It is in accepting grace that we can begin to model amazing grace. Only then do we realize how good grace really is.
Conclusion
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I
t was many months ago that I began writing this book on grace. Little did I realize what would transpire between my starting and my finishing the volume.
I stated at the outset that this is essentially a book about freedom . . . claiming it for ourselves and extending it to others. By now you understand what I meant by that statement. I had no idea that before I arrived at the conclusion of the book the world would have witnessed the most powerful example of freedom one could imagine: the fall of the Berlin Wall.
While I was writing on the importance of letting grace awaken—which necessitates our pursuing freedom at any and all cost—the daily newspaper, the magazines, and the television screen have been pulsating with the same message. One remarkable scene followed another . . . story after story, all of them representing one of the greatest of all words: Freedom. I watched, as you did, and I wept and sang as they did. I shouted
Conclusion
as one section after another of the infamous wall tumbled to the ground, giving renewed hope to people who often wondered if they would ever know the thrill of being liberated from social, economic, and religious bondage. Now they do. Now they are free indeed.
The stones and the steel, the barbed wire and the guards, that once separated East from West and dream from reality, are now, for all practical purposes, gone. The people of East Berlin no longer awaken each dawn to face another grim and bleak day of colorless existence due to enforced restrictions. Now free at last, they awaken to the glorious new dawn of liberty.
One of the most moving scenes I watched on television was a group of men taking turns with a sledge, pounding away on one section of the wall. One would grab the massive sledge and strike the stone with all his might. After ten or fifteen blows, another would step in and do the same. While one blasted with the sledge, the others stood near, singing, cheering, and occasionally dancing in circles. Although I was half a world removed, I felt a knot in my throat as I smiled along with those men I have never met. All were deliriously happy. Finally, at long last, the stones loosened and they could see daylight through the hole.
There is another wall that is now being torn down. Because it is invisible it is all the more insidious. And because it has been standing for centuries instead of decades, it is far more overpowering and stubborn. The stones that comprise the wall are formidable, intimidating, and thick. They would hold us back from all the things that God intended His people to enjoy. They still keep untold millions in bondage. I have identified many of them throughout these pages; from without: legalism, expectations, traditionalism, manipulation, demands, negativism, control, comparison, perfectionism, competition, criticism, pettiness, and a host of others; and from within: pride, fear, resentment, bitterness, an unforgiving spirit, insecurity, fleshly effort, guilt, shame, gossip, hypocrisy, and so many more . . . grace killers, all!
Conclusion
My hope has been to create an appetite for grace that is so strong nothing will restrain us from pursuing the freedom and spontaneity it can bring—a longing so deep that a new spiritual dawn, a "grace awakening," if you will, cannot help but burst through the wall of legalism. Since I am a Christian minister, much of my involvement and exposure is in the realm of the church and Christian organizations. It has been my observation that even here most folks are not free; they have not learned to accept and enjoy the grace that has come to us in Jesus Christ. Though He came to set us free, it saddens me to say that many still live behind the wall of bondage. Regrettably, the stones of constraint are everywhere to be found. Instead of being places of enthusiastic, spontaneous worship, many churches and Christian ministries have become institutions that maintain a system of religion with hired officials to guard the gates and to enforce the rules.
In vain I have searched the Bible, looking for examples of early Christians whose lives were marked by rigidity, predictability, inhibition, dullness, and caution. Fortunately, grim, frowning, joyless saints in Scripture are conspicuous by their absence. Instead, the examples I find are of adventurous, risk-taking, enthusiastic, and authentic believers whose joy was contagious even in times of painful trial. Their vision was broad even when death drew near. Rules were few and changes were welcome. The contrast between then and now is staggering.
The difference, I am convinced, is grace. Grace scales the wall and refuses to be restricted. It lives above the demands of human opinion and breaks free from legalistic regulations. Grace dares us to take hold of the sledge of courage and break through longstanding stones. Grace invites us to chart new courses and explore everexpanding regions, all the while delighting in the unexpected. While others care more about maintaining the wall and fearing those who guard it, grace is constantly looking for ways to freedom. Grace wants faith to fly, regardless of what grim-faced officials may say or think or do.
