Showing results for "Grace" in Commentaries

Two thousand years ago, Jesus told a simple story about a father and his two sons. This tale stands out because it is a story about each of us and our struggle with sin. Whether we identify with the rebellion of the younger son or the self-righteousness of the older brother, we all are in need...

Grace or truth…or both? Truth without grace breeds self-righteousness and crushing legalism. Grace without truth breeds deception and moral compromise. Is it possible to embrace both in balance? Jesus did. Randy Alcorn offers a simple yet profound two-point checklist of Christlikeness. “In the end,” says Alcorn, “we don’t need grace or truth. We need grace and truth. And for people to see Jesus in us, they must see both.”

The Parable of the Prodigal Son still stands out as a crucial lesson about our struggle with sin and dependence on divine salvation. There is a part of this story that often goes untold, but it’s a message you need to hear. Nearly two thousand years ago, Jesus told a simple parable about a...

Volume two, The Reign of Grace, focuses on the sovereignty, grace, and holiness of God and on the need for holiness in believers. James Montgomery Boice discusses the full meaning of salvation, the problem with suffering, the struggles of sin, and the sustaining love God pours on his people.

Lament is how we bring our sorrow to God - but it is a neglected dimension of the Christian life for many Christians today. We need to recover the practice of honest spiritual struggle that gives us permission to vocalize our pain and wrestle with our sorrow. Lament avoids trite answers and quick solutions, progressively moving us toward deeper worship and trust.

Much of the contemporary discussion of the Jesus tradition has focused on aspects of oral performance, storytelling, and social memory, on the premise that the practice of communal reading of written texts was a phenomenon documented no earlier than the second century CE. Brian J. Wright overturns that premise by examining evidence that demonstrates communal reading events in the first century.