Religion vs Gospel (Quote from Steve Brown)

“Whenever religion becomes leverage, it ceases to be the religion of Jesus. The gospel of God’s grace take away the leverage. Why? Because if I’m forgiven without condition, you can’t make me feel guilty. If God loves me, you can’t manipulate me by threatening to take away your love. If God knows my secrets and doesn’t condemn me, then you can’t use my secrets as blackmail.”

“It is so freeing to realize that we don’t have anything to prove or to protect. We don’t have to fix anything. God doesn’t need any help. He did fine before we came along and will do fine long after we’re gone. The great thing about being a Christian is that you can forgive, love, and encourage ’em all, and then let God sort it out.”

“I sometimes fear that many of us (and I include myself) find our definition by our obedience, in our ability to persuade others to be like us, and in our ability to win the battles. There is a lot of ego involved in being good, in being right, and as part of the battle, having others know that we are good and right.”

~Steve Brown, The Scandalous Freedom