Salvation picture

A neat quote:

"Many rescue mission have a delousing room, where derelicts who have not had a bath in months discard all their old clothes and are thoroughly bathed and disinfected. The unsalvageable old clothes are burned and new clothes are issued. The clean man is provided clean clothes.

That is a picture of salvation, except that in salvation the new believer is not simply given a bath but a completely new nature. The continuing need of the Christian live is to keep discarding and burning the remnants of the old sinful clothing. , "Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, Paul pleads, "but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members are instruments of righteousness to God" (Rom. 6:13)"

Grace

Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon.
John Piper

God's Love

By His grace God did for us what we could not do for ourselves: He gave us life for death and pardon for condemnation. At the cross, God satisfied His own vengeance, met His own demands of justice, extended mercy and then added the surprise of His grace. Having punished sin, God forgave sinners; then He went on to adopt all who would believe, making them fellow heirs with His only Son. Such is the extravagant love and grace of God.

Nancy LeDemoss (Seeking Him)