Quotes About Grace

How we are saved is closely linked to the question of what we are saved for.

Jesus is sheer, absolute gift of God. He is not a mere product of human history; he is the humanity of the God who graciously identifies with us and shares our human condition. No less human for that, for God's solidarity with us requires his full humanity. But human as God's self-gift to humanity, as 'Immanuel

The reign of the crucified Jesus only had to be announced for it to become effective.

Since Paul knew that his own hard and bitter heart had been changed by God's grace, he also knew that there was nobody this side of the grave who could not in principle be similarly reached and changed.

And this 'justification', which is, of course, possible only because of the sheer grace and mercy of God acted out in the death and resurrection of his son, is made not on the basis of a new 'personal relationship with God' or some other religious experience but rather on the basis of the belief that Jesus is lord and that God raised him from the dead.

Christian holiness consists not of trying as hard as we can to be good but of learning to live in the new world created by Easter, the new world we publicly entered in our baptism.

The passage has regularly been read as the vital move in the wrong story— the story, once again, of a "works contract" in which, to put it crudely, humans sin, God punishes Jesus, and humans are let off. This omits elements that were vital for Paul

The New Testament insists, in book after book, that when Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross, something happened as a result of which the world is a different place. And the early Christians insisted that when people are caught up in the meaning of the cross, they become part of this difference.

Les hommes se plaignent des centaines de fois devant Dieu de leur souffrance, de leur blessure, de leur douleur. Mais ils ne savent pas que c'est la souffrance et la douleur qui les rendirent bons et justes. Ils ne savent pas d'avantage que c'est la grâce et la faveur qui les éloignèrent de Créateur, qui les exclurent de son entourage.

Illium seems far too pretty to be dangerous." Dmitri's male beauty, by contrast, was a darker, edgier thing. "No one ever expects him to take out a blade and slice off their balls," he said with lethal amusement in his tone as he drove them toward the George Washington Bridge. "He does it with such grace, too.

Illium was a stunning sight against the lightening sky, his wings sweeping through the air with a grace that made him seem a half-forgotten dream. When he landed in the courtyard, his wings flaring out for an instant, he was at once very much a man, physical and sexual, and an unattainable fantasy.

Venom didn't answer until they'd crossed teh street, his body moving with liquid grace. Holly couldn't help it; she watched him. There was something deadly about Venom. Not just power, but him . She wondered if he'd been like this as a human, too, dangerous and beautiful. She blinked, shook her head. Obviously, if she was starting to think Venom beautiful, it was time to break her self-imposed celibacy and go get laid.

Then she lay silent as he moved his fingers over the strings with a grace that astounded and compelled. When he added his voice, keeping the volume low to avoid disturbing her neighbors, she felt her heart stop beating. A fallen angel might have a voice like that, she thought, hard and pure and with an unashamed sexuality to it that invited the listener into sin.

People smiled if you smiled at them. Beautiful angels included.

But God's grace is with us every step of the way. As each chapter of our lives ends, as every door closes, He is standing right there. Whether we are innocently unaware of the preciousness of a moment or if we are all too well aware that it is the last time, God is with us.

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! —Psalm 119:1

For by grace you have been saved . . . —Ephesians 2:8

For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. —John 1:16

A decent world is built upon small acts of kindness.

There's nothing remotely glamorous about waiting hand and foot on a fusspot like Opal, but what a pinched and useless life we'd lead if our only goal was glamour.

Death forces a grace period on all of us. The dying offer the living a final chance to be the best that they can be. We must take our cues from them, value the moments that lead up to and follow their departure, and work toward acceptance after they are gone. This is a vow as sacred as any we will make over the course of our lifetimes.

I wish the Lord would just knock me over with kindness and goodness and simple purity, because I don't seem to be getting the knack of it on my own.

A little extra forgiveness never hurts," said Matt, quoting one of Celia's favorite sayings.

God chooses to use simple, ordinary things and people so that he is the one who gets all the glory.