Blog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 

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George MacDonald (continued) – 10 September 2007
By Mary T. Hoffman

George MacDonald seems to have upset some church people in his day, particularly those who leaned toward the teaching that salvation is achieved simply by reciting the right formula, since Jesus had already paid for all of your sins.

Reading his comments in “Justice” of his “Unspoken Sermons Series III” reminds me of some of my comments about “Cheap Grace”:
http://www.all-creatures.org/heart/5dec98.html 

Here is an excerpt from “Justice” by George MacDonald:

The notion that the salvation of Jesus is a salvation from the consequences of our sins, is a false, mean, low notion. The salvation of Christ is salvation from the smallest tendency or leaning to sin. It is a deliverance into the pure air of God’s ways of thinking and feeling. It is a salvation that makes the heart pure, with the will and choice of the heart to be pure. To such a heart, sin is disgusting. It sees a thing as it is, – that is, as God sees it, for God sees everything as it is. The soul thus saved would rather sink into the flames of hell than steal into heaven and skulk there under the shadow of an imputed righteousness. No soul is saved that would not prefer hell to sin. Jesus did not die to save us from punishment; he was called Jesus because he should save his people from their sins. (“Unspoken Sermons Series III, Justice”)

See also –

“Cheap Grace”:
http://www.all-creatures.org/heart/blog-20060128.html 

“God’s Grace Continues to Be Cheapened”:
http://www.all-creatures.org/heart/blog-20070723.html 

“Works and Changes”:
http://www.all-creatures.org/heart/blog-20060202.html  

Go on to: 9/11 Six Years Later – 11 September 2007
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