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The Optimism of Grace: How Grace Changes Everything
The Optimism of Grace is so titled because of the nature of The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Grace is both the promise and experience of The Gospel and the reason for an optimistic view of what is offered in this life because of Jesus Christ and His work.
This attention to, and optimism of, grace is exactly the perspective John Wesley’s theology has as he seeks to understand and experience The Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this book one will be exposed to Wesley’s vibrant optimism as to what grace can accomplish in one’s life and how one may be transformed and live optimistically as a recipient of God’s manifold grace. In these pages one will recognize the optimism of God’s grace as both Pardon and Power.
This attention to, and optimism of, grace is exactly the perspective John Wesley’s theology has as he seeks to understand and experience The Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this book one will be exposed to Wesley’s vibrant optimism as to what grace can accomplish in one’s life and how one may be transformed and live optimistically as a recipient of God’s manifold grace. In these pages one will recognize the optimism of God’s grace as both Pardon and Power.
187 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 6, 2020
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November 26, 2025
The optimism of Grace book notes
* what comes into mind as we think about God is the most important thing about us - a w tozer
* Wesley’s foundation of God is love informs all of his understanding about human beings / sin / and sanctification
* All truth is founded and measured against Gods love
* It does not compromise Gods sovereignty to affirm He created a universe where love would be possible not automatic
* The way we understand the condition of human beings will have an impact on how we view salvation
* Death in the Bible never means to cease to exist but become “out of relationship with”
* With original sin we are spiritually dead (out of relationship with God)
* God invites us to cooperate with his resistance Grace
* Prevenient Grace is simply the convicting, calling, and enlightening and enabling grace of God that goes before conversion and makes repentance and faith possible
* Reformed - Calvinist and many traditions to believe sin as any mistake or failure in life
* We need to define sin as willful acts contrary to loving Hod or following His will and loving our neighbor
* If sin is missing the mark then what mark is being missed?
* Is any lack of being like God sin?
* What if loving God and people is the mark (Jesus’ greatest command)
* This idea of sin results in a vibrant life lived out in love
* Matt 5 could be primarily about motives and intent rather a list of rules
* Sin is a personal prioritizing of love for that which is other than God.
* God’s grace works in us to rectify our love to stabilize our affections into empower us with new desires that come from God
* We typically find ourselves and our church is stuck in ineffectual rut of sin management
* We continually trying to get people to quit sinning, which is usually restricted to behaviors
* This makes Christian living only behavioral modification and sterile living, treating only the symptoms of sin
* Sins symptoms can differ among churches because we don’t recognize sin’s root is misdirected love
* Spiritual death must be understood as a matter of separation from God, not a ceasing to possess the image of God
* Prevenient Grace - is God’s grace attending to us awakening our attentiveness to God and his love
* God’s grace works ahead of us to draw us towards Faith
* God’s grace resists, our resistance
* The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment
* The law leads to Christ. It is necessary to show people their situation by enlightening them to it.
* Faith of a servant: when we first believe and have a desire to please God
* Faith of a son: sure, trust, and confidence in Christ, bringing an assurance or conviction of forgiveness
* Faith is not a Work but a relationship
* Faith is seen by Paul as the model of how one is made right with God and faith is a relationship as illustrated by Abraham in the Old Testament
* Call explicitly argues for a direct contrast between Work and Faith Faith cannot be biblically or reasonably understood as a work
* Wesley, but not settle for any notion of Christianity that was only outward and missed the in ward reality of God’s presence in one’s life
* Assurance is critical to any growth in Grace and holiness
* We must love God before we can be holy at all as love is the root of all holiness
* We cannot love God until we know he loves us, and we cannot know his love for us until his spirit witnesses hit to our spirit
* Assurance is ultimately a matter of a witness of the Holy Spirit
* Obedience and fruit of the spirit, give us objective evidence of our assurance that we are children of God
* Wesley‘s perspective of assurance helps balance against reductionism that would reduce being a child of God to verifiable actions in daily life, and fanaticism that regulates the certainty of being a child of God to merely inword impression
* Salvation is an inward and not merely an outward change
* The arena of salvation is that a new life in the soul not me mind reasoning, nor recited beliefs nor legal standing
* Salvation is in word and personal
* Poor Wesley, one is justified by Faith as the actual recipient of a new life and a new heart and an actual imparted righteousness
* The junk does not merely undergo a cosmetic cover-up or disguise rather it undergoes a renovation of transformation of character
* Augustine understood Grace as the healer of human nature and often employed the image of a hospital and the parable of the good Samaritan to communicate the truth of the gospel and it’s therapeutic nature
* Human beings are sick and sent and need help for healing the parable of the good Samaritan was referred to by Augustine and our evidence of the healing nature of the church and gospel
* Limiting the gospel to imputed righteousness is a problem. The purpose and outcome of importing righteousness to the believer through empowerment by the Holy Spirit is the actual living out of a righteous life.
* The understanding from the eastern churches view is that salvation is not simply a judicial declaration, but a therapeutic undertaking salvation is about the healing of the soul of the human being
* Implanted righteousness was the fruit not the ground of our acceptance with God
* Faith makes one right with God justification issues for in Faith that is energized by love healing of the soul
* Cheap grace means justification of sin without the justification of the sinner
* Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin.
