grace
through faith
"Because
salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the
countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in
front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their
hands (see Revelation 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the
Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me that she
could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son. I
shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and
remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives;
the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series
of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being
liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for
unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father
and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each
night after his last 'trick', whispers the name of the unknown God he
learned about in Sunday school.
'But
how?' we ask.
Then
the voice says, 'They have washed their robes and have made them
white in the blood of the Lamb.'
There
they are. There *we* are - the multitude who so wanted to be
faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by
trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life's tribulations, but
through it all clung to faith.
My
friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood
the gospel of grace."
- Brennan
Manning
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