Introduction of One Way Love

I began reading the introduction of One Way Love by Tullian Tchividjian on October 10th.  There are some amazing quotes in just the few pages of the book.  Here are a few:

Performancism is the mindset that equates our identity and value directly to our performance and accomplishments. . .Sadly, the Christian church has not proven to be immune to  performancism.

The unintended consequence of this push (a robust, radical, and sacrificial expression of Christian faith), however, is that if we're not careful, we can give people the impression that Christianity is first and foremost about the sacrifice we make for Jesus rather than the sacrifice Jesus made for us; our performance for him rather than his performance for us; our obedience for him rather than his obedience to us. The hub of Christianity is not "do something for Jesus." The hub of Christianity is "Jesus has done everything for you." And my fear is that too many people, both inside and outside the church, have heard our pleas for intensified devotion and concluded that the focus of Christian faith is our love for God instead of God's love for us. Don't get me wrong--what we do is important. But it is infinitely less important than what Jesus has done for us.

The heart of the Christian faith is Good News, not good advice, good technique, or good behavior.

We are saved by grace, but we are living by the "sweat" of our own performance. . .We seem to believe success in the Christian life is basically up to us: our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way.

It amazes me that you will hear great concern from inside the church about too much grace, but rarely will you ever hear great concern from inside the church about too many rules.

It is high time for the church to honor its Founder by embracing sola gratia anew, to reignite the beacon of hope for the hopeless and point all of us bedraggled perfromancists back to the freedom and rest of the Cross. To leave our ifs, ands, or buts behind and get back to proclaiming the only message that matters--and the only message we have--the Word about God's one-way love for sinners. It is time for us to abandon, once and for all, our play-it-safe religion and get drunk on grace. Two-hundred-proof, unflinching grace. It's shocking and scary, unnatural and undomesticated, but it is also the only thing that can set us free and light the church--and the world--on fire.