“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”- Philippians 3:7 “The gospel doesn’t just free you from what other people think of you, it frees you from what you think of yourself.”- […]
“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in […]
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish? . . . When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread.”- John […]
And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”- Luke 5:31-32 “The great and merciful surprise is that we come to God not by doing it right but by doing it wrong.”- Richard […]
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”- Romans 5:8 (NIV) In Chapter 5 (“Ex-Convicts, Failed Disciples, and One-Way Love”) of One Way Love, Tullian Tchividjian comments that what brought him out of his rebellious period was not a spectacular, Damascus Road experience, but […]
As Tullian Tchividjian concludes Chapter 4 of One Way Love, he cites J. Gresham Machen’s counterintuitive statement that “a low ( or cheap) view of the law always produces legalism; a high view of the law makes a person a seeker after grace.” Pastor Tchividjian then contrast the two views. A low view of the Law: […]
“Sin is not canceled by lawful living, for no person is able to live up to the law. Nothing can take away sin but the grace of God.”- Martin Luther Tullian Tchividjian (One Way Love) concluded in the last post that fight, flight, and appeasement don’t work, at least not in the long run. Fighters […]
In Chapter 4 (“I Fought the Law- and the Law Won”) of One Way Love, author Tullian Tchividjian revisits his earlier statement that when we lay down the law, exercise control, or offer “constructive” criticism, it’s an illusion to believe that real change will happen: “The law may have the power to instruct and expose, […]
“The law could promise life to me, if my obedience perfect be.”- Ralph Erskine (Scottish clergyman, 1685-1752) “If you want to make people mad, preach the law. If you want to make them really, really mad, preach grace.”- Dr. Doug Kelly, Tullian’s theology professor Tullian Tchividjian expands his discussion of judgment in Chapter 3 of […]
In Chapter 3 of One Way Love, Pastor Tullian Tchividjian quotes Martin Luther’s characterization of the Law as “a voice that man can never stop in his life.” The Law has a power of its own: it accuses. Whether we consciously realize it or not, judgment and expectation are the root cause of much of […]
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”- Galatians 5:1 Tullian Tchividjian begins Chapter 3 (“Confessions of a Perfomancist”) of One Way Love with a discussion of the negative, even vicious, demands of performancism. Performancism is a world in which successes aren’t really […]
As Tullian Tchividjian concludes Chapter 2 of One Way Love, he boldly states that a major goal of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, especially Matthew 5:17-48, is to clearly emphasize that whatever we think our greatest sin is, in reality it is much worse. Jesus equates action with motivation, so that any attempts at self-salvation […]