"Grace, It's a name for a girl

It's also a thought that changed the world" -U2

It seems I've heard a number of thoughts on grace recently. It may be that I've just been mulling over the same few thoughts rather than there being a lot of them but either way I wanted to share some of them (emphasis mine) from an interview* done by John Ortberg (JO) with Dallas Willard (DW) -- who's works I am not intelligent enough to read:

Re: the gospel in our day
JO: "If the gospel isn't primarily, 'here's how you make sure you get into heaven when you die.' What is Jesus' gospel?"

DW: "It's how to get into heaven before you die. That's it... Any New Testament scholar would tell you, I believe, What did Jesus preach? They would say 'the Kingdom of God" that's not quite right because what he preached was the availability of the Kingdom of God, to everyone, wherever they were, and whoever they were. And so he announced this and by his own presence makes it available..."

DW: "The reality is God is action. ...the main thing to understand is God acts in relationship with us. ...the important thing is to understand the Kingdom of God is God in action. That happens to turn out to be the same thing as grace. So grace now becomes a part of our lives and we experience it with us, by faith..."

...

JO: "I grew up with the idea that grace was just a synonym for the forgiveness of sins.
So really the only people who need grace are people who are unforgiven sinners."

DW: "Well, I know that that's true and I've heard leading ministers in our country here say that the only role of grace is guilt and forgiveness. That is an incredible misreading that you would get corrected if you just did inductive Bible study with 'grace'. You would find almost immediately that it's for life, not for forgiveness. It's for enabling us to live in such a way that God is a part of our lives and helping us to lead the life that he wants for us. The sinner is not the one who uses a lot of grace, the saint uses more grace. The saint burns grace like a 747 burns fuel on takeoff because everything they do is a manifestation of grace. And were not running our of grace, you know, there's lots of it. So we can use it but we have to learn how to do it and primarily that means that we no longer just trust our own efforts to manage our lives. That's our kingdom..."

JO: "So the gospel is the good news that God's presence and his action is available into my life right now, into our life right now?"

DW: "Absolutely right. And that's what you see in Jesus because when he came he brought that in touch with all kinds of people, especially the kinds who were not suppose to be in touch with God.

Grace is actually God acting in your life to accomplish what you cannot accomplish on your own."

...

JO: "How should we think about heaven?"

DW: "We should think of it as God's presence. God's presence, in action, is heaven..."

These a just a few snippets from the interview, which is well worth the listen. I'll leave you with the closing blessings from Dallas Willard:

"Now, may the Lord touch you with his spirit to bring good into your life. And may he open the way of the kingdom for everyone of you, right where you are, as you step forward from this hour and may you know the reality of the kingdom and its power and strength in everything you do. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So let it be done."

Amen.

*Catalyst Podcast, Episode 124, released 2/27/2011