Forgiveness is Condemning the Sin but Sparing the Sinner

To be just is to condemn the fault and, because of the fault, to condemn the doer as well. To forgive is to condemn the fault but to spare the doer. That's what the forgiving God does.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 141.

Biblical Assurance of Salvation

According to Scripture, assurance of salvation is always based on Christ's work, not ours. Objectively, Christians look to Christ's past work on the cross; subjectively, Christians look to Christ's present work in our lives; and supremely, Christians look to Christ's unshakable promises regarding our future. Our assurance of salvation is not found in a prayer we prayed or a decision we made however many years ago as much as it is found in the sacrifice of Christ for us, experiencing the Spirit of Christ in us, obeying the commands of Christ to us, and expressing the love of Christ to others.

--David Platt, Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2013), 189-190.

Christ Commands All Christians to Teach

God has clearly called and gifted some people in the church to teach his Word formally. At the same time, he has commanded all of us in the church to teach his Word relationally.

--David Platt, Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2013), 192.

Human Freedom is Unlike God's Freedom

It's rather that, unlike God, we always exercise our will as beings constantly shaped by many factors--by language, parental rearing, culture, media, advertising, and peer pressure, and through all these, we are shaped either by God or by God's adversary. Often we don't perceive ourselves as shaped at all. If we are not visibly and palpably coerced, we think that we act autonomously, spontaneously, and authentically. Yet we are wrong.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 66.

What is Human Freedom?

But maybe our sense that to be free is to act under no constraint whatsoever is mistaken. We tend to think that we must be autonomous and spontaneous to act freely. Behind this identification of freedom with autonomous spontaneity lies the notion of a self-defined and free-floating person. Strip down all the influences of time and place, abstract from culture and nurture, and then you'll come to your authentic core. This core is who you truly are, the thinking goes--unique, unshaped, unconstrained.

But that's more like a caricature of a divine self than an accurate description of a human self.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 65-66.

We Give Only What We Have Already Been Given

We give only because we have first received. God gives from what is originally, exclusively, and properly God's own; we give from what is our own because God continually gives to us.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 62.

God, the Non-Receiving Giver

We are not God, so it follows that when we give, we must give differently than God does. For one thing, God is the first giver. For centuries, Christian philosophers have spoken of God as the "unmoved mover" and "uncaused cause." We can say, by analogy, that God is a "non-receiving giver." Just as God causes without being caused, God gives without having received.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 61.

Our Identity as Givers

If we just enjoy good things without passing them on, if we are blessed without being a blessing, then we fail in our purpose as channels. We are givers because we were made that way, and if we don't give, we are at odds with ourselves.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 60.

True Love vs. Self Love

But why shouldn't one live "in oneself"? Isn't that what the self is supposed to do? Not really. It's just what the self likes to do. The self will lose itself if it simply lives in and for itself. It will seek only its own benefits, and the more it seeks its own benefits, the less satisfied it will become. That's the paradox of self-love: The more you fill the self, the more it echoes with the emptiness of unfulfillment. Living in itself and for itself, the self remains mysteriously unsatisfied and insatiable. Since God creates the self to be indwelled by Christ, that self will be fulfilled only if it draws the living water from the well-spring of love's infinity and passes it on to its neighbors. The paradox of true love is exactly the opposite of the paradox of self-love: When loving truly, the self moves outside of itself to dwell with God and neighbor, and only then is it truly at home. When this happens, we have crossed over from self-centeredness to genuine and fulfilling generosity.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 52.

The Empty Hands of Faith

Faith is the way we as receivers relate appropriately to God as the giver. It is empty hands held open for God to fill.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 43.

A Posture of Receptivity

God's gifts oblige us, first, to a posture of receptivity. Rather than wanting to earn God's gifts (if we imagine God as a hard negotiator whose demands we have to satisfy) or receive them in return for some favor (if we imagine God as a patron on whose generosity we depend), we should see ourselves as who we truly are, namely, receivers and receivers only. We do that by relating to God in faith. The first thing to which God's gifts oblige us is faith.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 42-43.

