The Gospel is not a call to do something, but the announcement that all is done in the One Who stood for all. Nothing is so contrary to our natural human tendencies, even as Christians, as the acceptance of such powerlessness, weakness, inability and inadequacy that must rely on God's action of grace.
Grace humiliates us, for it implies there is nothing we can do to please or appease God. Man's indignant objection is, "But I have to do something." But grace rejects all human performance, human accomplishment and human sacrifice. Grace says you have nothing to give, nothing to earn, nothing to pay, nothing to offer. You couldn't if you tried. Salvation is a free gift, you simply lay hold of what Christ has freely provided. Period.
This is the stumbling-block, the scandal, the offense of the cross - that Jesus finished doing everything that needed to be done before God. There is nothing we can do. "It - is - finished".
James A. Fowler, The Grace of God
Grace humiliates us, for it implies there is nothing we can do to please or appease God. Man's indignant objection is, "But I have to do something." But grace rejects all human performance, human accomplishment and human sacrifice. Grace says you have nothing to give, nothing to earn, nothing to pay, nothing to offer. You couldn't if you tried. Salvation is a free gift, you simply lay hold of what Christ has freely provided. Period.
This is the stumbling-block, the scandal, the offense of the cross - that Jesus finished doing everything that needed to be done before God. There is nothing we can do. "It - is - finished".
James A. Fowler, The Grace of God
