Look and Live Quotes

“When we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing. We worship anything. G. K. Chesterton”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“The reason God commands us to love Him with all our heart is not because He is an egomaniac! It is because He knows that anything we love more than Him will betray us. Eventually, we lose it by its death . . . or ours.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Only in the gospel do you get the verdict before the performance. I love you. Now love me. I love you. Now you can love me.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“The enemy of joy is not suffering, it is idolatry.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Judging holiness by the standard of other men is useless. Two men standing at the foot of Mt. Everest don’t argue about who is taller. They look up and tremble.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“True worship never needs to be compelled. It is the natural response to seeing Something altogether glorious.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Sanctification is about becoming in practice what we are in reality. Sanctification is really the process of us catching up with our justification.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“What we must begin to understand is that the gospel deconstructs a man before it reconstructs him. First it teaches him he is entitled to nothing, and then it gives him everything.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“The greatest injustice in the universe is not that there are people dying of AIDS or people starving to death, even as you read this. It’s not that there have been over fifty million abortions in America since Roe v. Wade. It’s not even that there are twenty-seven million human slaves in the world today. These things are absolutely awful. They are worthy of judgment, and I believe they break the heart of God. But these, even combined, are not the greatest injustice. The greatest injustice in the universe is that there are human beings who do not worship Jesus Christ.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden, a much more difficult garden, and whose obedience is imputed to us. Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal. Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God. Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us. Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them. Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant. Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends. Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves. Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk leaving an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people. Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in. The Bible’s really not about you—it’s about him.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“This is the essence of sin, and the story of all our lives. We have all set our hopes onto something or someone we thought was really impressive and important. Something we thought would really make us happy . . . money, another person, a position. So we examine the thing. We lean on it a little bit. We test it. We taste it. It seems good. We respect it a little more, so we lean on it a little more. Pretty soon we trust enough to place the full weight of our soul upon it, and then . . . crash. We end up disappointed. Despairing. Why? Because it wasn’t God. And everything crumbles under the weight of worship except God.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Many of us claim to have seen the cross, yet with our lives we are saying, “Thanks, man.” We have not truly seen the cross until we say with every fiber of our being, “Command me! I am yours.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“When we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing. We worship anything.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“I don’t wake up in the morning just naturally reading my Bible and singing worship songs. I must, with a warlike aggression, place the glory of God in front of my face, or I will not change . . . I will not worship Him. We must be like David in Psalm 16:8 who said, “I have set the Lord continually before me.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Self-pity leads to continuing to love the sin so it still has power over you, but hating yourself. Real repentance is when you say, “What has this sin done to God? What has it cost God? What does God feel about it?”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Addiction is really our war against the chasm that God left in us when we left Him. The stuff we put in there hasn’t worked and it never will, because we were made for the embrace of the Trinity.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“We were created by God and for God, and until we understand that, we are restless, brokenhearted glory chasers, always seeking something more. Only God, the highest and greatest good, the infinite holy One, is finally enough.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“My scars are numerous, my flesh is powerless, my enemy is dangerous, but my God is glorious and His grace is totally sufficient.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Let’s say there’s a situation that I am dealing with that I don’t like. Life hasn’t gone my way. The van broke down for the eighth time this year. I got laid off and haven’t had any work for ninety days. I’m suffering. If I don’t know the Artist or respect Him as a starting point, I will be free to consider this difficult time a total waste of canvas—a total waste of ninety measures of music—a waste of artistic energy. It’s trash. I will think it’s not beautiful and that nothing beautiful will ever come of it. I will think that it is bad and He is bad. I will be free to doubt the goodness, wisdom, and beauty of the Artist and His art. If, on the other hand, I know the Artist—if I deeply respect Him and His artistry as a starting point—even if I dislike the situation, I will show a kind of respect for it. A patience in it. Indeed, I might curse the artwork, but I will not curse Him. I might hate the music, but I will know that it has a beautiful purpose and aim. It is a work of the Artist! I will study it. I will linger until I learn what I should learn. Why? Because my favorite Artist made it. I know Him. He is good. He is wise. He loves to shed brilliant colors on dark blotches. I will endure, nay, embrace the ninety measures of musical pain, because I know that when measure ninety-one soars into blissful resolution, it will be all the sweeter for it.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“You might say it this way: Special revelation is seeing the Artist, and general revelation is seeing His art.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, Divine Love would have put you there.6 Spurgeon”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“If we didn’t spend any time on earth fellowshiping with other believers, why would we want to do that forever?”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“do”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“My aim is to help you overcome idolatry and certain sadness by pointing you to the all-satisfying, sin-destroying glory of Jesus.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“The cross is where we get faith. And when faith meets a trial, it does not say, “God is not good.” It says, “This is God loving me. Indeed, it could not be anything else.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“If you seek happiness, you will never find it. If you seek holiness, happiness will find you.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Becoming like Jesus is not merely about gaining greater emotional stability. It is about learning to die. It is about sacrifice for the good of others. Suffering for the joy of others. In this, God’s glory will be seen.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“The only prerequisite for grace is knowing you desperately need it.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“God’s greatest glory is that he is good. The brightest gem in the crown of God is his goodness.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ

“Value lies in scarcity, and because information is in such great supply, it is in little demand.”
― Matt Papa, Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