On Grace for the Outcasts
There is not a soul who crosses the threshold of the sanctuary who is excluded from the message of the gospel of forgiveness.
Contributors
Brad Gray
Brad Gray is the senior pastor of Stonington Baptist Church in Paxinos, Pennsylvania (www.stoningtonbaptist.org), where he lives and serves with his wife Natalie, daughter Lydia, and son Braxton. He is currently pursuing an M.Div. from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He blogs regularly at graceupongrace.net and hosts a podcast, “Ministry Minded.”
Christ Hold Fast
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What Sin and Death Cannot Do
There is a power that is stronger and mightier than the power of separation in death. And that power is the power of God’s love for you and me.
The Most Unexpected Gospel
The Gospels function like literary essays, composed with a specific thesis and purpose in mind. Each account of Jesus’s life acts as a treatise to show us something about the person and work of the Savior.
A Real Estate Transaction that Preaches Redemption
Ever since the tragedy of the Garden, God’s plan of redemption has been in motion. His movement upon this world has never ceased, and it never will.
All of Divinity in the Limits of Humanity
God is not an impassive monster who is unfamiliar with our horrendous ailments. Rather, in Christ, God familiarizes himself with our suffering and becomes particularly attuned to the fragility of fallen humanity.
All You Need Is Need.
Unlike any mortal legal representative, our divine Attorney does not perform an inquiry to ensure our case is worth taking. He secures no retainer from us prior to advocating for our vindication.
Safe and Sound in the Shadow of the Almighty
Jesus’s followers aren’t ostriches who bury their heads in the sand. That’s not helpful or hopeful for anyone. Resting from life’s trials and troubles comes in the remembrance of the One who is with you in the middle of all of them.
The Lord Our Protector
When we are invited to cast all our cares on God's shoulders, he means all of them — every single one of them.
Doubting Thomas’ Unfettered Welcome
Every time the Scriptures are opened, we are repeating this scene. Every time the gospel is preached, we are replicating a moment wherein the faithless ones are greeted by their faithful Lord.
The Gospel According to Paul’s Letter to Philemon
This is no isolated or obscure fragment of New Testament writing. Contained within Paul’s correspondence to Philemon is one of the most striking portraits of the gospel ever recorded.
Dismantling Our Schemes of Self-Righteousness.
Righteousness by yourself is not just hard, it is impossible. It does not come about by your purity, your activity, or your loyalty. It comes through one thing: faith.
The True and Better One
When Jesus preaches the gospel, he is preaching himself. Jesus’s good news is the good news about himself.
Salvation in the Soot of Sin
Have you ever felt haunted by fear, shame, and guilt? Have you ever worried that Jesus couldn't love you anymore? I have.
On the Definitive Assurance of Jesus’s Advocacy
Having the assurance that perfect righteousness has already been gifted to you is, perhaps, the leading spiritual scuffle in which every believer is entangled.
A Savior vs. Santa: Merry Christmas, Sinners!
This love will not cease. It cannot be stopped. It cannot be tamed. It is love unsought. Before you lift a pinky in repentance, it has already come to you.
Grace is Reckless.
By every conceivable category, grace shouldn't exist. It shouldn't have been bestowed. It's the card in God's trick we never saw coming.
World's Strongest Man
God comes to fix what is broken by being broken himself. He abolishes death by dying. He subsumes sin by being made sin itself.
An Angel in the Whirlwind
The stilling of the seas is not so much a parable of words but a parable of actions. Jesus shows his apostles that they were seeing but not perceiving, hearing but not understanding who he was.
A Theology of Grief & Death
It is true that no one ever grieves in the same way. We are all different in personality and chemical makeup. But what is the same, is that everyone, at some point, grieves.
Faith, Depression, & Clinging to the Rumor of Grace
Whatever theoretical or conceptual ideas to which we surrender in despair, the Christian faith offers something wholly different. It offers a person.
The Futility of Balancing Grace
Perhaps the most poisonous venom to afflict the gospel is the notion of "balancing" grace.
Salvation and the Silly Summit of Some Great Thing
Overcrowding on Mount Everest betrays what our culture worships. We bow down at the altar of the impossible to be seen as the conquerors, the champions.
Growing Downward: Thoughts on Sanctification & Spiritual Maturity
Growth and maturity in the Spirit doesn’t look like we think it does. That’s because it’s backward.
Sour Grapes & Stale Crackers
The communion service is a sermon in and of itself. The communion sermon is that which most expressly tells us of the sinless One who stands in the sinner’s stead.
The Gospel Doesn’t Blow Smoke
It was during one of these garbage burns, however, that I was bathed in a fresh remembrance of grace.