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You are here: Home / Archives for In His Own Words: The Real Jesus

In His Own Words: The Real Jesus

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When the Risen Lord Calls Your Name

April 1, 2018 | David Speakman

“Arise, arise;
And with His burial-linen dry thine eyes:
Christ left His grave-clothes, that we might, when grief
Draws tears, or blood, not want an handkerchief.”

—George Herbert, from ‘The Dawning” in Herbert: Poems, 131.

“I find that Holy Week is draining; no matter how many times I have lived through his crucifixion, my anxiety about his resurrection is undiminished – I am terrified that, this year, it won’t happen; that, that year, it didn’t. Anyone can be sentimental about the Nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don’t believe in the resurrection, you’re not a believer.”

—John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany

“I have come to feel that the primary reality of which we have to take account in seeking for a Christian impact on public life is the Christian congregation. How is it possible that the gospel should be credible, that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross? I am suggesting that the only answer, the only hermeneutic of the gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it. I am, of course, not denying the importance of the many activities by which we seek to challenge public life with the gospel– evangelistic campaigns, distribution of Bibles and Christian literature, conferences, and even books such as this one. But I am saying that these are all secondary, and that they have power to accomplish their purpose only as they are rooted in and lead back to a believing community.”

—Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 227.

Jesus: Lord at Thy Death

March 25, 2018 | Ethan Smith

“The secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: ‘I’m the Messiah.’ I’m saying: ‘I am God incarnate.’ And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the ‘M’ word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah.”

—Bono in conversation with Michka Assayas

“What will he do when he comes as judge, who did this when giving himself up to be judged? What will his power be like when he comes to reign, who had this kind of power when he came to die?”

—Augustine of Hippo

“I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her finger tips
It burned like fire
This burning desire …
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”

—U2

Baptized Into the Name

March 18, 2018 | Tim Keller

“A sacrament is an outward sign by which the Lord seals on our consciences the promises of His good will towards us in order to sustain the weakness of our faith, and we in turn attest our piety toward Him in the presence of the Lord and of His angels and before men . . . A sacrament is never without a preceding promise but it is joined to it as a sort of appendix, with the purpose of confirming and sealing the promise itself, and of making it more evident to us and in a sense ratifying it.  By this means God provides first for our ignorance and dullness, then for our weakness … as our faith is slight and feeble unless it be propped [up] on all sides and sustained by every means, it trembles, wavers, totters, and at last gives way.”

—John Calvin

“Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness.”

—Galway Kinnell

Q: What is baptism?
A: Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.

—Westminster Shorter Catechism 94

Jesus: the Way, the Truth, and the Life

March 11, 2018 | David Speakman

“We believe that all religions are basically the same.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of
Creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation . . .
We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him.
We believe there is no absolute truth,
except the truth that there is no absolute truth.
We believe in the rejection of creeds,
and the flowering of individual thought.”

—Steve Turner


“The uniqueness of Christ is not a peripheral teaching of the Christian faith. If we lose our sense of absolute dependence on what Jesus did, it will erode away the whole of the faith until little remains. But equally important to holding to the uniqueness of Christ is not acting arrogant or superior to those who do not agree or who are not Christians. Nothing so quickly discredits this biblical claim than if we make it without love, or in pride, defensiveness, conceit, or if we refuse to discuss it at all . . . This introduces the important issue that part of the persuasiveness of the Christian faith includes factors that are not, strictly speaking, cognitive – a point too often neglected in discussions of apologetics. It raises the matter of who we are as we try to defend the truth of God and persuade others. What looms large is our own character, the quality of our love, and our ability to relate to other people with both courage and sensitivity.”

—Dick Keyes


“There is no other stream.”

—Aslan, The Silver Chair

Jesus: the Resurrection and the Life

March 4, 2018 | David Speakman

“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross.’ In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ … is God’s only self-justification in such a world” as ours….’ ‘The other gods were strong; but thou wast weak; they rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but thou alone.”

—John Stott

“Who is to say which is more incredible – a man who raises the dead or a God who weeps?”

—Ken Gire

“Behind every agonizing “No” from God is his “Yes” to something better, his “Trust Me” with the timing, and his “I AM with you right now”.

