Salvation: How can we be put right?

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Matthew 5:38-48
Eugene Peterson wrote, “The world is no friend to grace.”  Jesus’ summary of the currency of love in his culture as selective and conditional (You have heard) stands in contrast to the love he has come to demonstrate and restore.  One of the ironies of our cultural moment is that the call for tolerance has coincided with a religious zeal to identify and excommunicate heretics who disagree with us.  Loving an enemy means forgiveness fueled by grace, which Jesus accomplished on the cross where all things in heaven and earth were reconciled to him (Col 1:19-20)