... The Proper Self-knowledge And Self-love Of

...there Is Therefore Now No Condemnation For Two Reasons: You Are Dead Now; And God, As The Lamb Slain From The Foundation Of The World, Has Been Dead All Along. The Blame Game Was Over Before It Started. It Really Was. All Jesus Did Was Announce That Truth And Tell You It Would Make You Free. It Was Admittedly A Dangerous Thing To Do. You Are A Menace. Be He Did It; And Therefore, Menace Or Not, Here You Stand: Uncondemned, Forever, Now. What Are You Going To Do With Your Freedom?

A Lost Sheep Is, For All Practical Purposes A Dead Sheep. It Is The Admission That We Are Dead In Our Sins---that We Have No Power Of Ourselves Either To Save Ourselves Or To Convince Anyone Else That We Are Worth Saving. It Is The Recognition That Our Whole Life Is Out Of Our Hands And That If We Ever Live Again, Our Life Will Be Entirely The Gift Of Some Gracious Shepherd. God Finds Us The Desert Of Death (not In The Garden Of Improvement) And In The Power Of Jesus' Resurrection, He Puts Us On His Shoulders Rejoicing And Brings Us Home.

Even To This Day, Grace Remains Hard To Swallow. Religiosity And Moralism Go Down Easier Than Free Forgiveness.

Salvation Is Not Some Felicitous State To Which We Can Lift Ourselves By Our Own Bootstraps After The Contemplation Of Sufficiently Good Examples. It Is An Utterly New Creation Into Which We Are Brought By Our Death In Jesus' Death And Our Resurrection In His. It Comes Not Out Of Our Own Best Efforts, However Well-inspired Or Successfully Pursued, But Out Of The Shipwreck Of All Human Efforts Whatsoever.

Grace Is The Celebration Of Life, Relentlessly Hounding All The Non-celebrants In The World. It Is A Floating, Cosmic Bash Shouting Its Way Through The Streets Of The Universe, Flinging The Sweetness Of Its Cassations To Every Window, Pounding At Every Door In A Hilarity Beyond All Liking And Happening, Until The Prodigals Come Out At Last And Dance, And The Elder Brothers Finally Take Their Fingers Out Of Their Ears.