* Cheap grace makes holiness unnecessary
* Salvation is not just what God does for us but in us
* Grace was also the empowering of God in the lives of those who have been forgiven of sin and are now new creations that have Gods grace. By way of His presence in their lives so as to enable them to live transformed
* Gods cooperative Grace now collaborates with the renewed human will in achieving growth in holiness.
* We must depend on the spirit in Christian practice
* Grace is the power to live out Christian disciplines and gifts
* Grace is both pardon and power
* Gods Grace keeps us from staying where we are
* God offers divine righteousness in response ro human unrighteousness
* We rely on our relationship with the spirit - not on human resource or effort
* Living in Christ is in dependence on the indwelling spirit
* In Jewish thought humans are not born with a sin nature but good impulse vs bad impulse a stalemate - God gives us power to break the balance
* Law is the instrument given to subjugate evil impulse
* Reliance on human personality is no match for sin (emotion / intellect / thought)
* “The good that I wish I do not do but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.” 7:19. It should give us pause in 6:6 when Paul says we are no longer slaves to sin - 6:12 sin will not rein - 6:14 no longer master over you - 6:22 free from sin because we are not under the law
* The historic present is the storytellers tool
* Common in scripture to use present tense to describe general human condition prior to faith hos 12:4; Ps 66:6
* Followers of Jesus may fall into dealing with sin u der the law because we think sin requires us to try harder , do better
* The answer to overcoming sin is surrender to the spirit
* Holiness is not the correction of bad behavior - that’s only sin management
* Human beings need new life not new rules
* “Set apart” holiness is not seperation and dedication from - but to someone
* What is dedicated or holy to one god cannot be to another
* Profane or common is that which is not set apart or not separated to God for his exclusive use
* Marriage is holy matrimony set apart to each other
* If we focus on holiness as what we don’t do - our life becomes centered around not doing
* Holiness is not what we keep ourselves from or what we do not do.
* We must love God before we can be holy - love is the root
* Holiness is necessary to demonstrate salvation
* Jesus confronted the Pharisees because of their outward show of holiness while denying their inward reality
* Loving fathers judge the motive and capabilities of the child - not the action
* Love is essential to all commands from God
* Without love one can complete any action without desiring to please God
* The term perfect in Bible means they meet the purpose for which they were created
* 2 pet 3:18 we are not grown but to grow
* Jesus can be one’s savior without being one’s Lord
* One can look at oneself too much and loose balance
* The focus of Christian living must be on Jesus and off of ourself
* If the focus remains on our sin that is where it stays and life becomes law - we must focus and keep our eyes on Jesus
* There is an obedience that faith produces or brings about
* The opposite of faith is not doubt but disobedience
* Falling away is a loss of confidence in God
* Sin is misdirected love and holiness is perfect love
* Finite beings cannot fathom the infinite being of God
* We can question others interpretation of the scripture but not scripture itself
* what comes into mind as we think about God is the most important thing about us - a w tozer
* Wesley’s foundation of God is love informs all of his understanding about human beings / sin / and sanctification
* All truth is founded and measured against Gods love
* It does not compromise Gods sovereignty to affirm He created a universe where love would be possible not automatic
* The way we understand the condition of human beings will have an impact on how we view salvation
* Death in the Bible never means to cease to exist but become “out of relationship with”
* With original sin we are spiritually dead (out of relationship with God)
* God invites us to cooperate with his resistance Grace
* Prevenient Grace is simply the convicting, calling, and enlightening and enabling grace of God that goes before conversion and makes repentance and faith possible
* Reformed - Calvinist and many traditions to believe sin as any mistake or failure in life
* We need to define sin as willful acts contrary to loving Hod or following His will and loving our neighbor
* If sin is missing the mark then what mark is being missed?
* Is any lack of being like God sin?
* What if loving God and people is the mark (Jesus’ greatest command)
* This idea of sin results in a vibrant life lived out in love
* Matt 5 could be primarily about motives and intent rather a list of rules
* Sin is a personal prioritizing of love for that which is other than God.
* God’s grace works in us to rectify our love to stabilize our affections into empower us with new desires that come from God
* We typically find ourselves and our church is stuck in ineffectual rut of sin management
* We continually trying to get people to quit sinning, which is usually restricted to behaviors
* This makes Christian living only behavioral modification and sterile living, treating only the symptoms of sin
* Sins symptoms can differ among churches because we don’t recognize sin’s root is misdirected love
* Spiritual death must be understood as a matter of separation from God, not a ceasing to possess the image of God
* Prevenient Grace - is God’s grace attending to us awakening our attentiveness to God and his love
* God’s grace works ahead of us to draw us towards Faith
* God’s grace resists, our resistance
* The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment
* The law leads to Christ. It is necessary to show people their situation by enlightening them to it.
* Faith of a servant: when we first believe and have a desire to please God
* Faith of a son: sure, trust, and confidence in Christ, bringing an assurance or conviction of forgiveness
* Faith is not a Work but a relationship
* Faith is seen by Paul as the model of how one is made right with God and faith is a relationship as illustrated by Abraham in the Old Testament
* Call explicitly argues for a direct contrast between Work and Faith Faith cannot be biblically or reasonably understood as a work
* Wesley, but not settle for any notion of Christianity that was only outward and missed the in ward reality of God’s presence in one’s life
* Assurance is critical to any growth in Grace and holiness
* We must love God before we can be holy at all as love is the root of all holiness
* We cannot love God until we know he loves us, and we cannot know his love for us until his spirit witnesses hit to our spirit
* Assurance is ultimately a matter of a witness of the Holy Spirit
* Obedience and fruit of the spirit, give us objective evidence of our assurance that we are children of God
* Wesley‘s perspective of assurance helps balance against reductionism that would reduce being a child of God to verifiable actions in daily life, and fanaticism that regulates the certainty of being a child of God to merely inword impression
* Salvation is an inward and not merely an outward change
* The arena of salvation is that a new life in the soul not me mind reasoning, nor recited beliefs nor legal standing
* Salvation is in word and personal
* Poor Wesley, one is justified by Faith as the actual recipient of a new life and a new heart and an actual imparted righteousness
* The junk does not merely undergo a cosmetic cover-up or disguise rather it undergoes a renovation of transformation of character
* Augustine understood Grace as the healer of human nature and often employed the image of a hospital and the parable of the good Samaritan to communicate the truth of the gospel and it’s therapeutic nature
* Human beings are sick and sent and need help for healing the parable of the good Samaritan was referred to by Augustine and our evidence of the healing nature of the church and gospel
* Limiting the gospel to imputed righteousness is a problem. The purpose and outcome of importing righteousness to the believer through empowerment by the Holy Spirit is the actual living out of a righteous life.
* The understanding from the eastern churches view is that salvation is not simply a judicial declaration, but a therapeutic undertaking salvation is about the healing of the soul of the human being
* Implanted righteousness was the fruit not the ground of our acceptance with God
* Faith makes one right with God justification issues for in Faith that is energized by love healing of the soul
* Cheap grace means justification of sin without the justification of the sinner
* Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin.
* Cheap grace makes holiness unnecessary
* Salvation is not just what God does for us but in us
* Grace was also the empowering of God in the lives of those who have been forgiven of sin and are now new creations that have Gods grace. By way of His presence in their lives so as to enable them to live transformed
* Gods cooperative Grace now collaborates with the renewed human will in achieving growth in holiness.
* We must depend on the spirit in Christian practice
* Grace is the power to live out Christian disciplines and gifts
* Grace is both pardon and power
* Gods Grace keeps us from staying where we are
* God offers divine righteousness in response ro human unrighteousness
* We rely on our relationship with the spirit - not on human resource or effort
* Living in Christ is in dependence on the indwelling spirit
* In Jewish thought humans are not born with a sin nature but good impulse vs bad impulse a stalemate - God gives us power to break the balance
* Law is the instrument given to subjugate evil impulse
* Reliance on human personality is no match for sin (emotion / intellect / thought)
* “The good that I wish I do not do but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.” 7:19. It should give us pause in 6:6 when Paul says we are no longer slaves to sin - 6:12 sin will not rein - 6:14 no longer master over you - 6:22 free from sin because we are not under the law
* The historic present is the storytellers tool
* Common in scripture to use present tense to describe general human condition prior to faith hos 12:4; Ps 66:6
* Followers of Jesus may fall into dealing with sin u der the law because we think sin requires us to try harder , do better
* The answer to overcoming sin is surrender to the spirit
* Holiness is not the correction of bad behavior - that’s only sin management
* Human beings need new life not new rules
* “Set apart” holiness is not seperation and dedication from - but to someone
* What is dedicated or holy to one god cannot be to another
* Profane or common is that which is not set apart or not separated to God for his exclusive use
* Marriage is holy matrimony set apart to each other
* If we focus on holiness as what we don’t do - our life becomes centered around not doing
* Holiness is not what we keep ourselves from or what we do not do.
* We must love God before we can be holy - love is the root
* Holiness is necessary to demonstrate salvation
* Jesus confronted the Pharisees because of their outward show of holiness while denying their inward reality
* Loving fathers judge the motive and capabilities of the child - not the action
* Love is essential to all commands from God
* Without love one can complete any action without desiring to please God
* The term perfect in Bible means they meet the purpose for which they were created
* 2 pet 3:18 we are not grown but to grow
* Jesus can be one’s savior without being one’s Lord
* One can look at oneself too much and loose balance
* The focus of Christian living must be on Jesus and off of ourself
* If the focus remains on our sin that is where it stays and life becomes law - we must focus and keep our eyes on Jesus
* There is an obedience that faith produces or brings about
* The opposite of faith is not doubt but disobedience
* Falling away is a loss of confidence in God
* Sin is misdirected love and holiness is perfect love
* Finite beings cannot fathom the infinite being of God
* We can question others interpretation of the scripture but not scripture itself
July 13, 2020
Great study of Wesleyan theology!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews