Quotes About Jesus

Faith is a matter of the will as much as it is of the intellect. I wanted to believe in Jesus. My friend wanted to believe in himself. In spite of how convincing my reason was, my reason was not compelling.

If we learn from the Gospel of Luke how to read the OT, we will see that the whole story of Israel builds to a narrative climax in the story of Jesus. In

Action flows from character, but character is not so much a matter of innate disposition as of training in the ways of righteousness. Those who respond to Jesus' preaching and submit to his instruction will find themselves formed in a new way so that their actions will, as it were, "naturally" be wise and righteous.

where the Torah restricts retaliation, Jesus forbids it altogether.

To define the unborn child as a nonperson is to narrow the scope of moral concern, whereas Jesus calls upon us to widen it by showing mercy and actively intervening on behalf of the helpless. The Samaritan is a paradigm of love that goes beyond ordinary obligation and thus creates a neighbor relation where none existed before.

For the church, it is perhaps important to know that the obedience of faith was lived out in history by the flesh-and-blood man Jesus, for his example teaches us that to trust in the power of God over history is not to trust in vain.

God overcomes the world not through a show of force but through the suffering and death of Jesus, "the faithful witness [martys]" (1:5).

Mark nowhere explicitly interprets Jesus' death as an act of "love." The way of the cross is simply the way of obedience to the will of God, and discipleship requires following that way regardless of cost or consequences.

Not only is the charge false that Jesus sponsors antinomianism, but in fact he demands a standard of legal obedience more stringent than that of the scribes and Pharisees, who merely require a minimal outward adherence to the literal sense of the Law.

The temptation to project upon the figure of Jesus our own notions of the ideal religious personality is nearly irresistible.

To use Matthew's own language, turning the other cheek makes sense if and only if it really is true that the meek will inherit the earth, if and only if it really is true that those who act on Jesus' words have built their house on a rock so that it will stand in the day of judgment. Turning the other cheek makes sense if and only if all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus.

Jesus' death on the cross is not an accident or an injustice that befell him; it is, rather, an act of sacrifice freely offered for the sake of God's people.

The New Testament has a normative role in Christian theology and ethics that is different from the Old Testament's role. We do not have a simple, undifferentiated canon running from Genesis to Revelation. The claim that Jesus' death and resurrection is the central decisive act of God for the salvation of humankind means that the cross becomes the hermeneutical center for the canon as a whole. Thus, within the canon the New Testament has a privileged hermeneutical function.

one cannot become a follower of Jesus in this Gospel's narrative world without surrendering a position of privilege.

The value of our exegesis and hermeneutics will be tested by their capacity to produce persons and communities whose character is commensurate with Jesus Christ and thereby pleasing to God.22

While the Pharisees turned ordinary meals into a practice of ritual holiness, Jesus turned ordinary meals into a practice of the coming of God's kingdom.

Truth is the reality we see when all the illusions and delusions of sin are dispelled by the word of God. To get past all the seductive images of the good life that contemporary society constructs for us with such consummate expertise, to see beyond them to the real truth of things, is liberation ... Truth is personal, and what liberates is the encounter with the reality of things in the person of Jesus who reflects his Father's divinity and models true humanity.

Thereafter, the enduring form of God's presence with his people is as the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, present and active within believers.

At the outset of Jesus's ministry God tore apart the curtain of the heavens in order to come down and be present and active in Jesus. At Jesus's death he tore apart the curtain in the temple in order to come out and be present and active through Jesus in the world at large.

Thomas has privileged information about the health status of Jesus in the period after the crucifixion

John the Baptist set an ideal example of this. His message was not about his experiences or what he felt about God, but about Jesus. When

There is no other light other than Jesus that can lead to true joy now or to eternal life in days to come; not money, adventure, or success; not the pride of morality; not the pleasure of sin. The only true light is Jesus Christ, and God in His grace sent Him into this world to be our Savior.

Sometimes, when doctrinal explanations have failed to move a sinner's heart, a biblical portrait of Jesus' beautiful love will bring him or her to salvation.

You may think that you are just one "voice" and that your witness doesn't matter. But if Jesus is the Word your voice brings - and if He is living in you and you know Him - then your witness is mighty to cast down strongholds and lead dying sinners to salvation.