Kojo > Kojo's Quotes

“Sadly, some Christians think that they should not grieve. “My loved one is in a better place, so why should I grieve?” Yes, your loved one may well be in a better place, but you have lost an important part of your life, and that causes mourning and grief. We miss that person and the love we shared. Being a Christian does not remove your human feelings from you. You will grieve that loss, just like every other human being. So”
― James R. White, Grieving: Your Path Back to Peace

“Our culture has done everything in its power to rid itself of having to think of death and its consequences. As a result, we don’t talk about it, think about it, or do a very good job preparing ourselves for its certain arrival. As a result, we enter into the grieving process unprepared for what lies ahead. We don’t realize the range of emotions we are going to face, and we often don’t even know how to reach out to those around us for their help and comfort. What’s even worse is that many feel uneasy giving comfort, because it isn’t “the thing to do” in our society. We are all supposed to be able to “handle things on our own.” Well, grief is not handled well alone. God made us social beings, and when we lose a loved one, we desire and need the help and assistance of others. Give”
― James R. White, Grieving: Your Path Back to Peace

“Most people do not feel the full force of their loss and the emotional toll it will exact for a good four to six months after the loss. Many report that the fifth, sixth, and seventh months are the darkest and most difficult. Of course, in our society you are expected to be “over it” in about two weeks and back to work, ready to put it all behind you. Our society really doesn’t handle grief very well. In”
― James R. White, Grieving: Your Path Back to Peace

“One negative side of grief is that it focuses us inward upon ourselves, often leading to lapses of patience and gentleness with those around us.”
― James R. White, Grieving: Your Path Back to Peace

“I learned the first rule of repentance: that repentance requires greater intimacy with God than with our sin.”
― Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

“I learned that we must obey in faith before we feel better or different. At this time, though, obeying in faith, to me, felt like throwing myself off a cliff. Faith that endures is heroic, not sentimental. And”
― Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into Christian Faith

“The journey out of lesbianism had many dimensions, and the Lord was gracious in leading me a small step, and then burning the bridge I crossed to keep me safely closer to him. From the first night, there was no going back. Slowly”
― Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into Christian Faith

“Let us also think of the appendix that the Baptists joined to the publication of the Second London Confession of Faith where, several times, they express their desire to maintain good relations with the paedobaptists regardless of their divergences of opinion on the question of baptism:”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“We have decided that we are not inconvenienced by inconvenience. The needs of children come up unexpectedly. We are sure that the Good Samaritan had other plans that fateful day.”
― Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into Christian Faith

“The promises of the Old Covenant were preceded by an “if” that made them conditional on man’s obedience, while the promises of the New Covenant were marked by a divine monergism:”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“There is a conservative approach to marriage that puts a great deal of stress on traditional gender roles. It says that the basic problem in marriage is that both husband and wife need to submit to their God-given functions, which are that husbands need to be the head of the family, and wives need to submit to their husbands. There is a lot of emphasis on the differences between men and women. The problem is that an overemphasis could encourage selfishness, especially on the part of the husband. There”
― Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

“By way of contrast he wanted to stress that the gospel’s center is found in Jesus Christ himself, who has been crucified for sin and raised for justification, with the inbuilt implication that Christ himself thus defined and described should be proclaimed as able to save all who come to him.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“If the benefits of Christ’s work (justification, reconciliation, adoption, and so on) are abstracted from Christ himself, and the proclamation of the gospel is made in terms of what it offers rather than in terms of Christ himself, the question naturally arises: To whom can I offer these benefits?”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“You must first have Christ himself, before you can partake of those benefits by him.19”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“When we see salvation whole—its every single part is found in Christ, we must beware lest we derive the smallest drop from somewhere else.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“The gospel is designed to deliver us from this lie. For it reveals that behind and manifested in the coming of Christ and his death for us is the love of a Father who gives us everything he has: first his Son to die for us and then his Spirit to live within us.27”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“pastors need themselves to have been mastered by the unconditional grace of God. From them the vestiges of a self-defensive pharisaism and conditionalism need to be torn. Like the Savior they need to handle bruised reeds without breaking them and dimly burning wicks without quenching them.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“What is a godly pastor, after all, but one who is like God, with a heart of grace; someone who sees God bringing prodigals home and runs to embrace them, weeps for joy that they have been brought home, and kisses them—asking no questions—no qualifications or conditions required?”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“I am not asking you to do that because the tree is ugly—actually it is just as attractive as the other trees. I don’t create ugly, ever!11 You won’t be able to look at the fruit and think, That must taste horrible. It is a fine-looking tree. So it’s simple. Trust me, obey me, and love me because of who I am and because you are enjoying what I have given to you. Trust me, obey me, and you will grow.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“What was injected into Eve’s mind and affections during the conversation with the Serpent was a deep-seated suspicion of God that was soon further twisted into rebellion against him. The root of her antinomianism (opposition to and breach of the law) was actually the legalism that was darkening her understanding, dulling her senses, and destroying her affection for her heavenly Father. Now, like a pouting child of the most generous father, she acted as though she wanted to say to God, “You never give me anything. You insist on me earning everything I am ever going to have.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“These considerations give us some clues as to why legalism and antinomianism are, in fact, nonidentical twins that emerge from the same womb. Eve”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“But it is serpentine logic, for it simply compounds the old legal spirit. It is the natural instinct of the once-antinomian prodigal who, when awakened, thinks in terms of working his way back into the favor of his father.38”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“Pharisees lived “according to the strictest party of . . . religion.”3 The name itself is probably derived from the root “to separate.” Pharisaism was essentially a conservative “holiness movement.” So”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“Whatever form, however, Antinomianism may assume, it springs from legalism. None rush into the one extreme but those who have been in the other.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“To run, to work, the law commands, The gospel gives me feet and hands. The one requires that I obey, The other does the power convey.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“Antinomianism may be couched in doctrinal and theological terms, but it both betrays and masks the heart’s distaste for absolute divine obligation, or duty. That”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“Then all my servile works were done A righteousness to raise; Now, freely chosen in the Son, I freely choose his ways.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“So we are Ephesians 2:15–16 Christians: the ceremonial law is fulfilled. We are Colossians 2:14–17 Christians: the civil law distinguishing Jew and Gentile is fulfilled. And we are Romans 8:3–4 Christians: the moral law has also been fulfilled in Christ. But rather than being abrogated, that fulfillment is now repeated in us as we live in the power of the Spirit.40”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters

“this promise had already been in place prior to the announcement in Genesis 3. He states in Titus, “in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, and has in His own time revealed His message in the proclamation that I was entrusted with by the command of God our Savior (Titus 1:2-3):[7]”
― Matthew Stamper, Covenantal Dispensationalism: An Examination of the Similarities and Differences Between Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism

“This is the key to the enjoyment of assurance precisely because assurance is our assurance that he is a great Savior and that he is ours.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters