Quotes from Sidney Greidanus

When tempted to sin, I often repeat to myself two truths: holiness brings happiness, and purity brings power.

Is it possible, that is, to love God no matter what? Job, through three tough tests—the loss of his possessions and children, the loss of his health, and the loss of his friends and their respect—answers in the affirmative. Yes, it is possible. In fact, it is necessary

God is the highest Good of the reasonable creature; and the enjoyment of Him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. The church is the completeness of Christ, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all

Awareness of our helplessness and dependence makes us stand in awe before God.

Redemptive-historical interpretation seeks to understand an Old Testament passage first in its own historical-cultural context. Only after we have heard a passage the way Israel heard it can we move on to understand this message in the broad contexts of the whole canon and the whole of redemptive history. It is at this point that the questions concerning Jesus Christ, the center, emerge.

Fred Meuser writes, "Luther deeply loved Jesus - the beautiful, caring, human Jesus of the Gospels. Any sermon that failed somehow to hold up that Lord - whose love reached its pinnacle in his self-giving on the cross - so that others could be amazed, as he had been, and then be drawn to trust in the promises and find peace with God and with self, could not be described as preaching Christ."40

No other literature is subjected to such abuse, but practical commentaries will frequently cut biblical narratives into little pieces for the sake of attaching to these pieces some morals or other "relevant" applications.

This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father."122

Preaching Christ is not, of course, merely mentioning the name of Jesus or Christ in the sermon. It is not identifying Christ with Yahweh in the Old Testament, or the Angel of Yahweh, or the Commander of the Lord's army, or the Wisdom of God. It is not simply pointing to Christ from a distance or "drawing lines to Christ" by way of typology.

If the church addressed is selfishly enjoying the prosperity of the nation and has lost sight of the universal battle, one can apply this passage to urge God's people to get involved in the battle against the evil one in our day and age. If the church addressed is engaged in the battle but is relying on its own strength, one can urge God's people to allow God to work through them, for God fights the battle by empowering his servants.

obeyed as King over all the earth."75 According to the clear expectation of the Old Testament, God's kingdom (reign) would be returning to this earth. Did Jesus change this expectation from earth to heaven? A clearer translation of Jesus' words to Pilate is, "My kingdom is not from this world" (John 18:36, NRSV), implying that Jesus' kingdom originates in heaven. But Jesus continues the Old Testament expectation that the kingdom of heaven (= kingdom of God) is coming to this earth.

The chief and fundamental thing in the Gospel is this, that before you take Christ as your example, you recognize and accept Him as God's gift to you; so that when you see or hear Him in any of His work or suffering, you do not doubt but believe that He, Christ Himself, with such work or suffering of His, is most truly your very own, whereon you may rely as confidently as if you had done that work....