The Triumph of Grace

Woo Hoo! Well here it is - the moment you've all been waiting for. OK, maybe not. But it is the moment that I've been waiting for - for 4 years! This project began in 2005 and is finally complete. My new book "The Triumph of Grace: The Work of God in Christ for the Salvation of Humanity" is now in print. Copies are $30 and just send me an email if you want one: peterjgray@gmail.com

Below is the foreword by Pastor Timothy Brassell to wet your appetite :)



If you want to understand the truly Good News of Jesus Christ, then you will hardly find a more clear and simple,but in-depth proclamation of the Gospel than this one by Peter Gray! I cannot express enough how much I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book to your reading. From beginning to end, my response was simply,“Wow!” Anyone who truly knows me knows that I am “WOWED” most these days when I see and hear Jesus Christ being proclaimed clearly and accurately. By clearly and accurately I mean as the Jesus Who is Fully God and Fully Man, who is seen, proclaimed, and experienced in His relationship with His Father, the Spirit, humanity, and creation. This is the Gospel as declared in the literal person of Jesus, in Scripture and in the authentic
Christian Creeds. In the grace of the Father, I have been a passionate pursuer of this Christ for over 25 years as a believer and, over the past 12 years, as an ordained Christian Pastor. Rarely have I been as inspired by the Good News and the
dance and dream of God as Trinity as I was when I read this book. For a comparatively short book, I have read few that are as comprehensive and powerful in scope and depth. It is filled with very helpful human and relational analogies that enable one to get a grasp of the truly profound things of the Gospel, and this will thrill both the newbie and the scholar! This book is written with the depth, expertise and thoughtfulness of a scholar, the gritty and authentic experiences of the “man on the street”, and the freshness of one who is grasping for the first time the staggering news of their personal inclusion into the relationship of the Father, Son and Spirit. As one still trying to come to grips with how it is that I have missed this Good News after so many years of “doing church”, I found that even much of that was explained through fine historical insights and succinct exposition on the
doctrinal dynamics that have led us astray. Peter’s expression on the most important topic of mankind’s union with the Triune God, wholly by grace in Jesus, is as thrilling as it is refreshing and needed. This book dares to proclaim the truth of Scripture that Jesus is the Saviour of the World, the One who created and sustains all things, and the One in whom all died and rose, ascending to the Father’s right hand 2000 years ago.

This book challenges, through precise Trinitarian and Christo-logic, all people to dare to believe and hope, together with the Scriptures that God the Trinity has sought and saved the lost in His Son. Peter rightly shows through Scripture that any hope less than all men being led to embrace their union and “be saved” (even past the grave) cannot possibly be the hope of the Holy Spirit, in light of the true person of Jesus Christ. Anything less than that universal truth proclaimed in Christ is anaemic, weak, and bound to discourage.

I want you to read this book and become preoccupied with the dream of the Father, Son and Spirit to include you and all of humanity in the great dance of God’s shared life. Along with the author, I encourage you to dream the impossible dream of the Good News of Christ and in doing so, reject the tradition of non-relational and abstract teachings that have nothing to do with the Truly good News! I want you to be inspired to unite with the practical, real and radical community that believes in the triumph of grace. Indeed I implore you: read this book and embrace the truth of humanity’s place, as found in the relationship of the Father, Son and Spirit, revealed in the glorious, Divine/Humanity of Christ.

This is not the dry and dusty teaching flowing from some watered down and soul-crushing vision handed on to us by the god of our fallen imaginations. This is the refreshing and soul stirring vision of the pure Gospel flowing from the genuine Good News Himself, Jesus Christ. The One Who has embraced you, and all of humanity and creation, in such a way that He will never let any of us go.

Pastor Timothy Brassell

The "Good" News!

I was browsing several internet sites today and I came across this little image that I just had to re-post here and discuss, albeit in brief!

What message does this send to folks? You must get it just right in order to avoid hell - that's the message! You might go to hell because you have fallen in to the ways of the world. You might go to hell because despite being a good, moral and religious person, you were born in the wrong country and thus the only religion and only God you were told about were the wrong ones. Or perhaps you will burn for all eternity because you simply neglected to right the wrongs and to teach others how to live properly.

Oh what God is this? Where is hope? Where is the love? as the Black Eyed Peas would ask! I see many Scriptural references to damnation and fear, but no Scriptural references to love. And who is God? Is he fear or is He love? What fruit does it bring your life to believe in the God of whom this could spoken? I can see no hope of any peace, or assurance or rest for the soul. I see only endless performances to be good enough.

This is not good news folks.

Until They Are Found

"Until They Are Found: The Story of a Relentless and His Rogue Sheep" is my first book. It examines the text of Luke chapter 15; the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.

Over the years, the Parable of the Prodigal Son has become one the most famous and well loved of all of Jesus' parables, yet we have often become so focused on the son, that we have overlooked the father - and it is the father who should be the focal point of the parable. It is not the son's decision to return home that we should be excited about - it's the father's eagerness to forgive and to accept that is exciting. I believe though, that we do the parable a grave disservice by reading it without first reading the preceding verses, which are the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. In fact, these are not three separate parables, but rather one single parable. And as such, they are all teaching the same basic point. These stories are about being lost and then being found - and the first two stories show that the reason you have been found is because someone came looking for you, and utterly refused to give up until you were found.

