“[T]he proof of your spiritual maturity is not how ‘pure’ you are but awareness of your impurity. The very awareness opens the door to grace.”
“The spiritual games we play, many of which begin with the best of motives, can perversely lead us away from God, because they lead us away from grace. Repentance, not proper behavior or even holiness, is the doorway to grace. And the opposite of sin is grace, not virtue.”
(Excerpts taken from “What’s So Amazing About Grace?“)
Some of these words seems shocking, especially to one like myself who grew up feasting on the diet of legalism. But the more I realize the truth of being poor in spirit, that my righteousness is still like soiled diapers before God’s, and that I cannot earn my place with God (rather He must give it to me by His grace), the more I truly live. I can’t do this thing called eternal life, but I can rest in the grace of my heavenly Father and receive it.