Quotes from Thomas R. Schreiner

Faith doesn't transport us to paradise immediately because we still struggle with sin. "Thus a Christian man is righteous and a sinner at the same time, holy and profane, an enemy of God and a child of God.

Some pastors believe in divine sovereignty but do not think that the doctrine should be preached, since it is controversial. This is a tragic mistake, for it provides strength to the people of God and was revealed for our good.

Wherefore it ought to be the first concern of every Christian to lay aside all confidence in works and grow in the knowledge, not of works, but of Christ Jesus, who suffered and rose for him." — ?Martin Luther

They were freed from oppression and misery in a most astonishing and unexpected way. They walked away free from one of the great superpowers of ancient history and never forgot it. When we get to the prophets, we will see that when the nation languished, the prophets promised them a new exodus. The Lord would deliver them again as he had in the past. The exodus, then, became the paradigm, a type, of the Lord's redeeming love. The story of the exodus, then, was not merely history.

Indeed, in this ordinance, the whole of what Christianity means is expressed: one Lord Jesus Christ, incarnate, atoning, and triumphant as the sum and substance of the observance. Without

They were to be priest-kings in God's creation as sons of God.

If I could sum up the problems at the outset, Wright tends to introduce false dichotomies, presenting an either – or when there is a both – and instead. To put it more sharply, even when he sees a both – and, he at times puts the emphasis in the wrong place, seeing the secondary as primary and the primary as secondary.

Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

God shatters our self-confidence and self-righteousness, so that we will put our faith in Jesus Christ. Luther goes on to say that "hunger is the best cook. As the dry earth thirsts for rain, so the Law makes the troubled heart thirst for Christ. To such hearts Christ tastes sweetest, to them He is joy, comfort, and life. Only then are Christ and His work understood correctly.

The Lord's Supper is a testimony from God of His love for us, not our religious devotion to Him.

The Lord's sovereignty over Israel is not an abstract concept. He speaks to the will of Israel, summoning its people to follow him.

Believers are no longer minors, living in the old age of redemptive history, slaves under the tyranny of sin. They have now reached full adulthood as God's sons. They have been redeemed from the law and have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Since they are sons, they are also heirs. The promises of Abraham are theirs.

It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone: just as the heat alone of the sun which warms the earth, and yet in the sun it is not alone, because it is constantly conjoined with light.

The famous verses in Romans 12:1–2 warn us against being conformed to this world. How can we resist the pressures of this world? By being transformed by the renewal of our minds!

We guard the truth because we cherish it, and we cherish the truth because it is our life. When

John Piper refers in a sermon to a poem of John Bunyan that beautifully captures the difference between the law and the gospel:48 Run, John, run, the law commands But gives us neither feet nor hands, Far better news the gospel brings: It bids us fly and gives us wings.

We have seen that the early church fathers didn't have clarity on justification by faith alone. At the same time, they didn't blatantly deny the truth as Trent did. It is one thing to be fuzzy or inconsistent regarding a truth in the Scriptures, but it is quite another thing to explicitly deny it altogether. Neuhaus

The Reformation happened for a reason! Still, the danger for many Protestants is to assume that the church had little to no understanding of the Pauline gospel for its first 1,500 years. Such a judgment is a gross exaggeration.

The law, which preceded Christ's coming, revealed the power and depth of human sin, and thus the greatness of the redemption accomplished in Christ Jesus is set in bold relief.

But when we rise to the heavenly tribunal and place before our eyes that supreme Judge . . . then in an instant the vain confidence of men perishes and falls and conscience is compelled . . . to confess that it has nothing upon which it can rely before God." — Francis Turretin