Gospel Quotes

I love these quotes on the Gospel. A common theme that ties them all together is this: "[G]ood news cannot be properly understood unless the bad news is fully realized." I found them at Reformed Voices.

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"Men are not turning to Christ because they have no sense of sinning against the Lord. They are not convicted of sin because they don't know what sin is. They have no concept of sin because the law of God is not being preached. You cannot improvise a hasty sop, 'All men have sinned.' You must dwell on the subject at length. Exposit the ten commandments until men are slain thereby [Romans 7:11]. When you see that men have been wounded by the law, then it is time to pour in the balm of Gospel oil. It is the sharp needle of the law that makes way for the scarlet thread of the Gospel." ~Walter Chantry, Today's Gospel Authentic or Synthetic

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"The New Testament continues the testimony to the radical depravity of man. In fact, when Paul seeks to present a systematic argument for the gospel to the Romans, he does not begin with 'Jesus loves you' or 'God has a wonderful plan for your life.' Showing that he would fail almost every evangelism class currently offered in seminaries in our land, Paul begins with a dreadfully long discussion of the universal sinfulness of man. Without a single poem, no funny illustrations or multimedia aids, the inspired Apostle drags on about the sinfulness of men, Jew and Gentile alike. It is no wonder this section is so little preached in our day. But might it just be that good news cannot be properly understood unless the bad news is fully realized? Such would seem to be the case."~James R. White, The Potter's Freedom

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"The cross is not a sign of our great worth, but of our great depravity... that we were so evil that the only way we could be saved is by God's Son being crushed under the full force of the wrath that was due us." ~Paul Washer

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"That's one of the ways in which the self-esteem movement works against the message of the gospel. The prevailing emphasis of our culture is to tell people that what's wrong with them is that they feel bad about themselves. If they will just feel better about themselves, they can be cured of anything.

But the Bible says you'll never feel good about yourself until you learn first to feel bad about yourself. When you realize how bad things really are, then you are in a position to learn how to feel truly good. Then it won't be about you, but about the One who died to forgive your great debt so that you, in turn, can be a debt forgiver to others around you.

Anytime I harbor animosity toward anyone, it is because I have diminished my sense of the debt I owe to the living God."~Alistair Begg