“The God who stands so decisively over our lives as the source of all splendor and all joy is also in the closest and most cherishing contact with us. He draws us beyond all splendor and joy into truth. He has created within us such a craving for himself alone that even the brief flashes of God consciousness we have known make all else seem dust and ashes, lifeless and unreal.” (7/89, “Love’s Response”)
“The deepest craving in man’s self-centeredness may be his desire for a god he can manipulate.” (7/75, “You Shall Not Make For Yourself a Graven Image”)
“For every great man you show me outside the fellowship [of the church] I will show you ten inside. For every hypocrite inside I will show you ten outside. For every person who claims not to need the church I will show you ten whose ruined character testifies to the fact that they could not survive morally without her.” (4/89, “A Fellowship”)
“If we are to have any hope at all, it will have to be based on the fact that God is neither immoral nor amoral. We must believe that God is good and therefore that good is real and evil is a denial of reality.”
(2/89, “Jesus, the Propitiation”)
“I once had a sister in Christ come to me and admit that she was tormented by the fear that she would be eternally lost. She had tried hard, she said, to feel saved and couldn’t. I replied that salvation does not depend on feeling but on faith, and I asked her if she believed in Jesus. She responded that she did, but she could not believe in herself. I congratulated her. Nobody is saved by faith in himself. Nowhere does the Bible demand such faith.” (12/86, “The Believer’s Security”)
“Salvation is the gift of God but to accept this gift is to belong forever after to the Giver.” (6/72, “The Crying Woman”)
“Where did we ever get the idea that we could impress God with our mercy by condemning the unmerciful?” (10/88, “The Prodigal Son”)
“For the most part men have believed—and hoped—that God was capricious and that by being expert in their religion they might persuade a good God to be a little better, especially to them. They would like for him to change his mind about fairness enough to give them a slight advantage over the people they compete with.” (1/75, “We Can Have Peace”)
“Our God is everywhere. He stands by the desk of an atheist writing a book to prove that God doesn’t exist, and provides him with the very breath he breathes while he writes the book.” (12/75, “”Pray Without Ceasing”)
“The man who hopes to buy salvation may haggle over the price. But how can the beloved haggle over how much love he should have for his father? How can the beloved haggle over how many times a week she should see her lover? People who wonder how little they can do and still be saved have no understanding of the meaning of salvation.”
(2/70, “Something for Nothing”)
“It is strange that we should ever talk about being resigned to God’s will as though it were harsh and hard to bear. It was God’s will to give us Jesus Christ.” (5/76, “Human Suffering”)
“When the good news of Jesus Christ offers forgiveness of sin it does not invite us to a careless tolerance where sins are condoned. It invites us to a cross where they are paid for in terrible suffering. . . . Let us not speak of the grace of God as if it were something light and easy. I heard of one man who said, ‘God likes to forgive sins and I enjoy sinning. The world is admirably arranged.’ God does not enjoy the cost of forgiveness.” (12/77, “When God Hides His Face”)
“People whose faith is all in the past tense keep going through the motions of religious activity but it is form without force. They say the words and sing the songs but they are like fountain statues where water gushes out of lips that never taste it.” (8/76, “We Have Seen the Lord”)