What if the greatest threat to Christianity isn't external opposition, but Christians

who talk about grace yet live under guilt and shame? Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck

Swindall wraps up his five-month study in Romans with a sobering observation.

True people of grace are extraordinarily rare. Through Paul's final greetings, mentioning

commenters alongside city officials, we discover that grace demolishes every human hierarchy. The application

is painfully clear. Stop shaming others. Stop putting people under bondage.

Become someone who sets people free. Chuck titled today's message, Putting Down Evil,

Lifting up Friends.

I shudder when I realize how rarely I'm around a person of grace.

It's hard to find.

We talk of grace, but we live under guilt and shame.

We think we embrace grace, but we seem to prefer works. We encourage grace and others, and then we judge them when they fail. You know what moves us?

It isn't law. It isn't judgment. It's mercy, it's grace. Stephen Brown tells a wonderful story in his

book, a scandalous freedom. I was not the best student in the large high school I attended.

In fact, I graduated fourth from the bottom in my class.

Let me tell you about a teacher I had who cried when she gave me a low grade on a test.

It really surprised me because I generally considered teachers the enemy.

The teacher returned our test papers and asked me to wait after the class to get my paper.

I figured I was in really big trouble.

But after everyone had left, she handed me my paper with an F marked on it.

Stephen, she said, you can do a whole lot better than this.

And she began to weep.

...