"...Paul here sets forth the only polarity that is of ultimate importance: he distinguishes between those who are perishing and those who are being saved. The dividing line between these two groups is the message of the cross...(1 Cor. 1:18-21)." (pg. 14)
"...the demand for signs becomes the prototype of every condition human beings raise as a barrier to being open to God. I will devote myself to this God if he heals my child. I will follow this Jesus if I can maintain my independence." (pg. 21)
"We depend on plans, programs, vision statements - but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning." (pg. 26)
"The only thing of transcendent importance to human beings is the knowledge of God." (pg. 32)
"When the pressure to 'contextualize' the gospel jeopardizes the message of the cross by inflating human egos, the cultural pressures must be ignored." (pg. 34)
"...the possibility of knowing God and of understanding his ways does not belong to any human being as an essential component of his or her being. The distance is too great; our self-centeredness is too deep. ... What is required, then, is revelation." (pg. 53)
"...truly grasping the truth of the cross and being transformed cannot be separated - and both are utterly dependent on the work of the Spirit." (pg. 65)
"If the church is being built with large portions of charm, personality, easy oratory, positive thinking, managerial skills, powerful and emotional experiences, and people smarts, but without the repeated, passionate, Spirit-anointed proclamation of 'Jesus Christ and him crucified,' we may be winning more adherents than converts." (pg. 80)
"The way of destroying the church are many and colorful. Raw factionalism will do it. Rank heresy will do it. Taking your eyes off the cross and letting other, more peripheral matters dominate the agenda will do it - admittedly more slowly than frank heresy, but just as effectively on the long haul." (pg. 83)
"...what is required in some sense of all believers is peculiarly required of the leaders of believers. There is a difference of degree." (pg. 95)
"...a leader's ultimate allegiance must not be to the church, or to any individual leader or tradition. It must be to the Lord alone and to the 'secret things of God' he has entrusted to him or her." (pg. 98)
"Leaders in the church suffer the most. They are not like generals in the military who stay behind the lines." (pg. 108)
"Strong Christians may be right on a theological issue, but unless they voluntarily abandon what is in fact their right they will do damage to the church and thus 'sin against Christ' (1 Cor. 8:12). To stand on your rights may thus involve you in sin after all - not the sin connected with your rights (there, after all, you are right!), but the sin of lovelessness, the sin of being unwilling to forgo your rights for the spiritual and eternal good of others." (pg. 125)
D. A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1993, 2003)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment