will abandon our claim to exclusive truth. . . .
Donald Barnhouse is credited with saying that love that goes upward is worship, love that goes outward is affection, and love that stoops is grace. That says it. Grace always stoops, to the point of being extravagant.”
– Leroy Garrett
What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved
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Every day in October I’m sharing a short quote on grace from a favorite book.
If you’d like to receive the grace quote every day . . .
“Grace always stoops” leaves me with a picture in my mind of accepting people right where they are, just as Jesus accepted us just as we are. Thank you, Lisa.
He is with us as we stoop low. And then He lifts us up yet once again. Amazing grace …
Good one.
And I find the thought that WE can claim absolute truth almost hysterically funny. I wonder if God does, too?
Combining these thoughts with yesterday’s about the fact that we all, equally, have need of God’s grace – the saint as much as the sinner – really connected for me. If we really saw our “goodness or our works or our perfect knowledge” as they truly are before a Righteous and Holy God (filthy rags) we would see that we really have no choice but to come naked and poor before Him, surrendering all, to accept His grace.
We just finished this book at our LIFE group. We all loved his section on grace. I like the part towards the end of the chapter where he talks about how grace has to change our mindset in order for us to love like Jesus. Good stuff.