NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME

'It avails nothing that a man is clever, learned, highly gifted, amiable, charitable, kind-hearted, and zealous about some sort of religion. All this will not his soul, if he does not draw near to God by Christ's atonement, and make use of God's own Son as his Mediator and Saviour. God is so holy that all men are guilty and debtors in his sight. Sin is so sinful that no mortal man can make satisfaction for it. There must be a mediator, a ransom-payer, a redeemer, between ourselves and God, or else we can never be saved. There is only one door, one bridge, one ladder, between earth and heaven, - the crucified Son of God. Whosoever will enter in by that door may be saved; but to him who refuses to use that door the Bible holds out no hope at all.'

JC Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John: Volume 3, p.67. 

WHY THE REFORMERS STRESSED PREDESTINATION

'The reason that all the Reformers foregrounded predestination in the way that they do is because they're arguing against the idea, prevalent then, that the church had the means of salvation - that if you do thus and so, you will be saved. The Reformers believed that the church had put a certain ritualized idea of salvation in the place of God. And to move people back toward the idea of omnipotence, divine omnipotence, the Reformers sought to end what they saw as perhaps a corrupt cycle of spending money, doing things that were intended as acts which would insure your salvation. And so, the doctrine of predestination really is a way of making the argument that it is God that determines these issues and not any human institution.' 

Marilynne Robinson in Timothy Larsen and Keith L Johnson, Balm in Gilead: A Theological Dialogue with Marilynne Robinson, p.210.

EVANGELICAL INDIVIDUALISM

'I noted earlier the evangelical declaration that "it is well with my soul," and insisted that this is an important and profoundly expression of Christian assurance. But it is not enough. It is a central confession, but it is a central confession; it is not a full expression of Christian assurance. The God who declares here and now that it is "well" with my soul is the same creating Lord who once looked at the whole world he had made and proclaimed, "This is good." This God wants once again to say that things are "well" with his entire creation - and he will someday do so when he announces: "Behold, I make all things new...It is done! I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end'" (Rev.21:5-6). "It is well with my soul" is only a first step, an initial fruit of God's redeeming activity. We must share in God's restless yearning for the renewal of the cosmos.' 

Richard J Mouw, When the Kings Come Marching In, p.110. 

THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST

'...in God's plan humanity saves itself. For muddy images mired in sin and misery, into the depths of humanity's tragedy and Israel's carnage, God sent a true human, the perfect participant in God's work and God's story. 

Jesus came to share or clay and restore our royalty. He is the human who brings humanity back to God and the world back to humanity.' 

Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.57. 

SALVATION

'Salvation is the fuller and more biblical sense is sharing in ever deepening measure in the life of the triune God: participating in and enjoying, by and in the Holy Spirit, Jesus' joyous experience of his Father's love. Our experience of salvation is one of being "invited into the circle" of the love, joy and peace that the Father, Son and Spirit have enjoyed amongst themselves from all eternity.'

John Jefferson Davis, Meditation and Communion with God, p.54.

THEOLOGY

'Athanasius' tenacity is asking the biblical question, "How can one be saved?" kept all theological speculation tied to the essential act of God in Christ.'

C FitzSimmons Allison, The Cruelty of Heresy, p.89.

SIN & SALVATION

'The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man sustituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.' 

John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p.188.

SIN

'Sin is not simply an action you do or fail to do, that you can choose to do or not to do. Sin is a power that holds you in its grip. That is precisely what the apostle meant when he averred that all - both Jew and Gentile, both religious man and pagan man - are "under sin" (Rom. 3:9), by which he means "under the power of sin" (RSV). And until the church gets a proper view of sin, we will never see salvation as much more than a moving religious charade rather than as an act of holy, vicious violence by which Christ wrenches his people out of the clammy clutches of the prince of darkness (cf. 1 John 3:8).'

Dale Ralph Davis, Judges: Such a Great Salvation, p.43.

SALVATION

'When the eighth commandment says, "Thou shalt not steal," it doesn't mention my name. It doesn't say that John Frame should not steal. Does that mean that I am free to take your wallet? Well, of course not. Because "Thou shalt not steal" means "Everybody should not steal" or "Nobody should steal." That includes John Frame. So, although my name is not in the text explicitly, the text applies to me, which is to say that my name is there implicitly. The same is true with the promises of salvation. God promises salvation to everybody who believes. If you believe, then that promise is yours. God promises to save you. And that promise is infallible, certain. You dare not doubt it.'

John Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord, p.218.