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Christianity is more than a hope, however glorious. It is, even now, ‘Christ in you’! Full salvation belongs to the last day, but a real salvation belongs to the Christian here and now. If a believer cannot yet say that he is free from the presence of sin, he certainly should be able to say that he is free from the penalty of sin. And by God’s grace, it is his daily privilege to find Christ at work in him saving him from the downward pull of sin.”
—Richard Lucas, The Message of Colossians and Philemon
HT: Of First Importance
“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to shore.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly to venture on wider seas where storms show Your mastery; where losing sight of land we shall find stars. We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes; we ask You to [lead us into] a future of strength, courage, hope and love.”
-- Sir Francis Drake, 16th – century English sailor
“The purpose of creation, redemption, and consummation are seen holistically as God’s purpose to glorify Christ by fulfilling the Adamic creation mandate, the universal Noahic promise, the patriarchal covenants, and the Israelite monarchy in Him, thus exalting Jesus as preeminent over the entire cosmos as the agent of creation, the true imago Dei, the Davidic subjugator of all rival powers, the firstborn of the eschatological resurrection from the dead, and the atonement through whom final cosmic peace is found at last (Col. 1:15-23).”
- Russell D. Moore, The Kingdom of Christ (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004), 108.
“The resurrection and exaltation of Christ accomplish a new unity between heaven and earth, for Christ now has a heavenly body (1 Cor. 15:42ff), a body of glory (Phil. 3:21) and His humanity is now in heaven (Phil. 3:20f; Col. 3:1; Eph. 1:20ff; 6:9), and both serve as a pledge of the ultimate unity of the cosmos in Christ (Eph. 1:10).”
- Andrew T. Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet (Cambridge, UK; Cambridge University Press, 1981), 192.
HT: Of First Importance
"Faith is not a leap into the dark.
Faith is a step into the light."
-- Craig Troxel
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“Faith, if it is to be sure and steadfast, must lay hold upon nothing else but Christ alone, and in the conflict and terrors of conscience it has nothing else to lean on but this precious pearl Christ Jesus. So, he who apprehends Christ by faith, although he be terrified with the law and oppressed with the weight of his sins, yet he may be bold to glory that he is righteous. How? Even by that precious jewel Christ Jesus, whom he possesses by faith.”
—Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, 99
HT: Of First Importance
“The point I am making is quite offensive to us today. It is that God hides himself from us that he cannot be had on our terms, and that he cannot be accessed from “below” through natural revelation. In the malls, and in much of life, we encounter nothing like this. We expect access. We expect to be able to get what we want, when we want it, and on our terms."
-- David Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant
HT: Of First Importance
D.L. Moody had an interesting response to the question of whether a Christian should be "open-minded," a claim we constantly hear today:
"A great many people say, you must hear both sides; but if a man should write me a most slanderous letter about my wife, I don’t think I would have to read it; I would tear it up and throw it to the winds. Have I to take up a book that is a slander on my Lord and Master, who has redeemed me with His blood? Ten thousands times no! I will not touch it."
Christian journalist Nick Harrison also has a good answer:
"It’s one of Satan’s lies that we must be 'open-minded' about our spiritual beliefs. But no, a Christian whose faith is founded on solid rock has no reason to test out the sand around him . . .
HT: Apprising Ministries
