Redemption does not come so easily, for no one can ever pay enough to live forever and never see the grave.

Christianity is not a religion. it is a relationship with God.

The unqualified affirmation of the universal will of salvation has radically changed the way of conceiving the mission of the Church in the world... The work of salvation is a reality which occurs in history.

The world's theology The world's theology is easy to define. It is the view... that human beings are basically good, that no one is really lost, that belief in Jesus Christ is not necessary for salvation. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Romans 1:22

Religion is your seeking after a god in your own image. Christianity is God's seeking you and moving to redeem you by the death of His Son.

The thief on the cross had to be the luckiest man alive. He was nothing more than a low-life criminal, a loser. He had committed a crime. He was convicted for it, and he was crucified for it. So he had no future; he was going nowhere; or worse, he was going to hell. Yet of all the criminals, on all the crosses, on all the hills in the Roman Empire, he was crucified next to Jesus Christ.

Justification because of Christ alone (solus Christus) means that Jesus has done the necessary work of salvation utterly and completely, so that no merit on the part of man, no merit of the saints, no works of ours performed either here or later in purgatory, can add to his completed work.

Do not make the mistake of counting on your moral record as a way of coming to God. It is your record that gets you into trouble in the first place. Your record will condemn you, no matter how good you think you are or how good you appear in other people's eyes. Count on the fact that Jesus paid the penalty for your sin, and accept the fact that He is the way for simple, sinful people like you and me to enter heaven.

When I believe in Jesus, I am united to Christ. Therefore, what he did and achieved becomes mine by this union through faith alone. His righteous life is imputed to me. What Christ achieved is counted as mine.

If God should show mercy only to such as deserve it, he must show mercy to none.

Upon our turning to God, we have more restored to us in Christ—than ever was lost in Adam. God says to the repenting soul, "I will clothe you with the robe of righteousness; I will enrich you with the jewels and graces of my Spirit. I will bestow my love upon you! I will give you a kingdom! Son, all I have is yours!

Just so, Christ puts the finger of mercy upon the scars of the saints! He will not throw away his pearls for every speck of dirt! That which makes this love of Christ the more stupendous, is that there was nothing in us to excite or draw forth his love! He did not love us because we were worthy—but by loving us he made us worthy!