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.

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.

Why Our Spiritual Life is Great

When people ask us how our spiritual life is doing, our reflexive answer, no matter what else is happening in our lives, should be to say that it's great, not because we've performed well, and not because our circumstances are good, or because we just advanced socially in some way, but because our life is hid with Christ in God and we are completely acceptable to the Father through his lavish, free grace.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 81.

All Grace

The gospel declares that our right standing with God and our continued life in his kingdom are all a gift of his grace. Life with God comes by grace. The cross is given to us by grace. We have life with God not because of anything we have or could have done or anything we have failed to do but because God has freely given it to us at Jesus's expense. We are safe, we are accepted, we are loved because God has made it so by his grace. Period.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 80.

The Cross Reveals What We Deserve

The gospel of grace is a message that can be heard only by those who are aware of their own brokenness and need. It's a message that's exceedingly difficult to hear in a culture that tells us that we deserve everything: happiness, low interest rates, affordable health care, a skinny body, and a fat wallet. The gospel of grace insists that we deserve none of this, and points to the anguish of God nailed to the cross as the proper measure of what we deserve. Without such a signpost, there's nothing amazing about grace.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 75-76.

Grace Offends Because It Exposes

Grace offends because it exposes. It exposes our sins, showing that we've underestimated the depths of our problem, and it exposes our helplessness; God doesn't need any help from us for the cure.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 73.

Hearts Afire with Wonder

Too often, we're given the impression that life after faith in Christ is met with a burdensome list of things to do, but there appears to be none of that burden in the book of Acts. Instead, people who've been hit with the gospel respond naturally with radically changed lives and hearts. The church and the ministries of the church are gospel centered when they flow from hearts that are afire with wonder at the glory and grace of God, revealed in the person of Jesus.

--Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 23.

The Gospel is Personal, but It is Not Private

Though the gospel is personal, it is not private. God's grace frees us to be quite specific with things going on in our lives, but it also compels us into deeper community with others.

--Scotty Smith, Everyday Prayers: 365 Days to a Gospel-Centered Faith (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), Kindle location 165.

God's Love Propels Holiness; My Pursuit of Holiness Does Not Propel God's Love

When rightly understood, God's love will propel you toward holiness and growth in grace. The order is essential: I am a new creation, accepted, adopted, and free; therefore I want to please God. We do not say: I will try to please God so that I may become a new creation, make myself acceptable, and hope that God adopts me and sets me free.

--Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2006), 163-164.

Anything Rightly Called Good Comes from God

But remembering your union with Christ reminds you that any good thing in your life is the result of his mercy and grace, not your own wisdom, goodness, and effort. Any effort we put into our lives began with the strength he gives us and continues because he is committed to us forever!

--Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2006), 60.

Christ is Working in Our Hearts Every Day

It is not enough to embrace Christ's promise of life after death. We must also embrace his promise of life before death, which is only possible because of Christ's grace at work in our hearts today.

--Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2006), 12.

God Sets Us Free FROM Sin, and He Sets Us Free TO Obey Him

We have been freed from the weight of the law to live a godly life. We cannot glory in what grace takes us from without also accepting what it calls us to (see Rom. 6:1-14; Titus 2:11-14).

--Paul David Tripp, War of Words: Getting to the Heart of Your Communication Struggles (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2000), 203.

God Helps the Helpless

Leaders have also articulated that "God helps those who help themselves," which has motivated many people to work hard and expect God to "fill in the spaces." The reality of the gospel is that God helps the helpless. When we realize that we are utterly helpless without His grace and power in our lives, we are in a vulnerable posture that welcomes His transformation.

--Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, and Philip Nation, Transformational Discipleship: How People Really Grow (Nashville: B&H, 2012), 141-142.

Adopted Orphans

The identity we have in Christ is a work done exclusively by God on our behalf. Just as an orphan child does not go out into the suburbs to seek a new family, we do not seek our way into God's kingdom. Rather, the Spirit seeks us out and then transforms our lives by the power of the gospel.

--Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, and Philip Nation, Transformational Discipleship: How People Really Grow (Nashville: B&H, 2012), 102.

The Great Exchange

But there is one moment in the Gospels where Jesus does not use "Abba" in His reference to God the Father. When Jesus is on the cross, He yells out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" In this moment Jesus was being condemned for us, becoming sin for us; thus He could not enjoy the close relationship with Abba. He experienced painful separation from the Father so we can experience joyful connection with Him.

--Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, and Philip Nation, Transformational Discipleship: How People Really Grow (Nashville: B&H, 2012), 101.

Stingy Jonah

Jonah wants to receive God's grace without being changed by it, and at the same time to snatch it away from those whose lives are in fact changed by it.

--Daniel C. Timmer, A Gracious and Compassionate God: Mission, Salvation and Spirituality in the Book of Jonah (New Studies in Biblical Theology; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2011), 133.

Repentance Doesn't Obligate God

Although Nineveh had repented, God was in no way obliged to deliver the city because they 'turned from their evil way', but spared them out of pure grace. God acts with grace toward both Nineveh and Jonah, underlining once again the compassionate character so forcefully presented at the beginning of Jonah 4.

--Daniel C. Timmer, A Gracious and Compassionate God: Mission, Salvation and Spirituality in the Book of Jonah (New Studies in Biblical Theology; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2011), 133.