“We will of course need doctrine that arises from the Scriptures in order to help us understand what the Spirit just did for us. But if the Spirit didn’t actually do anything, then our systematic theologies are nothing but printed kits for organizing smoke. If the Spirit didn’t do anything, then any religious frenzies, conducted …
And We All Need Jesus
“So we need to come to grips with the fact that in North America, the bride of Christ is a hot mess. We live in a time when the charismatics need the Spirit, the Reformed need a reformation, and the evangelicals need to be born again” (Against the Church, pp. 7-8).
The Ultimate Iconoclast
“God is the ultimate iconoclast, and God told His angels to begin at His sanctuary [Ezek. 9:6-7], and He told them to get in there and defile it” (Against the Church, p. 3).
Tactile Temptations
“The fact that we have mastered the art of identifying idols that we have forged in our minds and hearts does not mean at all that we have repented of forging them out of metals we dug from the ground” (Against the Church, p. 2).
We Still Like the Graven Part
“The modern man, ever since Descartes, has liked making idols out of intellectual abstractions . . . While abstractions make fine idols, it would be a grave mistake to think that modern men are somehow immune from the age-old pitfalls presented by various concrete idolatries. We like candles and graven images almost as much as …
Sun Rising
“Christ was born at night, and His arrival was the arrival of the morning star . . . He is the one who was born at night, and His birth was the arrival of the morning star. It is important for us to allow Scripture to tell us what time it is. If you did …
Christ For Us
“Irenaeus refers to this as recapitulation. British theologian N.T. Wright calls the Lord’s life work in this the reconstitution of Israel. Classic Reformed theology calls it the active obedience of Christ. What it means, simply, is Christ for us. In your salvation, you were not given a fraction of Christ, but rather were given all …
Showing the Way
“He stooped — the ultimate Word became a single cell, and then a cluster of cells, and then visibly a baby, although still less than a pound, and then a child who kicked his mother from inside, delighting her immeasurably. He became a little child, and then, years later, He told us to copy Him …
The Great Stooping
“He, the eternal Word, the one who spoke the galaxies into existence, was willing to become a little baby boy who could do nothing but jabber, and in that jabbering, make glad his mother and earthly father. He, the source of all life and all nourishment for that life, was willing to be breastfed. He, …
Which Cannot Be Done
“Man in his sinful condition does not want to be saved. That is part of what it means to be a sinner. This means that man wants, by various strategies, to put himself out of God’s reach” (God Rest Ye Merry, p. 45).