Quotes About Faith

For opposing this and similar moves, dedicated Catholics like Bishop John Fisher and Sir Thomas More would go to the block. For urging Henry on toward a more complete Reformation, dedicated Protestants like Robert Barnes and John Frith would join them.

In all of these ways, Wesley promoted a religious faith that resembled the forms of the Enlightenment, even though his purpose in doing so was Christian in a way that many proponents of the Enlightenment had abandoned.[115]

A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."[77]

By definition, the monastic way was designed precisely to allow creatures of the earth to rise toward a purer spirituality.

Although the thought has occurred to me regularly over the past two decades that, at least in the United States, it is simply impossible to be, with integrity, both evangelical and intellectual, this epistle is not a letter of resignation from the evangelical movement.

Evangelicals have been distinctive in featuring the crisis conversion. But what is essential to Christianity is the whole life committed to God, from the beginning of faith until death.

the cross the loftiest heights came down to the deepest depths; at the cross the hands of men pierced the hands that made humankind. There could be no greater mystery.

For where man's strength ends, God's strength begins, provided faith is present and waits on him. And when the oppression comes to an end, it becomes manifest what great strength was hidden under the weakness. Even so, Christ was powerless on the cross; and yet there he performed his mightiest work and conquered sin, death, world, hell, devil, and all evil. Thus all the martyrs were strong and overcame. Thus, too, all who suffer and are oppressed overcome.

We can sense the heart of Luther's concern about God if we begin with his public efforts at reform—with the Ninety-Five Theses that he displayed in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. The first of the ninety-five says simply: "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent,' he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." The last four theses carry us even closer to his main concern: 92.

Andrew Walls, "It is a delightful paradox that the more Christ is translated into the various thought forms and life systems which form our various national identities, the richer all of us will be in our common Christian identity."[155]

The Anabaptists' rejection of infant baptism and their insistence upon adult baptism after an individual profession of faith grew out of a desire to distinguish Christianity from state citizenship, as well as from a fresh interpretation of teaching about baptism in the New Testament.

Although it telescopes much history to put it this way, Chalcedon may be said to have marked the successful translation of the Christian faith out of its Semitic milieu (where words and concepts were shaped primarily by the revelation of the Old Testament) into the Hellenistic milieu (where words and concepts were shaped primarily by traditions of Greek thought and Roman might).

Because the work of Chalcedon faithfully translated scriptural teaching, the Hellenistic world could now express the wonders of God in its own conceptual language. Both synthesis and translation would need to happen again and again and again.

The heroes of the faith usually have feet of clay—sometimes thighs, hearts, and heads as well. The

The real cause for Paul's rejection of the 'works of the law' lies beyond both self-understanding and ethics. As we shall see, faith for Paul is the correlate to Christ's cross and resurrection. It is obedience to the promise of God fulfilled in that event (see e.g. Rom. 4:13–25). One is justified not because of a mere inward disposition, but because of Christ in whom God has atoned for sin and effected a new creation.

We have too many Christians out there who are strong on convictions but embarrass the name of Christ in how they relate to the world around them. At the same time, we have too many Christians who are remarkably civil, but you would have no idea what convictions they hold. We need both convictions and civility.

The phrase "convicted civility" refers to a balance between holding convictions as a Christian and communicating those convictions with civility.

We pray as if God's chief objective is our personal comfort. It's not. God's chief objective is His glory.

Many people never see God part the Jordan River in their lives because their feet are firmly planted on dry ground. We're waiting for God to make a move while God is waiting for us to make a move. We say to God, "Why don't you part this river?" And God says to us, "Why don't you get your feet wet?" But if you make a move, you'll see God move. And He can move heaven and earth.

You cannot build God's reputation if you aren't willing to risk yours.

Why do we act as though our sin disqualifies us from the grace of God? That is the only thing that qualifies us! Anything else is a self-righteous attempt to earn God's grace. You cannot trust God's grace 99 percent. It's all or nothing. The problem, as I pointed out earlier, is that we want partial credit for our salvation. We want to be 1 percent of the equation. But if we try to save ourselves, we forfeit the salvation that comes from Jesus Christ alone, by grace through faith.

Most God-ordained dreams die because we are not willing to do something that seems illogical

Sometimes the power of prayer is the power to carry on. It doesn't always change your circumstances, but it gives you the strength to walk through them. When you pray through, the burden is taken off of your shoulders and put on the shoulders of Him who carried the cross to Calvary.

The only God-ordained fear is the fear of God, and if we fear Him, we don't have to fear anyone or anything else.