Quotes from G C Berkouwer

Everything is really said in an unobtrusive phrase, in Christ ...Faith is not added as a second, independent ingredient which makes its own contribution to justification in Christ... faith does nothing but accept, or come to rest in the sovereignty of His benefit ... we are not acceptable to God because of the worthiness of our faith. Grace is exclusively and totally God's.

Ttheology is not practised apart from faith, prayer and adoration ... The whole subject matter of Christology is most intimately related to the secret of revelation ... the enlightenment of the eyes.

Faith looks away from itself to Christ ... sola fide (by faith alone) and sola gratia (by grace alone) ... mean the same thing ... let the sound of sola fide-sola gratia ring in the life of the Church. Let it be a warning against the pride of the treacherous heart.

Theology is not practised apart from faith, prayer and adoration ... The whole subject matter of Christology is most intimately related to the secret of revelation ... the enlightenment of the eyes.

In sanctification, there is never, under any circumstances, any room for self-pride or self-praise.

Faith involves a certain subjectivity, ... a subjectivity which has meaning only as it is bound to the gospel.

The object of Christology is not a purely theoretical knowledge but a profitable, wholesome knowledge of the salvation of God in Jesus Christ.

The grace of God is never the cause for glorying in one's own power ... Perseverance is always opposed to false self-confidence.

Bonhoeffer's emphasis on the deep this -worldliness of Christianity does not lead to de-eschatologizing the gospel.

The fundamental fact about baptism will always be its involvement with the death of Christ ... The prevenient aspect of the grace of God lies ... in the temporal priority of the cross of Christ with respect to the baptized person, whether child or adult.

The church's ... certainty is bound to certain norms and ... a feeling of subjective certainty does not guarantee irrefutable certainty ... it is not the certainty, but the truth in the certainty that makes us free ... there is a way of understanding Holy Scripture that does not estrange us from the gospel.

The "Nature Psalms" ... This understanding, and seeing, and hearing, is possible only ... in the enlightening of the eyes by the salvation of God ... But this seeing and hearing is not a projection of the believing subject, but an actual finding and seeing, and hearing! Here nothing is 'read into', but is only an understanding of the reality of revelation.

If theology is to speak adequately of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it must be thoroughly committed to hearing "the powerful witness of the 'tremendous' Word that always speaks against us so that we can learn to stop speaking against it.

The fundamental fact about baptism will always be its involvement with the death of Christ ... The prevenient aspect of the grace of God lies not in the temporal priority of the acts of God in baptism in comparison with the conscious acceptance of the divine promise, but in the temporal priority of the cross of Christ with respect to the baptized person, whether child or adult.

Men have tried to construct abstract and causal answers to this question of sin's origin and ... have violated the very limits of objectivity ... Whoever reflects on the origin of cannot engage himself in a merely theoretical dispute; rather he is engaged intimately, in ... the problem of sin's guilt.

Worthy partakers are those who confess their sins in self-abhorrence, humiliation, faith in God's promises, and gratefulness of heart. This is the 'worthiness' that belongs to the Lord'sSupper. It is not at all meritorious in nature, but is in complete harmony with what is signified and sealed in the Lord's Supper. It is a worthiness that coincides with a confession of'unworthiness' and with trust in the salvation of God.

Lord, will those who are saved be few?" ... Jesus' answer seems so noncommittal, so evasive ... Strive to enter by the narrow door (Luke 13:23f.) ... this evasiveness is only apparent ... This is the answer to this question ... this question has been answered, once for all time.

Reality and symbolism in the sacraments ... Only if we reject false dilemmas ... it will be possible to delve deeper, to discern the sovereign manner in which God stoops down to us, taking up simple earthly elements and using them for the affirmation and strengthening of our faith.

On the route of faith and action, along with hope, we see that the gospel we believe is far removed from the picture of a future without bearing on the present, a heavenly hope without concern for the neighbour and his world.

The authority of God's Word ... We must be aware of the dangers of an experience-theology ... We must be critical of the suggestion that all scriptural questions could possibly be solved by excluding them on the basis of a childlike faith ... We must warn against a subjectification of authority, which might only become reality through acknowledgment ... We must also speak of the unique authority which can only be acknowledged and experienced on the way.

Grace is at work even in fallen man ... to bend partially back in the right direction those human powers and endowments which were man left to himself would be wholly perverted.

Common grace ... an imperfect solution ... does centre our attention on the gracious act of God in protecting man's corrupt and apostate nature from total demonization.

The true nature of good works cannot be understood apart from Christ who is our 'sanctification' (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Sanctification is not the humanly operated successor to the divinely worked justification.