The Spirituality of the Cross Quotes

“We do not have to ascend to God; rather, the good news is that He has descended to us.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Spirituality of the Cross Revised Edition: The Way of the First Evangelicals

“Luther answered those who agonized over the question of whether they were of God’s elect by pointing to a fact outside themselves: “You are a baptized child of God,” he would tell them. In times of doubt, fear, and even despair, those who worry about God’s love for them and question their salvation and their participation in Christ should not look inward, where they will probably find even more reasons to doubt their salvation. Rather, they must look outside themselves. Grace, Lutherans insist, is objective. Christians in need of assurance should understand that their salvation is an objective fact, sealed in an event in space and time, as tangible as water.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., The Spirituality of the Cross

“As long as he (e.g. a shoemaker or a blacksmith) clings to these two, to the Word of faith toward God by which the heart is made clean, and to the word of understanding which teaches him how to act toward his neighbor in his station in life, everything is clean to him, even if with his hands and his whole body he deals with nothing but dirt.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Spirituality of the Cross Revised Edition: The Way of the First Evangelicals

“Lutheran theologians speak of the "objective justification." Strictly speaking, justification took place outside of ourselves, in the actual historical events of Christ's death and resurrection. On the cross, two millennia, our salvation was accomplished as an objective event. And yest, the objectivity of what happened on the cross has a profound spiritual implication for us now. Our own miserable little vices and perversities were there -- right on the cross with Jesus. Those things that we feel so guilty for, Jesus objectively bore in His body; thus, despite any subjective feelings we may have of guilt over what we have done, forgiveness is also objective.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals

“The Church does not depend on power, social prestige, rhetorical manipulation, or human-designed programs. All it has are the Word and Sacraments, which, though they seem weak to the world and to all theologies of glory, in fact carry the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Spirituality of the Cross Revised Edition: The Way of the First Evangelicals

“Heaven built on earth by human hands is not the same as eternal life. Again, Christianity always has to be more than a cultural religion.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Spirituality of the Cross Revised Edition: The Way of the First Evangelicals

“Our mediator claims all of our sins and has paid for them with His blood. He provides all of the good works we need, clothing us in His—not our—righteousness. This is what it means to be saved.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Spirituality of the Cross Revised Edition: The Way of the First Evangelicals

“But the Law is the prelude to the Gospel. Those broken by the Law are convinced of their need and of their inability to save themselves. Then the message that God does it all comes as an astounding relief, as good news. Those who despair of achieving perfection by themselves can hear the message of the cross—that they can find totally free forgiveness through the work of Jesus Christ—and cling to it, desperately, with every fiber of their being.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Spirituality of the Cross Revised Edition: The Way of the First Evangelicals

“Lutheran spirituality begins with the insight that all human effort to reach God is futile. The will, to use Luther’s term, is in bondage—not only can we not fulfill the moral law perfectly, on the deepest level, we do not want to.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Spirituality of the Cross Revised Edition: The Way of the First Evangelicals

“Human sin and God’s grace are the two poles of Lutheran spirituality. To be sure, these are intrinsic to all of Christianity, but in Lutheranism they are both heightened. They are resolved in the principle by which, it is said, the church stands or falls: justification by grace through faith.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals

“Instead of insisting that human beings attain perfection, Lutheran spirituality begins by facing up to imperfection. We cannot perfect our conduct, try as we might. We cannot understand God through our own intellects. We cannot become one with God. Instead of human beings having to do these things, Lutheran spirituality teaches that God does them for us—He becomes one with us in Jesus Christ; He reveals Himself to our feeble understandings by His Word; He forgives our conduct and, in Christ, lives the perfect life for us.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Spirituality of the Cross Revised Edition: The Way of the First Evangelicals