Intolerance

Some people say this attitude is "intolerant." "He's the sort of man," they complain, "who thinks his own beliefs are true and everyone else's are wrong." But after all how can any man help doing that? A man must think his own belief true because if he didn't it would not be his belief. "Your belief" means "what you think true." And if you think the thing true, of course you must think the opposite false. But this is a very different thing from saying that those who hold the opposite belief are necessarily bad or stupid. --C. S. Lewis. Beyond Personality. London: Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1944, pp. 5-6

He ate the pig

Ziggy Piggy

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires.  But on what did we rest the creations of our genius?  Upon force.  Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.  --Napoleon Bonaparte

Watchman Nee

"Christ is the Son of God Who died for the redemption of sinners and was resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ. Watchman Nee." --These words were written on a scrap of paper found under his pillow, after his death in prison.


"When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,“Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.  I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." -- Matthew 8:10,11

The Good News

"Dost thou understand me, sinful soul? He wrestled with justice, that thou mightest have rest; He wept and mourned, that thou mightest laugh and rejoice; 
He was betrayed, that thou mightest go free; was apprehended, that thou mightest escape; 
He was condemned, that thou mightest be justified; and was killed, that thou mightest live; 
He wore a crown of thorns, that thou mightest wear a crown of glory; and was nailed to the cross, 
with His arms wide open, to show with what freeness all His merits shall be bestowed on the coming soul; and how heartily He will receive it into His bosom?" 
--John Bunyan

Cowboy poetry

Jesus Christ is the end of the law,
No more am I crushed by its terrible weight,
For sin had deceived me,
and the law had condemned me,
Sin used what was good to bring death as my fate.

The mighty gulf between God and man,
is now but the smallest step,
For Christ by His blood
has opened the way,
and His resurrection secures our hope.

--Rabid Wadsworth Frogfellow

Don't touch my Heini

As long as we think we can save ourselves by our own will power, we will only make the evil in us stronger than ever. -- Heini Arnold

Schroder's equation

"It has been the cross which has revealed to good men that their goodness has not been good enough." --Johann Hieronymus Schroder

The Way

Jesus is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is He the best of several ways; He is the only way.

A.W. Tozer

The unlovable

God did not demand that we first demonstrate our allegiance to Him before Christ would agree to die in our place. To demand that we somehow show ourselves deserving of forgiveness in order to regain our status as His children would have been futile. What can ungodly, rebellious sinners offer God that would move the holy Creator of the universe to sacrifice His only Son on their behalf? So God acted first, motivated solely by his own sovereign love, to grant mercy to His people as the ultimate expression of His grace (Ex. 33:19; Isa. 63:7; Rom. 9:15-18; Eph. 2:4; Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:3). Christ died for us because the Father and the Son loved the unlovable.

Scott Hafemann

The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 125.

Enemy Mine

And as I looked upon that corpse [of Jesus], I heard a footstep, and wondered where it was. I listened, and I clearly perceived that the murderer was close at hand. It was dark, and I groped about to find him. I found that, somehow or other, wherever I put out my hand, I could not meet with him, for he was nearer to me than my hand would go. At last I put my hand upon my breast. “I have thee now,” said I; for lo! he was in my own heart! The murderer was hiding within my own bosom, dwelling in the recesses of my inmost soul. Ah! Then I wept indeed, that I, in the very presence of my murdered Master, should be harbouring the murderer, and I felt myself most guilty while I bowed over His corpse, and sang that plaintive hymn: “Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were; each of my crimes became a nail, and unbelief the spear.” My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned with thorns those bleeding brows. My sins cried, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” and laid the cross upon his gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity; but my having been His murderer is more, infinitely more grief, than one poor fountain of tears can express.

C.H. Spurgeon

Darkness

Take away the cross of Christ, and the Bible is a dark book.

J.C. Ryle

The Cross: A Call to the Fundamentals of Religion.

A mighty gulf

If Christ had not gone to the cross and suffered in our stead, the just for the unjust, there would not have been a spark of hope for us. There would have been a mighty gulf between ourselves and God, which no man ever could have passed.

J.C. Ryle

The Cross: A Call to the Fundamentals of Religion.

The undeserving

The repeated promises in the Qur'an of the forgiveness of a compassionate and merciful Allah are all made to the meritorious, whose merits have been weighed in Allah's scales, whereas the gospel is good news of mercy to the undeserving. 

John Stott

Authentic Christianity. Christianity Today, v. 41, n. 1..

Bach

"Like all music, the figured bass should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul; where this is not kept in mind there is no true music, but only an infernal clamour and ranting." --

Johann Sebastian Bach, quoted in Ludwig Prautzsch Bibel und Symbol in den Werken Bachs p. 7 [1]; translation from Albert Schweitzer (trans. Ernest Newman) J. S. Bach (New York: Dover, 1966) vol. 1, p. 167.