Grace vs. Performance part 2

The following will be in our church's newsletter for May:

A gospel of grace or a gospel of performance? I have a tendency to preach the former, but live the latter. I venture to guess that many others do as well. In fact, by way of confession, I have been guilty of preaching the latter at times--the do better Christianity that I have heard all my life; now, I have in many ways tried to impose that on others. God, forgive me.

The Lord re-taught me this past week that the gospel is not only for un-believers, but for believers as well. I need a daily dose of the gospel of grace that evokes the response like the tax collector in Luke 18 - "God, be merciful to me a sinner" - with the realization that the blessings of God are not secured by my performance, but by grace in Jesus.

According to Jerry Bridges, this does not preclude personal discipline. What it does do is replace a faulty understanding and foundation of the purpose of personal discipline in the pursuit of holiness (1 Timothy 4:7) based upon God's grace through faith.

What I desire more than anything else is daily, consistent fellowship with Jesus and concentration upon him (Oswald Chambers) expressed within the context of all my daily activities, not a hard, fast, legalistic rule that will either push me toward Phariseeism or push me toward false guilt.

This is tough for me--my whole life has been performance based and task oriented. God, give me the grace and mercy to change.

For more on this subject, pick up a copy of Jerry Bridges' book The Discipline of Grace.

May God grant you grace.