Proof: God’s Grace

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Point: The doctrines of God’s grace are not a club with which to beat people, nor a logical sequence to foster our argument, but a window through which we may see more clearly our great God.

Book: Montgomery, Daniel, and Timothy Paul Jones. PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace. Zondervan, 2014.

(For the full review follow the link above)

 

Path: The authors help to explain the doctrines of grace by jettisoning the confusion-creating acronym of “TULIP” in favor of their own, “PROOF.” They take the reader through each of the doctrines:

  • “Planned Grace – Before time began, God mapped out the plan of salvation from first to last. God planned to adopt particular people as his own children; Christ offered himself as a sacrifice for these people’s sins and as a substitute who satisfied God’s righteous requirements in their place (John 10:11 – 18; Ephesians 1:4 – 12).
  • Resurrecting Grace – Everyone is born spiritually dead. Left to ourselves, we will never choose God’s way. God enables people to respond freely to his grace by giving them spiritual life through the power of Christ’s resurrection (John 5:21; Ephesians 2:1 – 7).
  • Outrageous Grace – God chose people to be saved on the basis of his own sovereign will. He didn’t base his choice to give us grace on anything that we did or might do (John 15:16; Ephesians 2:8 – 9).
  • Overcoming Grace – God works in the lives of his chosen people to transform their rebellion into surrender so that they freely repent and recognize Christ as the risen King (John 6:44, 65; Ephesians 2:4 – 10).
  • Forever Grace – God seals his people with his Holy Spirit so that they are preserved and persevere in faith until the final restoration of God’s kingdom on the earth (John 10:27 – 29; Ephesians 1:13 – 14; 4:30).”

Favorite Quote: ““The message here was vastly different from what we were used to! Learning that there is no way to earn God’s forgiveness was so freeing.” (Kindle loc 2847)

Stars: 4.5 out of 5

It would be worth another read and I would recommend it to someone who:
wants to see themselves and their God in a greater way
struggles with the terms “Calvinist” and “Arminian”
has ever used the phrase “I don’t know if I could worship a God like Calvin’s”