Reformed, Book Reading, Apple Loving, Beverage Snob, 22 Year-Old Husband, In Need of Grace.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
The human will does not attain grace through its freedom, but rather attains its freedom through grace…
Augustine, On Reprimand and Grace
Inasmuch, then, as strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9), whoever does not own himself to be weak, is not in the way to be perfected.
Augustine, Anti-Pelagian Writings
Just as the soul is the whole life of the body, God is the happy life of the soul.
Augustine, On the Free Choice of the Will
Infinite and yet an infant.
Eternal and yet born of a woman.
Almighty, and yet nursing at a woman’s breast.
Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms.
Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son.
C.H. Spurgeon
Christianity not only leads its members to believe people of other faiths have goodness and wisdom to offer, it also leads them to expect that many will live lives morally superior to their own. Most people believe that, if there is a God, we can relate to him and go to heaven through leading a good life. Let’s call this the “moral improvement” view. Christianity teaches the very opposite. In the Christian understanding, Jesus does not tell us how to live so we can merit salvation. Rather, he comes to forgive and save us through his live and death in our place. God’s grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge their need for savior.
Christians, then, should expect to find nonbelievers who are much nicer, kinder, wiser, and better than they are. Why? Christian believers are not accepted by God because of their moral performance, wisdom, or virtue, but because of Christ’s work on their behalf. Most religions and philosophies of life assume that one’s spiritual status depends on your religious attainments. This naturally leads adherents to feel superior to those who don’t believe and behave as they do. The Christian Gospel, in any case, should not have that effect.
Tim Keller, The Reason For God
And when it says ‘all your heart, all your soul, all your mind,’ it leaves no part of our life free from this obligation, no part free as it were to back out and enjoy some other thing; any other object of love that enters the mind should be swept towards the same destination as that to which the whole flood of our love is directed.
-St. Augustine, On Christian Teaching (De Doctrina Christiana)
Even though reason and will can sometimes suppress desire and lust, these are in turn often subdued and put into the service of lust… The heart is so subtle that it can even deceive the understanding head.
Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith
The moment philosophy deduces a principle for the conduct of life from its world view, it tries to open up a way to redemption in the knowledge of the mind, the moral deeds of the will, and the experiences of the heart.
Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith
He put an end to the law of death which barred our way; and He made a new beginning of life for us, by giving us the hope of resurrection. By man death has gained its power over men; by the Word made Man death has been destroyed and life raised up anew.
St. Athanasius
