Quotes from Books I Am Reading
I am currently reading through two books: Christless Christianity by Michael Horton and Walking with Jesus through His Word by Dennis E. Johnson. Here are some quotes I read recently:
It is through God's Word of judgment (law) and salvation (gospel) that we are transferred from our own pointless scripts and inserted into the grand narrative that revolves around Jesus Christ.
Reduce Christianity to good advice and it blends perfectly with the culture of life coaching...What distinguishes Christianity at its heart is not its moral code but its story...At its heart, this story is a gospel: the Good News that God has reconciled us to himself in Christ.
The worst thing that can happen to the church is to confuse law and gospel...We naturally think that if you want people to do the right thing, you just need to tell them what to do and exhort them to do it with sufficient passion and effective methods. This, however, avoids both the law and the gospel...The law commands, but it does not give us any power to fulfill its conditions. On its own, more advice will only lead us to either self-righteousness or despair. Yet the more Christ is held up before us as sufficient for our justification and sanctification, the more we begin to do to ourselves and live to God.
We can never overestimate the unleashing of new-creation power that Jesus brought about when he took his seat at the right hand of God the Father and then celebrated his enthronement by lavishing the great gift, the Holy Spirit of God, on the small and fragile gathering of his friends in Jerusalem.
The multidimensional effects of his accomplishment of redemption are reflected throughout Israel's Scriptures.
When we read the Bible through the lens of Jesus Christ, we begin to glimpse an astonishing display and array of wisdom, mercy and power.
We need Jesus to open our minds and hearts, and we need him to open the Scriptures.
Reduce Christianity to good advice and it blends perfectly with the culture of life coaching...What distinguishes Christianity at its heart is not its moral code but its story...At its heart, this story is a gospel: the Good News that God has reconciled us to himself in Christ.
The worst thing that can happen to the church is to confuse law and gospel...We naturally think that if you want people to do the right thing, you just need to tell them what to do and exhort them to do it with sufficient passion and effective methods. This, however, avoids both the law and the gospel...The law commands, but it does not give us any power to fulfill its conditions. On its own, more advice will only lead us to either self-righteousness or despair. Yet the more Christ is held up before us as sufficient for our justification and sanctification, the more we begin to do to ourselves and live to God.
We can never overestimate the unleashing of new-creation power that Jesus brought about when he took his seat at the right hand of God the Father and then celebrated his enthronement by lavishing the great gift, the Holy Spirit of God, on the small and fragile gathering of his friends in Jerusalem.The multidimensional effects of his accomplishment of redemption are reflected throughout Israel's Scriptures.
When we read the Bible through the lens of Jesus Christ, we begin to glimpse an astonishing display and array of wisdom, mercy and power.
We need Jesus to open our minds and hearts, and we need him to open the Scriptures.
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