Interview with Christine Hoover and a From Good to Grace Giveaway

Really excited to share this interview with Christine Hoover with you today and offer a giveaway of her new book, From Good to Grace for you and a friend!  If you aren’t familiar with her book, I semi-reviewed it here after I disagreed with the Gospel Coalition’s review which basically said that this dependence on grace and the Holy Spirit was not enough to lead to holiness and change. Many of you wrote that this was your faulty understanding as well, years ago, and that God had brought you through trials to bring you to the end of yourself and show you that dependence on the law for salvation or sanctification was futile. The law was meant to be a schoolmaster, holding our hand, leading us to the Savior.

I had a few questions for Christine after reading her book and wanted to share them with you.

Sarah: What causes us to get the “gospel” so wrong?  Especially those of us who have been brought up in solid gospel preaching churches?

Christine: The gospel is not innate to us. It’s an announcement of good news that we must hear and proclaim to ourselves over and over again. We must let it consistently sink down deeper into every crevice of life. We get it wrong so often because what I term the goodness gospel–spiritual growth through self-effort–is innate. We tend to innately believe that external behaviors can change internal realities, so self-effort has an appearance of wisdom to us. We must, as Paul says in Galatians 5:1, “stand firm in the liberty for which Christ has set us free”.

So there’s this fight to live in the grace Christ has won for us, but I think in our churches we often focus on what the gospel says about salvation, but we aren’t always talking about how the gospel applies to our sanctification. How do we grow? How does the Holy Spirit work in our daily lives? What does it mean to walk by faith? Without understanding these concepts, we naturally revert back to the goodness gospel.

Sarah: On a practical level, what does preaching the “grace gospel” look like on a daily basis? You talked in the book about what you dubbed “Autism Days” and how those emotionally hard days were when you needed to remember God’s love. Can you talk us through your thought process. What verses do you cling to? How do you prepare yourself for the highs and lows of emotion that we women experience throughout life?

Christine: My emotionally difficult days usually circle around discouragement regarding my children, self-doubt regarding writing, and struggles with being a pastor’s wife. My thoughts tell me that I’m not good enough or that I’m not doing enough. When I’m thinking along those lines, I typically go back to two anchors.

One is, “What has God asked of me in this?” Almost 100% of the time, I am condemning myself rather than experiencing the conviction of the Holy Spirit. God has asked me to be faithful in my roles, but I am putting additional standards on myself, such as having perfectly behaved children and people at church who are perpetually pleased with me. I know God’s conviction when it is biblical, specific, and hopeful, not condemning. There is no condemnation ever for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1).

The second anchor is adding “But God” to my thoughts. Am I good enough? No, but God has made me righteous in His eyes through Christ. Am I going to disappoint people? Yes, but God has given me His unchangeable approval in Christ.

I’m not saying that my emotions immediately change, but going to these anchors leads me to ask the Lord for help in believing what is true and help in being faithful to Him in my roles.

Sarah: Parenting is one place where I think we can unknowingly train our kids to a behavioral gospel. We praise good behavior and scold negative behavior. We use phrases like “Good girl” and get excited when our kids act and behave in appropriate ways that make us look like the “good mom.” Do you think we are ingraining the goodness gospel in our kids?

Christine: This is a good and important question. In parenting my kids according to the gospel of grace, it helps me to think about the role of the Law. According to Galatians 3:19-25, the Law teaches us that we need something beyond ourselves and our own abilities and behaviors in order to be righteous. In other words, I look at the law and I see my inability to be good and it leads me to Christ.

This is so applicable to parenting. I want to teach my children what God says is right and wrong and to obey Him (the Law), but I can’t stop there. I have to help them understand that they are unable in and of themselves to fully obey and “be good”. This leads to the gospel: Jesus was perfect on their behalf and they are given the opportunity to accept it by faith.

After salvation, I want to teach them that faithfulness to God is the most important pursuit. I am leading them to Jesus and teaching them to walk with Him, not just to obey me. I want them to go to Him in Scripture, know Him through Scripture, ask Him for help and leadership, and learn to obey His voice. Of course, I am going to be a primary voice in their life, but the question is who is leading me as I lead my children? Myself and my own desires, understanding, and effort? Or am I trusting that God will speak to my children and help them grow? I must pray toward that end, otherwise I am tempted to be their Law and Holy Spirit.

Sarah: How has writing this book impacted the way you parent? How are you intentionally training your kids to understand the love and grace of God?

Christine: What God has taught me about grace has greatly impacted my parenting. The most helpful thing I’ve learned about grace is that I am not an orphan (John 14:18). I don’t have to take care of myself. I have a Father who loves me, cares for me, and nurtures me. He delights in me and sings over me. Knowing that lights me up with joy, but it also compels me to lay down my life for the One who has sacrificed so much for me.

This has everything to do with parenting. I want my kids to see me delight in God and enjoy Him and serve Him, because kids really do love what their parents love. I want them to see me so confident in God’s love for me and that He loves them the same way. Because God’s love toward them will compel them to faithful obedience (2 Cor. 5:14). I know that’s not super practical, but the old adage is true: you can’t give away what you don’t have.

Thanks, so much, Christine, for joining us here today and sharing what the Lord is teaching you.

If you’d like to enter a contest to win a copy of From Good to Grace for you and a friend, you can enter whichever way is easiest for you:

1. Comment on our Instagram pic and tag your friend on IG.

2. Tweet about this giveaway and tag your friend and @joyfilleddays on Twitter.

3. Share this on FB and tag your friend and @joyfilleddays.

Make sure you tag @joyfilleddays and make your post public so I can count your entry on the social media outlet of your choice. You can enter once on each social media platform for a total of 3 entries.

Contest ends midnight, Friday, 3/13/2015, EST.  Physical book mailings for the US only. Outside the US, you’ll win a Kindle version of the book. Giveaway courtesy of Baker Books and Joyfilleddays.com.