Conclusion
Thank you for walking with me through the pages of this journey. It has been a stimulating challenge to write these thoughts. In many ways, I feel as though I have been plowing new ground, blazing new trails. Not much has been written on personal, liberating grace from an evangelical perspective ... at least I have not found much along these lines. Perhaps this book is enough to encourage you to join the movement and get you started on your own venture. I hope so. But as you strike out on your own, beware. As surely as Bunyan's hero encountered every test and temptation en route to the Celestial City, you will come up against one legalistic stone after another, each existing for the same purpose: to keep you from the freedom you have in Christ.
Whatever you do, don't quit! Press on. It is worth all the effort. The good news is that you are not alone.
There is a "grace awakening" loose in the land. Will you become a part of it? While you take your turn with the sledge hammer and pound away, a host of us are standing near, and some of us may be half a world away, cheering you on. Don't think of it as a lonesome, isolated task. You are breaking through to freedom, and no one is more delighted than the Lord Jesus Christ, who has promised you His grace. Never forget His words: "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." Stay at it. By the grace of Almighty God, the new movement will someday sweep across every continent and the longstanding wall that has kept people in bondage for centuries will come tumbling down. And we shall all, at last, be free indeed.
Notes
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Acknowledgments
1. John Newton, "Amazing Grace" (1779).
Introduction
1. Reinhold Niebuhr, "Well-intentioned Dragons," Christianity Today, 1985,63.
Chapter 1. Grace: It's Really Amazing!
1. Dr. Karl Menninger, M.D., with Martin Mayman, Ph.D., and Paul Pruyser, Ph.D., The Vital Balance (New York: Viking Press, 1963), 204-205.
2. Ibid., 22.
3. Donald Grey Barnhouse, Romans, Man's Ruin, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1952), 72.
4. Benjamin Warfield, in Great Quotes & Illustrations, compiled by George Sweeting (Waco, TX: Word, 1985), 133.
5. Sir Edward C. Burne-Jones, in Let Me Illustrate by Donald Grey Barnhouse (Westwood, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1967), 145-146.
Chapter 2. The Free Gift
1. William Ernest Henley, "Invictus," in The Best Loved Poems of the American People, selected by Hazel Felleman (Garden City, NY: Garden City Books, 1936), 73.
2. James Russell Lowell, "The Present Crisis" [1844]. Taken from 15th ed. of John Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 567.
3. Donald Grey Barnhouse, Romans, God's Remedy, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1954), 208.
4. Augustus Toplady, as cited in Romans: The New Man, An Exposition of Chapter 6 by Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973), 19.
5. Augustus Toplady, "Rock of Ages" (1776).
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6. Dorothea Day, "My Captain," in The Best Loved Poems of the American People, selected by Hazel Felleman (Garden City, NY: Garden City Books, 1936), 73-74.
Chapter 3. Isn't Grace Risky?
1. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: The New Man, An Exposition of Chapter 6 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973), 8-9.
2. Reprinted from What Luther Says (vol. 2 p. 614), copyright © 1959, Concordia Publishing House. Reprinted with permission from CPH.
Chapter 4. Undeserving, Yet Unconditionally Loved
1. John Newton, "Amazing Grace" (1779).
2. Jackie Hudson, "People Grow Better in Grace," Worldwide Challenge Magazine, April 1988, 11-13, an adaptation from her book Doubt: A Road to Growth.
3. Elisabeth Elliot, The Liberty of Obedience (Waco, TX: Word, 1968), 32.
4. Ibid., 33.
5. John Newton, "Amazing Grace" (1779).
6. Ibid.
7. John Bunyan, cited in The Grace of God by William Mac-Donald (Walterick Publishers, 1960), 30.
306
Chapter 5. Squaring Off Against Legalism
1. Patrick Henry, in a speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond [March 23, 1775]. Taken from 15th ed. of John Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 383.
