# The Grace Awakening

## Metadata
- Author: [[Charles R. Swindoll]]
- Full Title: The Grace Awakening
- Category: #books
## Highlights
- LegalismNow is a good time for us to become better acquainted with the staunch enemy of liberty. Legalism is an attitude, a mentality based on pride. It is an obsessive conformity to an artificial standard for the purpose of exalting oneself. A legalist assumes the place of authority and pushes it to unwarranted extremes. As Daniel Taylor states so well, it results in illegitimate control, requiring unanimity, not unity:The great weapon of authoritarianism, secular or religious, is legalism: the manufacturing and manipulation of rules for the purpose of illegitimate control. Perhaps the most damaging of all the perversions of God's will and Christ's work, legalism clings to law at the expense of grace, to the letter in place of the spirit.Legalism is one more expression of the human compulsion for security. If we can vigorously enforce an exhaustive list of dos and don'ts (with an emphasis on external behavior), we not only can control unpredictable human beings but have God's favor as well....Legalistic authoritarianism shows itself in the confusion of the Christian principle of unity with a human insistence on unanimity. Unity isa profound, even mystical quality. It takes great effort to achieve, yet mere effort will never produce it; it is a source of great security, yet demands great risk.Unanimity, on the other hand, is very tidy. It can be measured, monitored, and enforced. It is largely external, whereas unity is essentially internal. Its primary goal is corrected behavior, while unity's is a right spirit. Unanimity insists on many orthodoxies in addition to those of belief and behavior, including orthodoxy of experience and vocabulary. That is, believers are expected to come to God in similar ways, to have similar experiences with God, and to use accepted phrases in describing those experiences.;In ([Location 870](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=870))
- In so many words, legalism says, "I do this or I don't do that, and therefore I am pleasing God." Or, "If only I could do this or not do that, I would be pleasing to God." Or perhaps, "These things that I'm doing or not doing are the things I perform to win God's favor." They aren't spelled out in Scripture, you understand. They've ([Location 880](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=880))
- In one of his more serious moments, Mike Yaconelli, editor of The Wittenburg Door, wrote strong words concerning pettiness in the church:.Petty people are ugly people. They are people who have lost their vision. They are people who have turned their eyes away from what matters and focused, instead, on what doesn't matter. The result is that the rest of us are immobilized by their obsession with the insignificant. It is time to rid the church of pettiness. It is time the church refused to be victimized by petty people. It is time the church ([Location 1034](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1034))
- church stopped ignoring pettiness. It is time the church quit pretending that pettiness doesn't matter. . . . Pettiness has become a serious disease in the Church of Jesus Christ-a disease which continues to result in terminal cases of discord, disruption, and destruction. Petty people are dangerous people because they appear to be only a nuisance instead of what they really are-a health hazard."Yaconelli ([Location 1037](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1037))
- I like Ralph Keiper's contemporary paraphrase of Paul's strong rebuke:"Peter, ([Location 1047](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1047))
- "Peter, I smell ham on your breath. You forgot your Certs. There was a time when you wouldn't eat ham as part of your hope of salvation. Then after you trusted Christ, it didn't matter if you ate ham. But now when the no-ham eaters have come from Jerusalem you have gone back to your kosher ways. But the smell of ham still lingers on your breath. You are most inconsistent. You are compelling Gentile believers to observe Jewish law which can never justify anyone."Peter, by returning to the law, you undercut strength for godly living."9 ([Location 1048](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1048))
- Most of its fall short when it comes to letting others be, because of two strong and very human tendencies: We compare ourselves with others (which leads us to criticize or compete with them), and we attempt to control others (which results in our manipulating or intimidating them). ([Location 1613](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1613))
- If someone thinksdifferently or makes different choices than we do, prefers different entertainment, wears different clothing, has different tastes and opinions, or enjoys a different style of life, most Christians get nervous. ([Location 1616](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1616))
- FOUR BIBLICAL GUIDELINES THAT MAGNIFY GRACEEnough ([Location 1654](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1654))
- Guideline 1: Accepting others is basic to letting them be. ([Location 1664](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1664))
- "Let's allow others the freedom to hold to convictions that are unlike our own ... and accept them in spite of that difference." ([Location 1666](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1666))
- How about those in our life who may disagree with us on issues that are taboos in evangelical Christian circles today? Here are a few: ([Location 1670](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1670))
- In Romans 14 Paul mentions the two most common reactions to such conflicts. First he says, "Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not" (v. 3). The words "regard with contempt" mean "regard as nothing, utterly despise, to discount entirely." ([Location 1692](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1692))
- The second reaction Paul mentions is that of the other side-"and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats." Judging means to criticize, to view negatively, to make assumptions that are exaggerated and erroneous and even damaging to character. ([Location 1694](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1694))
- Do you remember Paul's question? "Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls." When we truly accept another person, we remember that the Lord is perfectly capable of directing his or her life. That relieves us from having to be his or her conscience. It's our job to accept others; it's God's job to direct them. ([Location 1699](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1699))
- Guideline 2: Refusing to dictate to others allows the Lord freedom to direct their lives. ([Location 1711](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000W91AOY&location=1711))