CHRISTIANITY & CULTURE

'We do not need more political, moral, and cultural crusades. Instead, what we need are "salty" Christians whose robust faith and discipleship shape the way they think, live, and exercise their gifts, training and wisdom in their callings. We do not need more churches called to active duty in the culture wars. What we need are more churches that are resalinization instead of desalinization plants, churches that are dedicated to making disciples who are not only forgiven and renewed in Christ but also well taught and actually active in the world - in their families, neighbourhoods, schools, workplaces, and volunteer organizations, loving their neighbors through their vocational excellence as well as through their witness to Christ.'

Michael Horton, The Great Commission, p.242.  

CHURCH

'...the resalinization plant for the people of God...'
Michael Horton, The Great Commission, p.227.

KNOWLEDGE

'It's possible to have "head knowledge" without "heart knowledge," but it's impossible to have the latter without the former.'

Michael Horton, The Great Commission, p.187.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

'There is no doctrinal proposition or spiritual programe that will conform us to the image of Christ. The gospel must transform us over a lifetime of quite ordinary and sometimes even plodding habits that we cannot always even articulate.'

Michael Horton, The Great Commission, p.158.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

'Drama, doctrine, discipleship: these are the aspects of our high calling that must be integrated. Conservatives may be tempted to abstract the doctrine from its dramatic narrative, doxological practice and discipleship. Much of evangelical worship over the last generation has focused on praise without adequate grounding in the drama, doctrine, of discipleship. And now the current emphasis on discipleship is threatened by an inadequate grounding in these other important aspects of Christian maturity.'

Michael Horton, The Great Commission, p.143.  

THE GOSPEL

'The gospel is the strangest thing we will ever hear - or tell. And if it isn't true for all of us, then it isn't true for any of us.'

Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission, p.113.

CHRISTIANITY & CULTURE

'Lazy minds breed lazy hearst and hands. The greatest threat to Christianity is never vigorous intellectual critcism but a creeping senility that transforms truths into feelings, public claims into private experiences, and afcts into mere values.'

Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission, p.112.

HUMILITY

'It is arrogant to assert, "I found it!" or to give the impression that we are better people or that we have the truth. It is is arrogant to suggest that we are saved by belonging to the right group and performing the right rituals. However, the gospel announces that God has found us - sinners - while we were running from him. The door is wide open to all sinners. There is no path from us to God. However, God has found a path to us in his Son. We are not testifying to our moral, intellectual, or spiritual superiority. On the contrary, we are procliaming the God of grace who saves sinners. Precisley because the gospel is Good News for sinners and not a good plan for good people and groups, it is not something for which we can assume any pride.'  

Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission, p.103.

JESUS VS. PAUL

'Besides revealing a seriously deficient view of Scripture, this contrast between Jesus and Paul rests on a misunderstanding of our Lord's teaching concerning the kingdom. Jesus's proclamation of the kingdom is identitical to Paul's proclamation of the gospel of justification. Contrasting the kingdom with the church is another way of saying that the main point of Jesus's commission consists in our social action rather than the public ministry of the Word and sacrament. In other words, it's another way of saying that we are building the kingdom rather than receiving it; that the kingdom of God's redeeming garce is actually a kingdom of our redeeming works.'

Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission, p.75.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

'How we define the kingdom will have a lot to do with whether we think it is already here and, if so, to what extent. Forgivenness of sins and the new birth are not the only things that God promised through the prophets. As we have seen, it includes a sweeping cosmic renewal, with the kingdoms of the world under the domain of Christ. It is the salvation not just of souls but of bodies, and not just of human beings but of the whole creation. Yet the New Testamnet teaches that this kingdom arrives in two phases. Like its head, the church suffers now in humiliation, under the cross, in order in order to reign in future glory with Christ (Rom.8:17). In this intermission, the kingdom is the gospel and the gospel is the kingdom. Wherever Christ is forgiving and renewing sinners by his Spirit through the ministry of the gosple, the King is present and his kingdom is expanding.

This view focuses most clearly on the character and message of the kingdom that we find in the prophets and the Gospels. In both alternatives accounts of the kingdom mentioned above, the emphasis falls on a gepolitical regime, whether it is in terms of a revived theocracy in Israel (including sacrifices) or an ever-expanding, gobal influence on nations and cultures. Both views identify the kingdom with visible power and glory, overlooking the fact that what we have now is a kingdom of grace that is present wherever the gospel is preached and the sacraments are administered. The preoccupation, in both views, seems to be analogous to the expectation of Jesus's contemporaries (even his disciples) prior to Pentecost.'

Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission, p.65.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

'The Great Commission is given to the church for this time between his first and second comings. It is an intermission between his accomplishment of redemption and his return to consumate its blessings. However, this intermission isn't a time for loitering in the lobby as consumers; it is a time of joyful activity on behalf of our neighbors: loving and serving them through our witness to Christ and also through our daily callings in the world.'

Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission, p.63.

THE GOSPEL

'The gospel promises far more than going to heaven when you die. It is an all-encompassing pledge from God for the total renewal of creation. It involves the resurrection of our bodies and the liberation of the whole of creation from its bondage to sin and death.'

Michael Horton , The Gospel Commission, p.32.

JESUS & REDEMPTION

'Jesus Christ did not make it possible for us to be saved. He did not begin a work of redemption. He did not do "his part" so that we could do ours. Rather, Jesus Christ has accomplished everything. He has assumed our flesh. He has fulfilled all righteousness in our place and has borne the judgment for every one of our sins as our substitute. And he has been raised as the firstfruits of a whole harvest, the beginning of the resurrection from the dead. There is no more redeeming work to be done!'

Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission, p.29.

CHRISTIANITY & CULTURE

'In many ways our era is more similar to the first-century context than it is to any period since the Constantinian fusion of Christ and culture in "Christendom." On the one hand, the gospel is spreading in many places around the world, despite the imminent threat of persecution and martyrdom. On the other hand, like a lot of Christians in the first-century Roman Empire, most believers in Europe and North America face disapproval, distarction, and disbelief more than martyrdom. We are threatened more by a broad cultural sentiment against strong truth claims that might upset the vague spirituality that holds the empire together than by secret police.'

Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission, p.17.

THE CHURCH

'Like any family, churches can be embassies of grace or prisons - and much in between.'

Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission: Recovering God's Startegy for Making Disciples, p.10.

JESUS

'...those two words that deserve their own verse: "Jesus wept" (John 11:35).'

Michael S Horton, 'Death's Sting Is Removed but Its Bite Remains' in Nancy Guthrie (Ed.), O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, p.22.

SUFFERING

'...upon meeting Jesus she reiterates the charge "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." (John 11:32). Mary is not to be blamed here, but to be respected for having brought her doubts as well as her faith to her Savior. Living in denial of tragedy, too many Christians live schizophrenic spiritual lives: outwardly smiling and brimming with trust and joy, but inwardly filled with doubts and anger. They often do not know where to turn, but Mary, like Job and the psalmist, says, "To God, of course." Bring him your doubts, frustration, even anger. He can handle it. Remember the cross and God-forsakeness of the Beloved: God, too, knows how to sing the blues.'

Michael S Horton, 'Death's Sting Is Removed but Its Bite Remains' in Nancy Guthrie (Ed.), O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, p.22.