Drew > Drew's Quotes

“For him it does not go far enough to say, as it is often put, that Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of our resurrection, in the sense of being certain because of God’s eternal purpose or his word of promise to the church, although both are certainly true for Paul. Rather, Christ’s resurrection is a guarantee in the sense that it is nothing less than the actual and, as such, representative beginning of the “general epochal event.” In Paul’s view, the general resurrection, as it includes believers, begins with Christ’s resurrection.51”
― Richard B. Jr. Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

“Christ’s passivity in his resurrection reflects his identification and solidarity with believers in being raised from the dead. For Paul—certainly not in conflict with, but other than, the way it is often understood—the resurrection is not the especially evident display and powerful proof of Christ’s divinity, but rather the vindication of the incarnate Christ in his suffering and obedience unto death, and with that vindication, the powerful transformation of him in his humanity. In the terms of Romans 1:4, by virtue of the resurrection he is now, comparatively, what he was not previously, “the Son of God in power.”54”
― Richard B. Jr. Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

“it is not an overstatement to say, as Paul sees things, that at the core of their being, in the deepest recesses of who they are—in other words, in “the inner self”—believers will never be more resurrected than they already are. God has done a work in each believer, a work of nothing less than resurrection proportions, that will not be undone.”
― Richard B. Jr. Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

“is 100 percent the work of God and, just for that reason, it is to engage 100 percent of the activity of the believer.”
― Richard B. Jr. Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

“We could summarize all of this background to Bonhoeffer’s christology in one sentence, albeit a complex one: The cross was a stumbling block to the Romans; the cross was a stumbling block to the Nazis; the cross was a stumbling block to moderns; and—unless we are humbled and brought low beneath the cross to see its power and beauty—the cross can be a stumbling block to us.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“The God-man who is humiliated is the stumbling block to the pious human being and to the human being, period.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“The church is the real thing when it is not consumed with the assertion of power in culture, but it is driven by service to others. The word ministry translates the Greek word diakonia, which means service. The church must be about serving others. When a church can lay claim to all three criteria, namely, preaching of the Word, being true to its confession, and focusing on serving, then it’s a church worth going to. And then it’s a church full of sermons worth listening to.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“His ecclesiology, though, is never an independent topic. It always flows from and back to Christ and his christology. Neither is Bonhoeffer content with mere academic work on ecclesiology. For his ecclesiology is never independent of practice or action. Christ always and necessarily stands before and above and over Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiology; and ethics, which for him can be summed up in love, always and necessarily pours out from and surrounds his ecclesiology.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“Leaning on Augustine’s insight, Bonhoeffer sees the sanctorum communio as “the community of loving persons who, touched by God’s Spirit, radiate love and grace.”17”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“What theological conservatives need to guard against, though, is thinking that because we affirm the Bible to be God’s inerrant and authoritative word, we have therefore submitted to the Bible. We can be conservatively confessional and functionally liberal. In other words, submitting to the Bible is far more than affirming an orthodox statement of Scripture. Affirming such a statement is crucial and essential. We should never minimize that. But affirming a high view of Scripture is only the first step of submission. We fully submit to God’s Word when we accept its authority over our lives as we read it.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“We seem especially susceptible to this pitting of spirituality against theology in American evangelical contexts. Perhaps we can chalk this up to the influence of pietism, which courses through the veins of many evangelicals. Pietism should not be confused with piety. Piety means simply the spiritual practices of praying, Bible reading and meditation, fasting, and gifts of charity.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“It would be safe to say that by the nineteenth century, pietism had long since dislodged Puritanism as the dominant force in American religious life.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“This poem, “Stations on the Road to Freedom,” echoes the Christ-centered or christotelic emphasis we have come to see in so much of Bonhoeffer’s writings. In Christ’s humiliation we see discipline, action, suffering, and ultimately death. In Christ’s crucifixion we see all four as well. And in Christ’s resurrection we see his triumph over death and over suffering. In the risen and living Christ we see the triumph of freedom.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“The ethics of the Sermon on the Mount are nothing less than extraordinary. To look at them as something that can be fulfilled within the ordinary and by ordinary means is foolish. Bonhoeffer writes that loving one’s enemies “demands more than the strength a natural person can muster.”4 Only from the perspective of the cross do the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount become possible; only by living from the cross can the ethical demands of Jesus come to pass in our lives. Again, “In Christ the crucified and his community, the ‘extraordinary’ occurs.”5 Do we really understand what love is? Or, to put the matter another way, who among us truly understands being a follower of Christ, a disciple? If left on our own, we would not get very far in answering these questions. So we see in Christ and we find in Christ what we need. But Bonhoeffer still calls us to live this way, not simply calling us to see Christ living this way.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“I offer this succinct synopsis of Bonhoeffer on the Christian life: We live in love by grace as the church-community—in, through, and toward Christ.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“Everything in the prior chapters has been leading us up to this point. Our look at his christology (chap. 2) and ecclesiology (chap. 3) laid the foundation for it. Our discussion of Scripture and reading and living God’s Word (chap. 4), our discussion of prayer (chap. 5), and our discussion of thinking and living theologically (chap. 6) all explained the particular means by which we learn and practice it. Our most recent discussions of being “worldly” (chap. 7) and of freedom and service and sacrifice (chap. 8) were looking at manifestations of it. Now, what remains is to travel to the peak itself, to see Bonhoeffer’s views on love and his life of love.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“If this earth was good enough for the man Jesus Christ, if such a man as Jesus lived, then, and only then, life has a meaning for us.”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“We are also brought into the church-community as a result of Christ’s death on the cross—a community of the forgiven, who should be quick to forgive, a community of those who have been interceded for and should be, likewise, quick to intercede, and a community whose burdens have been lifted and who should be quick to bear the burdens of others. Bonhoeffer”
― Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World

“In short, Calvin has been given too much blame by critics and too much credit by fans. His real genius is to be found in his remarkable ability to synthesize the best thought of the whole Christian tradition and sift it with rigorous exegetical skill and evangelical instincts. His rhetorical rule was “brevity and simplicity,” and this, combined with a heart enflamed by truth, draws us back to his wells for refreshment in many times and places—especially when we seem to have lost our way.”
― Michael S. Horton, Calvin on the Christian Life: Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever

“It is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition. There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer life.…”
― John F. MacArthur Jr., Alone With God: Rediscovering the Power and Passion of Prayer

“Imagine spending an entire workday with your best friend at your side. You would no doubt acknowledge his presence throughout the day by introducing him to your friends or business associates and talking to him about the various activities of the day. But how would your friend feel if you never talked to him or acknowledged his presence? Yet that’s how we treat the Lord when we fail to pray. If we communicated with our friends as infrequently as some of us communicate with the Lord, those friends might soon disappear. Our fellowship with God is not meant to wait until we are in heaven.”
― John F. MacArthur Jr., Alone With God: Rediscovering the Power and Passion of Prayer

“If it is performed in a formal or customary and overly manner, you would be as good to omit it altogether; for the Lord takes our prayers not by number but by weight. When it is an outward picture, a dead carcass of prayer, when there is no life, no fervency in it, God does not regard it. Do not be deceived in this, it is a very common deception. It may be a man’s conscience would be upon him, if he should omit it altogether. Therefore, when he does something, his heart is satisfied, and so he grows worse and worse. Therefore, consider that the very doing of the duty is not that which the Lord heeds, but He will have it so performed that the end may be obtained and that the thing for which you pray may be effected. If a man sends his servant to go to such a place, it is not his going to and fro that he regards, but he would have him to dispatch the business. So it is in all other works. He does not care about the formality of performance, but he would have the thing so done that it may be of use to him. If you send a servant to make a fire for you, and he goes and lays some green wood together and puts a few coals underneath, this is not to make a fire for you. He must either get dry wood, or he must blow until it burns and is fit for use. So when your hearts are unfit, when they are like green wood, when you come to warm them and to quicken them by prayer to God, it may be you post over this duty, and leave your hearts as cold and distempered as they were before. My beloved, this is not to perform this duty. The duty is effectually performed when your hearts are wrought upon by it, and when they are brought to a better tune and temper than they were before.”
― John F. MacArthur Jr., Alone With God: Rediscovering the Power and Passion of Prayer

“For Christians, then, Christ’s justification, given with his resurrection, becomes theirs.”
― Richard B. Jr. Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

“For Christians, then, Christ’s justification, given with his resurrection, becomes theirs. When they are united to the resurrected and justified Christ by faith, his righteousness is reckoned as theirs, or imputed to them.”
― Richard B. Jr. Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

“To summarize, the “outer man” of the believer does not yet experience the saving benefits of union with Christ, either transformative or forensic. So far as I am “outer man,” I am not yet justified (openly), any more than I am resurrected (bodily). And that is so, without diminishing either the reality that I am already and irreversibly justified or the future certainty of my being justified in the resurrection of the body at the final judgment. Here again, in terms of the principle of 2 Corinthians 5:7, I am justified “by faith,” but not (yet) “by sight.”
― Richard B. Jr. Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

“From this perspective, it should be appreciated that the antithesis between law and gospel is not an end in itself. It is not a theological ultimate. That antithesis arises not by virtue of creation, but as the consequence of sin, and the gospel functions to overcome it. The gospel removes an absolute law-gospel antithesis in the life of the believer.”
― Richard B. Jr. Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

“How so? Briefly, apart from the gospel and outside of Christ, the law is my enemy and condemns me. Why? Because God is my enemy and condemns me. But with the gospel and in Christ, united to him by faith, the law is no longer my enemy but my friend. Why? Because now God is no longer my enemy but my friend, and the law, his will—the law in its moral core, as reflective of his character and of concerns eternally inherent in his own person and so of what pleases him—is now my friendly guide for life in fellowship with God.”
― Richard B. Jr. Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

“Paul does not teach a “faith alone” position, as I have sometimes heard it put. Rather, his is a “by faith alone” position. This is not just a verbal quibble; the “by” is all-important here. The faith by which sinners are justified, as it unites them to Christ and so secures for them all the benefits of salvation that there are in him, perseveres to the end and in persevering is never alone. Faith is, as Luther is reported to have said, “a busy little thing.”86”
― Richard B. Jr. Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

“Union with Christ is the foundational basis for sanctification and the dynamic force that empowers it.”
― Robert Letham, Union with Christ: In Scripture, History, and Theology

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer wisely wrote, “If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all.”3”
― Philip Graham Ryken, Grace Transforming