Only God Can Save Us From Sin, and Only God Can Prevent Us From Sinning

Nothing we can do can either get us out of sin's hole or prevent us from falling into it. Only God can.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 37.

"We sin by trying to overcome sin on our own."

But there is no way for us to crawl out of sin's hole. Indeed, the very attempt to crawl out on our own only sinks us in deeper. That may seem a strange claim. But if God is the source of all our good, then God must be the source of our freedom from sin. When we attempt to free ourselves on our own, we deny the true source of our goodness and wrong God by claiming for ourselves what is God's. We sin by trying to overcome sin on our own.

--Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 36-37.

Everywhere is Holy Ground

Because of Jesus, the presence that once threatened our lives is now opened up to us in a radical and scandalous way. The cross cleanses us of our sins, and now the Most Holy Place, the place where we can go to meet with God and enjoy life with him, is literally everywhere.

In the Lord's prayer, Jesus teaches us to call our hallowed God, "Father." His dangerous presence is transformed into a presence of intimacy and comfort; he's our dad. Through the cross, life in God's world becomes life in his "hallowed" presence. Every square inch of it is holy ground.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 198.

Repentance is Turning to Something Greater

We often think [repentance is] the religious equivalent of saying, "Eat your vegetables." In truth, repentance is turning from a lesser good to a greater one. It's saying "stop eating out of the trash and taste this feast the Lord has made for you."

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 189.

An Ambassador's Confidence

Ambassadors don't have to accomplish anything on their own. They simply stand in as a representative, knowing that the one they represent is able to follow through on all he says.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 186-87.

Jesus Has Sent Us

Have you ever had a friend recommend a restaurant, saying "Tell them I sent you"? Or have you ever had a business connection that got you a foot in the door somewhere with that phrase? This is what Jesus is doing. "I've been put in charge of everything," he says. "Make sure you tell them I sent you."

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 186.

Our Community Testifies of the Trinity

When God created heaven and earth, the only thing in creation he deemed "not good" was a man without community. We were meant for relationships, and we worship a God who is himself a community. Our love for one another is a testimony to the world about how the members of the Trinity love and relate to one another.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 184.

Community is Part of the Message

Community isn't just a requirement; it's actually part of the message. As we live our identities in community with one another, we are testifying to the world what it means to follow Jesus.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 184.

Discipleship Involves Movement

As witnesses for Jesus, we don't first and foremost call people to a place or a building. We don't call people to make a pilgrimage to the Jesus-temple or to a stable in Bethlehem. Instead, we seek them out, embracing them as Jesus embraces us. Movement can be geographic, but it's often just as difficult to make relational and intimate movement.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 183-84.

Simple Evangelism

Our tendency is to think that [witnessing] requires a program or a target audience outside the ordinary stream of our lives, but it doesn't. It starts with our being witnesses in the ordinary places where we live and work, and it starts with our simply building friendships and getting to know people.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 183.

A Mind Formed by the Scriptures and a Life Shaped by the Gospel

We should be shaping our whole lives like an athlete, cultivating a mind formed by the Scriptures and a life shaped by the gospel, not because we're earning something but because this is truly a better way to live--because we want to be able to see Jesus as more beautiful and more believable.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 171.

Our Commitment to Other Christians Should Reflect God's Commitment to Us

Nowhere does the Bible show us an individualistic faith where Jesus is only your personal Savior. This isn't just about going to church; this is about being faithful to the gospel. We're saying that the commitment that God has made to us through the sacrifice of the Son results in commitment to one another and sacrifice for one another.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 141.

The Gospel Never Excuses Us

The gospel, while it frees us from the burdens of our sin and shame, never excuses us. Our sin results in Christ's death, which both calls for us to be humbled by our sin and frees us from the burden of shame that once accompanied it.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 137.