Quotes

One With Christ

  Selected quotes from One With Christ, by Marcus Johnson, compiled by Stephen Weaver: “To be saved by Christ…means to be included in the person of Christ. That is what salvation is” (12) The mysterious reality of our union with Jesus Christ, by which he dwells in us and we in him, is so utterly essential to the gospel that to obscure it inevitably leads to an obscuring of the gospel itself.” (16) “For Paul, our intimate union with Christ has both legal and transformative benefits. We are both justified and sanctified ‘in Christ Jesus’ in a way that answers both our guilt and pollution in Adam.” (73) “The theo-logic of the Reformation confession sola fide is not that faith itself is saving, but that faith joins us to Jesus Christ, who is our salvation. Thus, strictly speaking, we are not saved because we believe, but because we are united to Christ through faith.” (99) “…by virtue of our union with Jesus Christ,

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John Piper Quotes

  My thanks to Rick Ianniello for posting this. For those that enjoy Piper and quotes, here’s 20 Tweetable John Piper Quotes by Jared Totten: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. All heroes are shadows of Christ. Sin is what you feel and think and do when you are not taking God at His Word and resting in His promises. Sin is what you do when you are not satisfied in God. Prayer causes things to happen that wouldn’t happen if the prayer doesn’t happen. Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Satan wants you, and God wants you. The one with sadistic hate. The other with sacrificial love. God does not kill joy. He kills sin. That is, he kills what will finally kill all joy. If you live gladly to make others glad in God, life will be hard, risks will be high, and your joy

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CHRISTIANITY: All About Christ

“To behold Christ and to make others behold him is the substance of his [Paul’s] ministry. All the distinctive elements of Paul’s preaching relate to Christ, and bear upon their face his image and superscription. …The entire Christian life, root and stem and branch and blossom, is one continuous fellowship with Christ.” Gerhardus Vos (HT: Matthew Morizio)

Rope, Beach, Air, Sun, Song

“Jesus Christ is not merely the means of our rescue from damnation; he is the goal of our salvation. If he is not satisfying to be with, there is no salvation. He is not merely the rope that pulls us from the threatening waves; he is the solid beach under our feet, the air in our lungs, and the beat of our heart, and the warm sun on our skin, and the song in our ears, and the arms of our beloved.” – John Piper, Taste and See, 406 (HT: Of First Importance)

Focused Preaching

There’s nothing worse than preaching which meanders. No direction, no unity, no thrust to our sermons, and soon our hearers will have no desire to listen to them! In vivid contrast, JI Packer comments on JC Ryle’s preaching: “Ryle never just marked time, and again and again, to use his own phrases, he was able to focus his points in a few ‘picked and packed words’ that would ‘strike and stick’ His divisions were always clear (for one thing…for another thing), his headings stuck out, his down to earth illustrations and rhetorical emphasises gave a sense of the drama, the dangers, the challenges, glories, and joys of life under the hand of God.” (In “Faithfulness and holiness”, p61 ) (HT: Colin Adams)

The one essential condition

“The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great. If men are deprived of the infinitely great, they will not go on living and will die of despair. The Infinite and the Eternal are as essential for man as the little planet on which he dwells.” Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Possessed, chapter 7, section 3. (HT: Ray Ortlund)

Comfort and the Victory of the Cross

“True Gospel comfort never plays down to natural weakness: it lifts up to supernatural strength. There is nothing enfeebling or demoralizing about it, no flying to the drug of fantasy. It is essentially virile, bracing, reinforcing. And what gives it this character, preserving it from the risk of sentimentalism, is the Cross at the centre of it. In the last resort, the human heart is too big to find its comfort in any soothing anodyne of consolatory words. There is no comfort short of victory. And it is this, nothing less, that the preacher of the Gospel is empowered to offer to all who turn their faces to the Cross—the comfort of mastering every dark situation, and triumphing in every tribulation, through the grace of Him who conquered there.” —James S. Stewart, Heralds of God (Hodder & Stoughton, 1946), p. 79. (HT: Tony Reinke)

John Stott: Is Man Basically Good?

“Much that we take for granted in a civilized society is based upon the assumption of human sin. Nearly all legislation has grown up because human beings cannot be trusted to settle their own disputes with justice and without self-interest. A promise is not enough; we need a contract. Doors are not enough; we have to lock and bolt them. The payment of fares is not enough; tickets have to be issued, inspected and collected. Law and order are not enough; we need the police to enforce them. All this is due to man’s sin. We cannot trust each other. We need protection against one another. It is a terrible indictment of human nature.” – John Stott, Basic Christianity (HT: Josh Harris)

Taking God’s side against sin

“I often tell my congregation that when it comes to battling sin in our lives, the difference between Christians and non-Christians is not that non-Christians sin whereas Christians don’t. The difference is found in which side we take in the battle. Christians take God’s side against sin, whereas non-Christians take sin’s side against God. In other words, a Christian will sin, but then he will turn to God and his Word and say, ‘Help me fight against sin.’ A non-Christian, even if he recognizes his sin, effectively responds, ‘I want my sin more than God.’” -Mark Dever (HT:  Reformed Voices)

“…that I might be a flame for you”

Justin Childers posts some of his favourite Jim Elliot quotes: “God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.” “Father, let me be weak that I might loose my clutch on everything temporal. My life, my reputation, my possessions, Lord, let me loose the tension of the grasping hand.” “I covenanted with the Father that He would do either of two things: either glorify Himself to the utmost in me or slay me. By His grace I shall not have His second best.” “O Christ, let me know Thee–let me catch glimpses of Thyself, seated and expectant in glory, let me rest there despite all wrong surging round me. Lead me in the right path, I pray.” “Father, take my life, yea, my blood if Thou wilt, and consume

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