I've been re-reading a book I recommended to a friend, a book called "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning. I've actually read it 2x before, and everytime I return to it, God speaks to me more, and points me deeper into His heart & His Word.
Manning's main purpose is to expose the falsehoods we have fallen into as the modern church, namely that we no longer understand the grace & love of God, and have replaced these with a gospel of good works, personal discipline, and self-denial. He says, "The bending of the mind by the powers of this world has twisted the gospel of grace into religious bondage and distorted the image of God into an eternal, small-minded bookkeeper" going on to say "Too many Christians are living in the house of fear and not the house of grace."
Grace means we have been bought, paid for, and are wholly accepted by the One "who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20)
Love means we are completely and passionately loved & pursued, without reservation and without condemnation, by the "furious love of God" as Chesterson called it. "He is the only God man has ever heard of who loves sinners," Manning writes.
I love his explanation of the true gospel of grace-
"This is the God of the gospel of grace: A God, who out of love for us, sent the only Son He ever had wrapped in our skin. He learned how to walk, stumbled and fell, cried for His milk, sweated blood in the night, was lashed with a whip and showered with spit, was fixed to a cross and died whispering forgiveness on us all..." then rose again to prove it.
Its less about doing, more about being. Not about us, all about Him.
I'm still reading...more to come.
Rob