2. Charles Sumner, "Slavery and the Rebellion"; speech at Cooper Institute [November 5, 1864]. Taken from 15th ed. of John Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 539.
3. S. Lewis Johnson, "The Paralysis of Legalism," Bibliotheca Sacra, A Theological Quarterly Published by Dallas Theological Seminary, 120, no. 478 (April-June 1963): 109.
4. Daniel Taylor, The Myth of Certainty (Waco, TX: Word, 1986), 34-36.
5. Eugene H. Peterson, Traveling Light (Colorado Springs, CO: Helmers & Howard, Publishers, Inc., 1988), 57-58.
6. A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, vol. 4 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1931), 284.
7. Eugene H. Peterson, Traveling Light, 67.
8. Mike Yaconelli in The Wittenburg Door (Dec. 1984/Jan. 1985), issue 82. Reprinted with permission, Wittenburg Door, 12245 Greenfield Drive, El Cajon, CA 92021.
9. Ralph Keiper, cited in When the Saints Come Storming In by Leslie B. Flynn (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, a Division of Scripture Press Publications, Inc., 1988), 42.
10. Paul Tournier, Guilt and Grace (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1962), 98.
Chapter 6. Emancipated? Then Live Like It!
1. Abraham Lincoln, in his second inaugural address, March 4, 1865, cited in Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years by Carl Sandburg (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1954), 664.
2. Ibid.
3. Shelby Foote, The Civil War, A Narrative, vol. 3 (New York: Vantage Books, 1986), 1045.
4. Gordon S. Seagrave, cited in Quote Unquote compiled by Lloyd Cory (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, a division of Scripture Press Publications, Inc., 1977), 123. World rights reserved.
307
Notes to Pages 118-181
5. Donald Grey Barnhouse, Romans, God's Freedom, vol. 6 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1961), 34. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American and Universal Copyright Conventions.
6. Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., Aug. 26, 1863, as cited in The Life, Public Service and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln by Henry Raymond (New York: Darby and Miller, 1865), 752.
Chapter 7. Guiding Others to Freedom
1. William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, The Letter to the Romans (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrews Press, 1957), 92. Used by permission.
2. Jay Adams, Competent to Counsel (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1970), 145.
3. John Henry Jowett, The Epistles of St. Peter, 2d ed. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1906), 93.
Chapter 8. The Grace to Let Others Be
1. Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (New York: Pocket Books, 1980), 104-105.
2. William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, The Letter to the Romans (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrews Press, 1957), 200. Used by permission.
3. Gladys M. Hunt, "That's No Generation Gap!" Eternity Magazine, October 1969, 15.
4. Reprinted with permission from Leslie Flynn, When the Saints Come Storming In (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, a Division of Scriplure Press Publications, Inc., 1988), 37.
5. Ibid., 44.
6. Wyatt Prunty, "Learning the Bicycle" (for Heather), The American Scholar, 58, no. 1 (Winter 1989): 122. Used by permission of the author.
Chapter 9. Graciously Disagreeing and Pressing On
1. G. Campbell Morgan, Acts of the Apostles (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1924), 369.
2. William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1964), 107. Used by permission.
Notes to Pages 181-210
3. Chrysostom, cited in The Acts of the Apostles by William Barclay, 108.
4. Franz Delitzsch, Commentaries on the Old Testament, Proverbs of Solomon, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, n.d.), 165.
5. Leslie Flynn, When the Saints Come Storming In (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, a Division of Scripture Press Publications, Inc., 1988), 64-65.
6. A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, The Acts of the Apostles, vol. 3 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1930), 241.
7. C. S. Lewis, in the preface to Christian Reflections and cited in A Mind Awake: An Anthology ofC S. Lewis, ed. Clyde S. Kilby (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), 128.
Chapter 10. Grace: Up Close and Personal
1. William MacDonald, The Grace of God (Kansas City, KS: Walterick Publishers, 1960), 54.
2. John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (New York: The Heritage Press, 1942), 28.
3. Ibid., 35-36.
4. Ibid., 54.
5. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1964), 162.
