This whole grace-thing makes it feel too easy, as if these “bad people” can walk into church and catch up to the good people. Let’s make it hard for them, am-I-right? Because there ought to be something we can do for grace. Never mind that it’s called grace.

— from this post

Jesus – the Jesus we might discover if we really looked! – is larger, more disturbing, more urgent than we – than the church! – had ever imagined. We have successfully managed to hide behind other questions (admittedly important ones) and to avoid the huge, world-shaking challenge of Jesus’ central claim and achievement. It is we, the churches, who have become the real reductionists. We have reduced the kingdom of God to private piety, the victory of the cross to comfort for the conscience, and Easter itself to a happy, escapist ending after a sad, dark tale. Piety, conscience, and ultimate happiness are important, but not nearly as important as Jesus himself.

— N.T. Wright