The way of work verses the way of grace is an either/or proposition. If we choose the way of work then Jesus' standards for entrance into heaven are impossibly high (check out Matthew 5 and Jesus' "You have heard...but I say..." standards for real righteousness.)
But the way of grace was made possible by the only human that ever kept God's standards perfectly, Jesus himself. If this grates against your soul then you are experiencing the offense of the cross.
4. "We can't really 'know' anything for sure, especially when it comes to spiritual truth."
The postmodern epistemological principle is that we can't be certain about anything. But the Bible's epistemological principle is that without certainty then the essence of faith is erased. Check out Hebrews 11:1-2, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for."
The Old Testament heroes were commended for their unshakeable certainty in the Person and promises of God that they ended up in the Hall of Fame of Hebrews 11. If we want to be included in their ranks then we need to embrace this same brand of certainty (not to be confused with know-it-all-arrogance that the Pharisees were condemned for). Anything less than full certainty in our God and his promises is faithless, enemic and, well, postmodern.
5. "I follow the red letters of the Bible more than the black ones."
I hear this all the time. But the red letters of Jesus in the Bible that Jesus spoke are no less inspired than the black letters of the Bible that the Spirit of Jesus wrote through the pens of the 40 men who penned the Holy Scriptures over the course of 1,500 years.
Personally I think a lot of my friends who like the red letters more embrace them because they can use the purposely vague parables of Jesus to insert their own theological agendas into the conversation. But even the disciples were surprised when Jesus just flat out "said it like it was" without parabolic, confusing language. John 16:29 reminds us of this when it says, "Then Jesus' disciples said, 'Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.'"
Check this passage out in Matthew 13:10-15
"The disciples came to him and asked, 'Why do you speak to the people in parables?' He replied, 'The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'"
