Quotes from Books I Recently Finished

Over the last four months, I have been reading several books.  And over the last few weeks, I finished three of those books:
  • Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray
  • Rejoicing in Christ by Mike Reeves
  • You Are Free by Rebekah Lyons
Here are some quotes from each:

  • justification is the act of God's free grace...We do not justify ourselves...Justification is not any religious exercise...Justify is to declare to be righteous.
  • justification must be one that will take care of past sin as well as provide for the future...Only a perfect righteousness can provide the basis for a complete, perfect and irreversible justification.
  • Adoption is concerned with the fatherhood of God in relation to men.
  • Sanctification is specifically the work of this indwelling and directing Holy Spirit...we do not sanctify ourselves. It is God who sanctifies. Specifically it is the Holy Spirit who is the agent of sanctification.
  • Nothing is more central or basis than union and communion with God.
The greatest benefit of union with Christ is Christ. This marriage is made so that we may know and enjoy him. Union with him is the foundation, the beginning: communion with him is the goal...This is the new heartbeat of the Christian: the Spirit opens our eyes to the glory and beauty of Christ that we might share the Father's eternal pleasure in him.

This is the root of true God-likeness. Nothing is more holy than a heartfelt delight in Christ. Nothing is so powerful to transform lives. But how can we, without hypocrisy, come to embrace Christ as our most dearly cherished treasure? Only when we sense his unfathomable love for us, how kind and merciful he is and has been, how much he has suffered for our forgiveness, how he is truly better than all the other things we run after. We love him because he first loved us. In other words, what all my efforts could not achieve, the love of Christ achieves: it wins me to love God and love others with sincerity, freedom and spontaneity. I begin to enjoy holiness and hate sin because I enjoy him and hate what stands against him all his goodness, truth and beauty.

What a far car this is from the exhausting idea that Christ has done his bit and now it's time to do ours! We are not chained to the task of trying to pay back the huge debt we owe him. We are united to the Son so we can enter into his life...It means as you go through life, you can have the relief of knowing that you are not on your own, facing a list of tasks.

It is not a technique, a method or a habit. The essential secret of godliness is Christ. Sin is precisely Christlessness; all attempts at self-improvement or moral reformation without him are sin. Only through knowing and relying on him can we become like the living God and share his vitality. It means before anything else it matters where we look.
  • What if we're called to admit our weakness and declare that only God's strength is sufficient? God delights in us. He doesn't want us to live in bondage...Because when you find yourself on the cusp of strongholds being released, the enemy marches double-time.
  • Before we walk into an overwhelming situation, may we set aside an extended time to confess how much we need God's strength and to declare his faithfulness. He is faithful to accomplish whatever he begins and will carry it to completion.
  • What a gift, to be free to set free...No performing, no achievement no success, and no amount of devoted effort can earn the love of Christ. It is an unconditional healing balm, a freeing balm...Confession is the gateway to freedom...We are nothing without him. We are everything in him...Freedom is never just for the freed. Freedom is a gift that's meant to be shared.


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