Kindle Notes & Highlights
Started reading
December 16, 2018
The death He was about to die was as much for Judas’s sin as for the sins of any person ever born, and it was for Judas that the Lord grieved as only He can grieve.
Still as of old, Man by himself is priced. For thirty pieces of silver Judas sold himself, not Christ. (Author unknown)
The Christian leader who spends all of his time and effort working with those who are healthy and well-to-do either is not sent by God or is not fully faithful to his calling.
The faithful disciple values his soul immeasurably more than he values his body, and he will gladly sacrifice that which is only physical and corruptible for the sake of that which is spiritual and incorruptible. Jim Elliot, mentioned earlier in the chapter, wrote, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Becoming a Christian requires affirming the lordship of Christ to the point where you are willing to forsake everything else.
Some of those who refused to believe the gospel covered their unbelief with criticism. Jesus compared them to foolish children sitting in the market place who objected to everything the other children did. They were like many people today who find fault with whatever the preacher and other church leaders do. No matter what is said or done, such people pick it apart and use the objection—whether real or imagined, justified or unjustified—as an excuse for rejection. Because they have no saving relationship to Christ, they refuse to receive His truth or serve in His church. But they love to harp
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No matter how severe the sin, God can forgive it. The worst conceivable sin would be to kill God’s own Son—and that while He was on earth for the very purpose of providing salvation from sin and the way to everlasting life.
Nor does the volume of sin end the possibility of mercy. A seventy-year-old profligate who has lived a life of debauchery, stealing, lying, profanity, blasphemy, and immorality is just as forgivable as a seven-year-old who has done nothing worse than normal childhood naughtiness.
It is also true that although Satan is brilliant, powerful, and able to move from place to place with seemingly instantaneous speed, he is nevertheless not omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent. And the supreme deceiver is supremely self-deceived, especially in thinking he can overpower God and usurp His kingdom.
By itself, morality leads to self-righteousness and is a damning thing. A person is better off being grossly immoral and recognizing his need than being highly moral and admitting no need.
A religious, self-righteous, reformed person is subject to Satan in a way that a guilt-ridden immoral person is not, because his very morality blinds him to his basic sinful condition and need.
The reformed but unconverted person will eventually revert to sinful ways for the same reason that the dog returns to its vomit and the washed sow returns to the mud wallow—because in each case the original nature has not been changed.
