No book of the Bible separates those who get grace from those who don’t like Galatians.

I’ve been teaching Galatians, tweeting and facebooking quotes about Galatians, and discussing Galatians for a couple of months now. It amazes me that most Christian’s reaction to the radical Gospel of Christ is, “Be careful, don’t get carried away with this ‘grace thing.’”

I’m sorry, but I’m just going to have to disagree. You can’t get too carried away with grace. Grace is what the Christian life is all about. But there is one excess of grace the Book of Galatians warns us against.

But is has nothing to do with the typical evangojive lists of do’s and don’t’s.

Remarkably, it isn’t about Christian freedom at all.

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Our first worship service was just about to begin when I noticed someone running toward my usual “preacher front-row seat.”

My sweet seven-year old granddaughter, Mary with her long brown curls and bright blue eyes ran into my arms in all of her Sunday morning best, hugged my neck and said, “Good morning, Papa!”

It wasn’t “grown-up” behavior. It was wonderfully childlike.

An adult would never do what she did. Grown-ups don’t think and act that way. Grown-up thoughts would have considered the crowd, wondered what they thought, calculated that this might be an embarrassment to them and a distraction to others and decide not to run to someone they love, hug their neck, and tell them good morning. No matter how much a grown-up might love that person, they would never express it with such innocent exuberance.

But a child would, because it doesn’t matter whose looking as much as whom they are trusting. Mary ran into my arms because she knew that she was running to a safe place, to the arms of someone who loves her.

Childlike Faith

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Every time Jesus told a parable about mercy in the Gospels, He was talking to religious people who resisted His message.

The self-righteous, opposers of grace, and “God-you’re-going-to-accept-what-I-say-about-who-deserves-your-attention” crowd hates mercy.

Their first thoughts on mercy are usually, “Why does God need to do this mercy gig? That’s only for people who aren’t good enough to measure up.”

Their second thought about mercy is always, “But if there’s going to be mercy, it ought to be for those of us who do measure up.”

The enemies of Christ can’t stand it that Jesus insists that God loves sinners.

And, sadly, His mercy passes them by.

Question: Do you ever find yourself begrudging God’s mercy to other “sinners”?

Our study of Galatians and the great theme of salvation surfaced a need to define some terms.

Because Church of the Open Door has historically embraced the gospel of Christ Paul taught, there is a rumor going around that we do not believe in repentance.

I usually try to keep these Tipping Points under 500 words, but this week’s the exception.

Answering the question, “What about repentance?” is critical to our spiritual life and our grasp of the so great salvation offered freely to all who believe.

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C. S. Lewis Didn’t Forget

Years ago a group of British thinkers on comparative religion furiously debated whether one belief set Christianity apart from other world religions. C. S. Lewis wandered in late, took a seat and asked, “What’s the rumpus about?” They told him they were trying to determine Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions. Without hesitation he replied, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”

How About You?

Would you say that? Without hesitation? If not, you’ll never experience the life Jesus wants to give you. Only those who embrace grace by trusting in His Son receive eternal life. Only those willing to join Christ in risking grace by extending it to sinners without vacillation or compromise will know the spontaneous spiritual joy that sparks spiritual revolution.

That’s what I remember when I remember the Jesus Movement!

Undeserved, unending, unearned, unconditional, uncontrollable, unblinking, unbound, undefiled, undeniable, unequivocal, unfaltering, unhinging, unlimited, unmistakable, unprecedented, unsettling—grace—God’s gift of life to all who believe in His Son, unheard of anywhere else but here—Christianity.

Have We Forgotten?

I just finished a wildly popular book the entire Christian world seems gaga over. I found a lot to challenge me in the pages of the book—if I were a Mormon, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or the follower of any teaching that tells people to get to work to get right with God. One enamored reviewer wrote, “It’s really deep, there’s a lot there!” I agree…

• A lot to cause believers to wonder if they really do belong to God.
• A lot to shame the reader into shaping up the outside of his or her life.
• A lot to motivate the reader to measure up to the author’s standards of righteousness.

What I didn’t find was grace.

What are we doing? Where did we go wrong? When did we forget that the Christian life begins and ends with the one distinction of our historic faith: grace!

Don’t write me asking the name of the book because I don’t want you to read it. I don’t want one more person to read it. And I’m praying that everyone exposed to this lie will someday read Paul’s writings. And when they do, they will realize they have been deceived by the latest holier-than-thou-excoriating-grace-protestant version of “righteousness by works, and that of yourselves.”

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“Whatever you do, don’t drink from any stream or creek. I don’t care how cold and clear and inviting it seems, it’s polluted and dangerous. Unless you see spring water bubbling from a rock, it will make you sick.”

That’s my warning to people I take backpacking in the wilderness of the High Sierras. If you’re not drinking from the source, you can’t trust the water.

Paul uses the same reasoning when he defends his message of the gospel of Christ, the gospel declaring that the Christian life is by grace, through faith.

Like the sweetest water from a high mountain spring, the gospel Paul taught refreshes because of its divine source—direct revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Turn, Turn, Turn

You gotta turn from this, and from this, and from this, and from this…if you really want to be a Christian!That’s what I hear too many Christian leaders saying today. “If you’re really serious about God, you’re going to turn from your sin and start living right!”

Two Problems With That

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Life on earth was a hopeless cycle of misery and pain.

Men and women were helpless to do anything about it.

Then, something happened.

God broke through the pain and misery by sending His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus called it “mercy.”

And when someone calls out to Him crying, “Have mercy on me,” He always does.

That cry for help characterized the Jesus Movement. We knew we needed mercy.

Every parable illustrating mercy in the New Testament occurs when Jesus is talking to self-righteous people. His message is consistent: Your confidence that you don’t need Me is your undoing. It’s the whores and tax-collectors who know they need Me who receive God’s mercy.

Maybe that’s why they called us “Jesus Freaks” in the 60s.

Question: Do you remember the day God’s mercy broke through the pain and misery of your life?