Bound to Be Free uses Scripture to recalibrate our hearts so
we can walk in the freedom Christ has provided from sin and from the
encumbrances that weigh us down.
There’s nothing more heartbreaking than to see saints who are bound by performance, not realizing there is freedom through Christ. In the midst of performance, we try to please everyone, to do what we think makes God happy, to live a “good” life . . . and we don’t realize that the walls are closing in around us. There are four walls in the trap of performance: our trajectory, our relationships, our affirmation, and our peers. Each of these speaks deeply to our souls as something we need in order to have a “good life”—but we enslave ourselves to something that will never be enough.
Instead, God invites us into the trap of grace, which frees us. The life-giving walls of this trap are trust in God, reconciliation with God, affection from God, and partnership with our brothers and sisters in Christ. As we acknowledge how we are bound by performance, we can—with God’s help—flee into the captivity of grace and rest in God’s unfailing love.
Table of Contents
PART 1: THE PERFORMANCE TRAP
CHAPTER 1: Trajectory
CHAPTER 2: Relationships
CHAPTER 3: Affirmation
CHAPTER 4: Peers
PART 2: THE TRAP OF GOD’S GRACE
CHAPTER 5: Trust in God
CHAPTER 6: Reconciliation with God
CHAPTER 7: Affection from God
CHAPTER 8: Partnership with the Saints of God
Endorsements
There’s nothing more heartbreaking than to see saints who are bound by performance, not realizing there is freedom through Christ. In the midst of performance, we try to please everyone, to do what we think makes God happy, to live a “good” life . . . and we don’t realize that the walls are closing in around us. There are four walls in the trap of performance: our trajectory, our relationships, our affirmation, and our peers. Each of these speaks deeply to our souls as something we need in order to have a “good life”—but we enslave ourselves to something that will never be enough.
Instead, God invites us into the trap of grace, which frees us. The life-giving walls of this trap are trust in God, reconciliation with God, affection from God, and partnership with our brothers and sisters in Christ. As we acknowledge how we are bound by performance, we can—with God’s help—flee into the captivity of grace and rest in God’s unfailing love.
Table of Contents
PART 1: THE PERFORMANCE TRAP
CHAPTER 1: Trajectory
CHAPTER 2: Relationships
CHAPTER 3: Affirmation
CHAPTER 4: Peers
PART 2: THE TRAP OF GOD’S GRACE
CHAPTER 5: Trust in God
CHAPTER 6: Reconciliation with God
CHAPTER 7: Affection from God
CHAPTER 8: Partnership with the Saints of God
Endorsements
"This is D. A. at his best—gospel-rich, raw, in tune with culture, and deeply insightful regarding human nature. Written by one of this generation’s most capable communicators, these pages describe a struggle that consumes most of us, and they highlight a simple yet profound path of redemption—faith in God’s grace."
---J. D. GREEAR, PHD,Author, Gaining by Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that
Send and Jesus, Continued ...Why the Spirit inside You Is Better than Jesus beside You
The opening pages of this book are gut wrenching, the story of a boy who learns he can never live up to the expectations of his dad. But what follows is exhilarating, liberating, and life giving. D. A. Horton is one of my favorite young leaders in evangelicalism, and this book will show you why. If you have ever struggled, as I perpetually do, with the temptation to believe that God is pleased with you on the basis of your performance, this is the book you need to read. With pastoral wisdom and sharp focus, D. A. Horton shows us how to rest in the most radical pronouncement that could ever be made of us: “You are my beloved son, and in you I am well pleased.”
---RUSSELL MOORE, President, Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