—Walter Henegar

Jesus: the Good and Beautiful Shepherd

February 25, 2018 | David Speakman

“Being confident of the goodness of the Lord shouldn’t be confused with an assumption that because God is good, he will give me the things I have set my heart on. In his grace, God is freeing you from the small confines of your little definition of what is good so that you can experience the huge and satisfying good that he has planned for you . . . This is the bottom line. The good that God promises me isn’t a situation, possession, position, or relationship. The good that he promises me is himself. What could possibly be a better gift?”

—Paul Tripp

“The LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

—Psalm 84:11

“Savior, like a shepherd lead us,
Much we need Thy tender care;
In Thy pleasant pastures feed us,
For our use Thy folds prepare:
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are;
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.”

—Dorothy Thrupp

Jesus: the Door of the Sheep

February 18, 2018 | David Speakman

“There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all.”

—Charles Spurgeon

“If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death, and he sent us a Savior.”

—D. A. Carson

I would not have the restless will
That hurries to and fro,
Seeking for some great thing to do,
Or secret thing to know;
I would be treated as a child,
And guided where I go.
So I ask Thee for the daily strength,
To none that ask denied,
And a mind to blend with outward life
While keeping at Thy side;
Content to fill a little space,
If Thou be glorified.

—Anna Waring

Jesus: the Light of the World

February 11, 2018 | David Speakman

“Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection.  Made for joy, we settle for pleasure.  Made for justice, we clamor for vengeance.  Made for relationships, we insist on our own way. Made for beauty, we are satisfied with sentiment.  But new creation has already begun.  The sun has begun to rise.  Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world.  It is time, in the power of the Spirit, to take up our proper role, our fully human role, as agents, heralds, and stewards of the new day that is dawning.  That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian: to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God’s new world, which he has thrown open before us.”

—N.T Wright – Simply Christian, 237.

“”He came down from heaven” can almost be transposed into “Heaven drew earth up into it,” and locality, limitation, sleep, sweat, footsore weariness, frustration, pain, doubt, and death are, from before all worlds, known by God from within. The pure light walks the earth; the darkness, received into the heart of Deity, is there swallowed up. Where, except in uncreated light, can the darkness be drowned?”

—C. S. Lewis

“In your light do we see light.”

—Psalm 36:9

Jesus: The Bread of Life

February 4, 2018 | David Speakman

“Everybody’s got a hungry heart.”

—Saint Springsteen

“To be human is to be animated and oriented by some version of the good life, some picture of what we think counts as “flourishing.” And we want that. We crave it. We desire it. This is why our most fundamental mode of orientation to the world is love. We are oriented by our longings, directed by our desires. We adopt ways of life that are indexed to such visions of the good life, not usually because we “think through” our options but rather because some picture captures our imagination.”

—James K.A. Smith

“Self-indulgence tends to suppress gratitude; self-discipline tends to generate it. That is why gluttony is a deadly sin: oddly, it is an appetite suppressant. The reason is that a person’s appetites are linked: full stomachs and jaded palates take the edge from our hunger and thirst for justice. And they spoil the appetite for God.”

—Cornelius Plantinga

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

—Matthew 5: 6

Jesus: The Party-Pooper

January 28, 2018 | David Speakman

“If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make a final end to violence- that God would not be worthy of worship… If I don’t believe that there is a God who will eventually put all things right, I will take up the sword and will be sucked into the endless vortex of retaliation.  Only if I am sure that there’s a God who will right all wrongs and settle all accounts perfectly do I have the power to refrain.”

—Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace

“Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships.  Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might towards strangers? Far from it . . . Anger isn’t the opposite of love.  Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference . . . God’s wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer . . . which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being.”

—Rebecca Manley Pippert

“Our Lord’s injunction to ‘judge not’ cannot be understood as a command to suspend our critical faculties in relation to other people, to turn a blind eye to their faults (pretending not to notice them), to eschew all criticism and to refuse to discern between truth and error, goodness and evil.”

—John Stott

“A Prayer of Tears:

Let me enter your heart, O God.
Let me see what breaks your heart.
Let my heart be broken, too.

Amen.”

—Richard Foster

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