6. Archibald Robertson and Alfred Plummer, The International Critical Commentary, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1961),341.
7. John Newton, "Amazing Grace" (1779).
8. Taken from Quote Unquote, compiled by Lloyd Cory (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, a division of Scripture Press Publications, Inc., 1977), 319.
9. Sven Wahlroos, Family Communication (New York: New American Library, Inc., a Subsidiary of Pearson, Inc., 1983), 159.
10. Charles Bridges, A Commentary on Proverbs (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1846), 41-42.
11. George Matheson, Thoughts for Life's Journey (London: James Clarke & Co., 1907), 266, 267.
12. Ibid., 266.
Notes to Pages 215-270
Chapter 11. Are You Really a Minister of Grace?
1. Kyle Yates, Preaching from the Prophets (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1942), 201.
2. Ibid., 205, 206.
3. Theodore Laetsch, Bible Commentary, The Minor Prophets (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1956), 428.
4. George Duffield, "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus" (1858).
5. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1954), 9, 8.
6. William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, The Letter to the Corinthians (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1963), 216-217.
7. Earl Henslin, Psy.D., "Shame-based and Healthy Spirituality," an unpublished chart. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Chapter 12. A Marriage Oiled by Grace
1. Celeste Holm, Reader's Digest Treasury of Modern Quotations. Taken from Reader's Digest, February 1974 (New York: Reader's Digest Press, 1985), 484.
2. Dag Hammarskjold, Markings (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964), 66.
3. From The Pleasers: Women Who Can't Say No — and the Men Who Control Them by Kevin Leman (pp. 287-288). Copyright © 1987 by Kevin Leman. Used by permission of Fleming H. Revell, Company.
4. Willard F Harley, Jr., His Needs/Her Needs (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1986), 10.
5. Cel
este Holm, Reader's Digest, 484.
Chapter 13. The Charming Joy of Grace Giving
1. Sylvia and John Ronsvalle, "Opinion," Moody Monthly (May 1986): 12.
2. From a lecture by Ronald W. Blue, president of Ronald Blue & Co., 1100 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 600, Atlanta, Georgia 30342.
3. Norman Cousins, Human Options (Berkley Publications, 1983), 103.
4. Carroll Lachnit, "OC residents make more but give away less," The Orange County Register, 6 December 1988, A6.
Notes to Pages 273-299
5. Calvin Miller, "The Gift of Giving," Moody Monthly (December 1988): 23-25. Used by permission of the author.
6. Source unknown.
Chapter 14. Grace: It's Really Accepting!
1. From On an Average Day ... by Thomas N. Heymann. Copyright © 1988 by Thomas N. Heymann. Reprinted by permission of Ballantine Books, a Division of Random House, Inc.
2. Tom Parker, In One Day: The Things Americans Do in a Day (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1984).
3. Haddon Robinson, Biblical Preaching, The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1980), 31.
4. F. B. Meyer, Moses, the Servant of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1953), 33-34.
5. Taken from Whyte's Bible Characters from the Old Testament and the New Testament by Alexander Whyte. Copyright © 1952, 1967 by Zondervan Publishing House. Used by permission. Alexander Whyte, Bible Characters, vol. 1, The Old Testament (London: Oliphants Ltd., 1952), 139-140.
6. Greenville MacDonald, George MacDonald and His Wife (a. reprint of a 1924 ed.) (New York: Johnson Reproductions, a subdivision of Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, n.d.), 172.
Charles R. Swindoll is the best-selling author of many popular books, including Improving Your Serve, Living on the Ragged Edge, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life, and Living Above the Level of Mediocrity. His thirty-minute radio broadcast, "Insight for Living," is aired more than 1,100 times each day worldwide. Dr. Swindoll also serves as the Senior Pastor of the First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, California, and in 1988 he was honored as Clergyman of the Year by the Religious Heritage of America.
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