If you would like to purchase a copy of the book, please email me by clicking here. Cost is $10 for an e-copy or $20 for paperback. To give you a taste, here is the first chapter. Enjoy!

The shepherd looks over his flock of one hundred sheep, but he can count only ninety-nine. He recounts them to be sure. His fears are confirmed; a certain one has gone. He knows which one is missing; it may be a white-faced sheep with a black mark on its foot, for he knows all about it, because the Lord knows those that are His. One terrifying idea possesses him; one of my sheep is lost! He is dreadfully upset. A sheep is lost. A sheep is lost. It invades his being like the grief of a lost loved one invades ours. He cannot eat; He cannot think; he cannot sleep; he cannot rest while one of his sheep is lost. The thought, ‘One of my sheep is lost’ is quickly replaced by, ‘It must be found’. And so the shepherd goes off in search of his precious lost sheep. The search of the shepherd is an all-absorbing search. He is thinking only of his lost sheep. He leaves the ninety nine behind while he searches for the lost. Are they left in safety? We are not told. We can safely assume that the leaving of the ninety-nine at least involves the possibility that they too may become lost. But for now, the shepherd only has eyes for the one sheep that is lost. In the search for this sheep, the shepherd will travel a path that he would not choose to travel otherwise. It may be a path full of danger. It may be a path of unknown peril. It is certainly a path that the shepherd would have preferred to avoid. But avoid it he will not, for finding the lost sheep is the only thought the shepherd ever had. The search may involve the shepherd climbing a steep mountainside with great danger. His determination eclipses his fear, and his passion supplies him with the feet of a mountain goat, and he stands rock solid where he would otherwise slip and fall. It may be a terrible path that the shepherd must follow, but it is not terrible to him. The only terror of the shepherd is that one of his sheep might be forever lost. He fears this, and nothing else. This is a story intended to offer us a vision of God. Jesus, of course, is the Good Shepherd who searches out His lost sheep. But who precisely are Jesus’ lost sheep? They are the ones for whom He came, and they are the ones for whom He died. But who are they? Did Jesus only come for some, and only die for some? Or did Jesus come to save everybody? Did Jesus die for everybody? The answer comes from the Apostle John. JN 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”

The Greek word translated as ‘world’ is kosmos. It literally means the entire universe. I think it is clear that God loves absolutely everyone and Jesus came to save absolutely everyone and that He died for absolutely everyone. It is therefore proper for us to conclude that ‘absolutely everyone’ is who Jesus meant when referring to the lost sheep. We are all lost sheep, every last one of us; from the great to the small, from the successful to the failures – lost sheep in desperate need of a Good Shepherd. Here in Luke, we are presented with a vision of the Good Shepherd who knows only one thing; how to save the lost. If saving the lost is the only thing that the Good Shepherd knows how to do, theoretically the list of things that He doesn’t know how to do would be very long, but I wish to discuss only one. The Good Shepherd does not know how to give up. He knows nothing of cutting his losses, for if He did, He would surely never have searched in the first instance. After all, ninety nine out of one hundred is a pretty good standard, don’t you think? Ninety nine percent might be good in our books, but it is not good enough for God. Nothing short of one hundred percent will satisfy the Good Shepherd. Look at what Jesus says in verse 4. “Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?”
Notice that word ‘until’. It is there deliberately. It is not by accident that Jesus does not say, “in an attempt to find it”. Jesus says that the shepherd will search until it is found, hence the title of this book.

This story says nothing about not finding the lost sheep; no hint of failure is given. That there may be a sheep belonging to Him that He will never find, is a conclusion that this story precludes us from believing. Praise God! It is Jesus who is the Good Shepherd, and the success of the search and rescue operation depends upon His skill. He sees so clearly, and intervenes so effectually, that He will most assuredly bring them in. Jesus Christ will not lose one of His sheep. True, some sheep may wander in the wilderness for a time, but to be forever lost? Never! A thought that He cannot bear. Could the Christ fail to save even one of those for whom He came and for whom He died? Impossible! Such a thought He could not endure. A defeated Christ is a Christ whom I cannot conceive of. That is what this story is telling us. Jesus will not lose even a single sheep. We might think that losing only one in a hundred is perfectly acceptable, indeed, a very fine job. But not so for the Good Shepherd. He will not lose even one. The devil will never say that he has taken one for whom Jesus has died. His work of love cannot become a failure even to the slightest degree. The death of Christ in vain – never! It is not the will of the Father in Heaven that any one of these little ones shall perish, and neither is it for the glory of Christ that one of His own sheep should be eternally lost.

What may we say was the reason for the lost sheep becoming found? Was the sheep saved by the doing of good works? Was the sheep saved by the following of law or commandment? Was the sheep saved because it recognised its own state of ‘lost-ness’, and went searching for its shepherd? Heaven forbid! The lost sheep was found for one reason and one reason alone. The lost sheep was found because the Good Shepherd came looking. The shepherd commenced a search and rescue operation that would never finish, until his sheep was found. His is a personal search, a persevering search, a successful search. He will search until they are found. The lost sheep contributed nothing to its being found.