Saving the Saved: How Jesus Saves Us from Try-Harder Christianity into Performance-Free Love

by Bryan Loritts

Overview

White-knuckling can never get you where you want to go. But grace can.

You already know because you’ve tried: repeated attempts to earn God’s love and approval get you nowhere and leave you exhausted. When performance taints our relationship with him, the Christian life can turn into an unholy hustle. It was never meant to be like this.

In Saving the Saved, Pastor Bryan Loritts reveals the astonishing truth that God doesn’t want your spiritual scorekeeping. He simply wants your surrender. The punchline of the gospel of Matthew is just that—a message of grace and performance-free love to do-good, try-harder Jews who thought they had to earn their way into God’s favor. It’s an ancient message, yet it can be a lifeline to us today as we live in a world of performance metrics. Just as Matthew wrote to the Jews in his gospel, we were never meant to flounder under the pressures and anxieties of show Christianity. Make no mistake: we are called to live in obedience, but Jesus wants us to save us from the illusion that our actions can ever earn God’s acceptance of us.

In Pastor Bryan’s relevant, uncompromising style, Saving the Saved proclaims the good news that once the pressure is off to perform, we are free to abide. Beyond the man-made rules and the red tape, there is a God who knows you by name. Come and meet him as you’ve never known him before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310344995
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Bryan Loritts is the lead pastor of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Silicon Valley. A graduate of Cairn University (formerly Philadelphia College of Bible) and Talbot School of Theology, Bryan Loritts was recently voted one of the top thirty emerging Christian leaders. He is the co-founder of Fellowship Memphis—a multi-ethnic church where Bryan served for eleven years, helping it to grow from twenty-six people in a living room to several thousand. Pastor Bryan also served as pastor for preaching and mission at Trinity Grace Church in New York City, and is the author of several books. He is the President of the Kainos Movement, an organization aimed at establishing the multi-ethnic church in America as the new normal, and sits on the Board of Trustees for Biola University and Board of Directors for Pine Cove. He is the husband of Korie and proud father of three boys: Quentin, Myles, and Jaden. You can follow Pastor Bryan on Twitter @bcloritts.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Revolution against the Meritocracy: The Surprising Way of Jesus 13

Part 1 What Goodness Isn't

Chapter 1 Soul Songs: The Life You've Always Wanted 27

Chapter 2 My Jesus Mercy: We All Stand in Need of Grace 47

Chapter 3 A Good Impossibility: Why Man-Made Goodness Just Doesn't Cut It 63

Chapter 4 Anamorphic Pride: When Good Becomes Bad 75

Chapter 5 Of Hawks and Doves: The Transformation of Repentance 85

Part 2 Authentic Goodness

Chapter 6 The Good Solution: From Performing to Abiding 97

Chapter 7 Grilled Grace: Why Your Failure Is Never Final 111

Chapter 8 The Greatest Performance Act in History: The Resurrection Is for Us 123

Part 3 Living in and Reflecting God's Performance-Free Love

Chapter 9 The Most Difficult Math Problem in the World: Practicing Forgiveness 135

Chapter 10 The Indicator Light of the Kingdom: Practicing Generosity 153

Chapter 11 God's Got You: Practicing Peace over Worry 163

Chapter 12 The Mural of God's Performance-Free Love: Practicing Marriage 175

Chapter 13 Saved from Ourselves: A Way Out of Crushing Performance 191

Acknowledgments 199

Notes 201

Editorial Reviews

10/10/2016
In a world that often measures approval based on performance, Loritts (Right Color, Wrong Culture) sets the stage for a revolution against meritocracy, an “always-try-harder” philosophy that he sees as at odds with the performance-free life God offers through Jesus. Everyone has a longing to make a difference and to feel a calling in life, writes Loritts, pastor and president of Kairos Ministries, but when people start using gifts and skills to earn social approval—instead of for God’s glory—that pride gets in the way and the true path of faith is obscured. Lorrits writes passionately on how society’s meritocratic orientation makes the daily struggle to rest only in Jesus even more difficult than it would otherwise be. Looking closely at the temptation of Christ, the Sermon on the Mount, and racial issues, Loritts explores how attempts to attain public success often hide private failure and lead to hypocrisy in pursuing “goodness.” When hope and purpose come from responding to a future based on Christ’s victory over death rather than on dependence on one’s own merits, Loritts argues persuasively, a performance-free existence will arise, resulting in peace over worry, a desire for social justice, the ability to forgive, and improved relationships. Agent: Andrew Wolgemuth, Wolgemuth & Associates. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Relatable. Fresh. Freeing. Saving the Saved is a brilliant book that reminds us of the truth that we are in need of a Savior, not a system. If you have ever felt like you can’t be good enough or can’t check off enough boxes, then you need to read this book. The gospel doesn’t restrict us; it frees us!

Louie Giglio

Bryan Loritts is a highly gifted communicator of grace. This book can be your next step into a more grace-filled life.

senior pastor of Menlo Church and author of All th John Ortberg

If you’re looking for a commentary on Matthew’s gospel that exegetically deep dives into the theological abyss of the former tax collector’s version of the life of the Man whose call led him to leave his business profession, put this book down. If you’re looking for an investigative journey into the practicality and profundity of the power of pure, performance-less love, welcome to the ride!

Kenneth C. Ulmer

If you’re a perfectionist and workaholic like me and have struggled to be embraced by grace, this is the book for you. Saving the Saved invites us to move beyond our addiction to self-reliance and swim anew in the ocean of God’s unmerited love. Bryan Loritts reminds us there is freedom from a salvation-economy of meritocracy into the marvelous gospel of grace.

president of the National Latino Evangelical Coali Rev. Dr. Gabriel Salguero

If your faith feels more like duty than joy—and no matter how much you do for God, it never seems to be enough—then this book is for you. In a fresh, relevant, and authentic style, Bryan Loritts helps those of us who are driven, performance-oriented Christians to experience the rest, freedom, and love God longs for us to share. I wish I had read this thirty years ago.

teaching pastor of Living on the Edge and author o Chip Ingram

Saving the Saved isn’t so much a book as a window giving a direct view into the heart of the gospel. On page after page, Bryan Loritts shows us that on our best day we all need the same thing: grace! He paints a brilliant picture of what it means to trust God with our failures and our successes. Saving the Saved is an absolute must-read!

founder and lead pastor of Fellowship Monrovia (Ca Albert Tate

Meritocracy has crept its way into our culture, our churches, and if I’m honest, at times into my own life and ministry. I’m so glad my friend Bryan Loritts has given you and me a biblically rooted escape from our never-ending quest to equate who we are with what we do. I need to keep rereading this book.

Kara Powell

Bryan Loritts is one of the most thoughtful and biblical leaders I know. In Saving the Saved, he cuts to the heart of what the gospel is all about, offering good news not just to sinners but to the self-righteous as well. A freeing and engaging book.

Jon Tyson

The wonderful and often forgotten good news for Christians is that Jesus’ last words on the cross, “It is finished,” are also the first words spoken over us as we begin our lives with Him. Everything we need in order to secure God’s approval, Jesus has secured for us through his life, death, burial, and resurrection. When our hearts and imaginations are attuned with these realities, we gain the power to serve God, knowing we are already loved, versus slaving out of fear that we might not be loved. In this masterfully compelling, deeply pastoral, and sorely needed book, Bryan Loritts leads us toward a freedom that, in Jesus, is already ours.

Scott Sauls

Read More