“The Spirit, when He moves, will not be like a little zephyr, stirring the gauzy curtains of our theological library. His moving will be more like a massive thunderhead, silver on the top and utterly black on the bottom, coming in from the west, and looking to soak absolutely everybody” (Against the Church, p. 202).
Intention Unmediated
“The distinction between the two was the love of God for Jacob and the hatred of God for Esau — the distinction was in God’s intention, and God’s intention is not mediated. The intention drives the mediation, not the other way around . . . The fact that the gift of faith is not inexorably …
When God Gives the Increase
“The Spirit’s work does not come through the means (the sermon, the sacrament) like water through a garden hose. Rather, the Spirit’s anointing is given on account of the means . . . He meets us where He promised He would, in the Word and in the sacrament” (Against the Church, p. 193).
Lots of Potential
“When the surgeon is gone from the hospital, his instruments are lined up in the drawer, full of potential” (Against the Church, p. 192).
A Real Guarantee
“One of the things we should not want to find ourselves doing is to affirm that God is like that manufacturer who issues a ‘lifetime guarantee’ for His products, and then when it breaks and you take it in, you discover that the guarantee was for the lifetime of the product, which apparently ended at …
The Crown of Grace
“To think that having ‘all grace’ except for persevering grace is somehow reassuring is to have a wildly skewed sense of priorities. ‘Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?’ How is God’s withholding of perseverance not a refusal of grace? If we say that the grace was forfeited by those who subjectively resisted …
Whose Interpretation Is Being Gored
“A hermeneutical rule of thumb (and quite a good one, I might add) is that unclear verses should be interpreted in the light of the clear ones. But however wise this is — and it is wise — we also have to distinguish between verses which are unclear, and verses that are excruciatingly clear but …
Echoing Scripture
“Not only do we speak biblically when we call the baptismal font the laver of regeneration (which it certainly is), we also speak biblically when we say of multitudes who have been presented at that very same font, that they are vipers, sons of the devil, unwashed pigs, whitewashed tombs, blind guides, tares planted by …
And the Organ Music . . .
“We might be accused of leaving the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, and if we are accused of this, we might reply that the marble floors, the guttering candles, and all the dead bodies had started to creep us out” (Against the Church, p. 180).
Just a Good Idea
“This is life in the visible church, and I really think our discussions of clerical garb should always start with the muck boots” (Against the Church, p. 178).