The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

by Jared C. Wilson

(Those jerks.)

Jesus says, “I am bringing a blessing to the meek.” This guy is saying, “Become meek and you’ll get blessed.”

I think this is the big problem disciples of Jesus have with the gospel. I think this is the big problem disciples of Jesus have with Jesus. We take him for granted.

and later some total stranger—a clearly insane person—would enter the vault and sit at the table with me. Do you believe that? A total stranger!

Don’t believe the lie that always struggling to obey God is a worse lot in life than disobeying him with peace. God did not make us to “feel good inside” (or outside) all the time this side of heaven; he made us to share in the sufferings of Christ, that we might also share in his resurrection.

And the whole time I was annoyed with the guy in front of me for acting like the world revolved around him, I was acting like the world revolved around me,

One of the great illusions of our day is that hurrying will buy us more time.”

we looked not for “results” in prayer but relationship, we might find it more appealing.

There is no cause for frustration, guilt, or shame in prayer.

The first thing we notice about this passage is that Peter and John return to their church family and report that the Sanhedrin has warned them not to continue preaching the gospel and that doing so could cost them greatly, perhaps even their lives. The response of the church is amazing. They do not despair. They respond in praise and prayer.

The Christian life must be walked within the encouragement, edification, and accountability of Christian community. We need teachers to teach us how to do it, encouragers to inspire and sustain us, givers to remind us to give, helpers to help us embrace servitude, prophets to speak truth to us, and so forth.

None of us is ever in danger of praying too much.

Given what we know of ourselves, given that we are the worst sinners we know, it is a staggeringly arrogant thing to begrudge any other repentant follower of Jesus a place at the dance. If the bar was low enough to allow our entry, what advantage is there to raising it?

And this means approaching the community of faith not as a consumer but as a contributor.

“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.”

The real church isn’t Instagrammable. But you can’t dismiss it with a swipe. It endures forever. It may not look like much, but it’s hellproof.

Our flesh yearns for salvation by works.

The gospel gives us oxygen and space to breathe.

while the gospel is distinct from the law, it is not antithetical to the law.

the solution to bad things we do isn’t good things to do but good things to be.

Even if we are engaged in spiritual pursuits, if we are focused on ourselves, we end up only using God and using others.

Only the gospel gives us the security (of union with Christ) to risk reputation and hurt in order to love others sacrificially and boldly.

God is not expecting us to muster up happiness in him from the void of some nebulous religious inclinations, from the black hole of our empty emotional reservoir. He puts the joy inside of us that he demands from us.

When we come to see that Christ, through his gospel, satisfies the root of every desire, we get this joy, which we have been previously seeking everywhere but in Christ.

At its root, impatience is confusion about control. Impatience is the rotten fruit of self-sovereignty.

There is no holiness so fickle as the false holiness of the self-righteous.

The more we experience the kindness of God in and through our own repentance, the more kindness we find to afford others.

Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit because those who abide in Christ have transformed desires. They want the satisfaction of Christ more and the gratification of the world less.

To be gospel-centered rather than law-centered is not to be law-avoiding, law-denying, or law-negating. No, instead, to be gospel-centered is to be law-fulfilling.

The episodes of Gilligan’s Island got progressively weirder. I mean, not “find a hatch and punch in the numbers” weird, but more like goofy weird.

Every time we lose our temper, we show our true self. “Oh, that wasn’t me!” we plead. “I’m so sorry, I lost my temper. I wasn’t myself.” Yes you were! That was the real you, finally. That was the realest you’ve been! Losing your temper is losing the pretense that you’re actually a good person.

when it comes to our dependence on God, it is all grace or no grace. If our standing with him rests even an ounce on our works, we are utterly and hopelessly lost. No, it must be grace all the way down.

We bring nothing to this relationship except our nothingness. We bring our emptiness and Christ brings his riches. We bring our pit and he brings his rope.