Matthew Quotes

“The genius of the Gospels,” Merrill Tenney writes in his book by that title, lies not in their rhetorical or philosophical qualities, but lies rather in their presentation of Christ who is unparalleled in all other literature. His supernatural origin, His sinless life, His penetrative teaching, His triumphant death and resurrection might seem to belong to fiction; and if the Gospels were fiction, they would rank among the world’s greatest stories. They are, however, sober history, and are consequently all the greater. The Gospels did not make Jesus; He made them. Because of Him they are distinctive, and through their individual emphases and peculiarities He bids the successive generations of men to come to Him.”
― Douglas Sean O'Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth

“There is perhaps nothing so remarkable about Jesus than the fact that he advanced himself as the object of faith, love, and obedience, and yet he comes across as the most humble man to walk the face of the earth.”
― Douglas Sean O'Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth

“The salvation equation is not faith plus works equals justification or teary-eyed profession of faith plus no works equals justification. Rather, the equation is faith plus nothing equals justification plus works, obedience, love, and eschatological readiness.”
― Douglas Sean O'Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth

“When Scripture says that Jesus came at “the fullness of time,” it means it. God designed history—with the rise of this empire and the fall of that one, with this person born here and that person born there, with this event happening now and that one then—to prepare us for Jesus and to give room for faith. God values us too much to treat us like robots, and I’ll add (and maybe I’m bold to do so) that only unimaginative atheists want the Ten Commandments painted on the moon or Jesus captured on videotape.”
― Douglas Sean O'Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth

“God always answers prayer. Sometimes God says “yes,” sometimes he says “no,” and sometimes he says “wait.”
― Douglas Sean O'Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth

“God has actually designed us to find fulfillment and blessing when and only when we stop living for self—only when we stop hungering and thirsting for wealth, position, status, fame, or whatever else our world thinks matters most.”
― Douglas Sean O'Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth