Sermon Illustrations

Augustine on Depravity and Grace;

“Without you what am I to myself but a guide to my own self destruction?”

“... the self which willed to serve (God) was identical with the self which was unwilling.

It was I.

I was neither wholly willing nor wholly unwilling. So I was in conflict with myself and was disassociated from myself...how does anyone suffer an unhappy life by his will since absolutely no one wills to live unhappily?”

Grace, writes James Smith, is the answer to that question. Grace is the answer to the call for help. Grace isn't just forgiveness, a covering, an acquittal; it is an infusion, a transplant, a resurrection, a revolution of the will and wants. It's the hand of a higher power that made you and loves you reaching into your soul with the gift of a new will. Grace is freedom. Page 69-70 "On the Road with Saint Augustine" by James K.A. Smith

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