Grace – Grace Evangelical Society

Grace Teachers Should Not Deny the Reality of Wrath (Romans 1:18)

March 29, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Grace, Romans, wrath

I notice that God’s grace is being emphasized more and more by a broad spectrum of Christians—from Anglicans to Word of Faith charismatics. But I also notice the message of grace can get distorted by ignoring or even denying all references to God’s anger, wrath, judgment, chastisement, and discipline. That position is known as hyper-grace

Think Twice Before You Start Arguing

March 19, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - arguing, Grace, witnessing

Time is precious. You only have so much time to serve the Lord Jesus. As you follow Him, your hardest choices will not be between obedience or disobedience but between worthwhile and worthless service. Not every attempted act of service has the same value and some have no value at all! (cf. 1 Cor 3:11-15).

Saved by Grace, Devoted to Good Works (Titus 3:1-8)

January 28, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Discipleship, good works, Grace, Titus

If the new birth depends on believing, not working, then where do good works fit into the Christian life? I think Paul’s letter to Titus summarizes the “grace” attitude to good works. Consider this passage: Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak

George Fox on Grace Before Godliness

January 11, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - George Fox, Grace, Quaker, Roman Catholic

George Fox was the organizer, if not the founder, of Quakerism, officially known as The Society of Friends. He traveled throughout Britain and the Caribbean, taking his message to whomever would listen and organizing the bands of followers who left the day’s official churches to worship more simply. Fox’s Journal is very interesting, if for

Three False Calvinist Assumptions

July 10, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Calvinism, Faith, Grace, work

I was explaining Free Grace theology to a Calvinist when he said that I really believed in salvation by works! That’s not something I’ve ever been accused of before, so I was curious why he thought that. During our conversation, it became clear to me that he was making three big assumptions that are worth

Grace at Walmart

February 26, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Discipleship, family, Grace, parenting

When grocery shopping, my wife and I would often cave to the kids’ demands that we buy them cheap little toys and goodies. “Can I have a dollar?” “Can you buy me this, please, please, please?” “Can I have two quarters for candy?” We realized it had become a problem when the kids started throwing

Does Faith Create a Relationship?

February 4, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Episcopal, Episcopalian, Grace

Readers of this blog are well aware of the danger of Lordship Salvation or works salvation, which denies that you can be eternally saved by faith alone in Christ alone for eternal life. But are you also aware that it is also possible to emphasize “grace” to unbiblical extremes? That, in fact, some people emphasize

Paul Zahl on Grace for Couples with Young Children

January 6, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Grace, parenthood, young children, Zahl

How do you live the Christian life? Or, to take a specific example, how does a married couple with young children live out grace in their new family? We all know what a dysfunctional family looks like. We’ve either experienced it ourselves or have seen it in others. But for those of us trying to

Can Legalistic Thinking Explain All Suffering? (Job 3-14)

June 21, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Bildad, Eliphaz, Grace, Job, law, Zophar

Kūmāré is a 2011 documentary about a New Jersey man who pretends to be a guru from India—complete with accent—to see if he can get a following. The documentary is painful to watch because he does gather a following, and the people are totally convinced that Kūmāré is a spiritual man, with spiritual powers, who

Grace vs Permissiveness

April 16, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Grace, Sanctification

I was recently chatting with an Episcopal priest about grace. He was very nice, and it was a pleasure talking to him. I asked how the message of grace was received in the Episcopal church. He suggested that while the Episcopal church is not very theological—in that people are not talking about and debating theology—he