And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible question, and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him is the real death, that to die with him the only life?

The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches. For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours, not by right, but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God.

Quit keeping score altogether and surrender yourself with all your sinfulness to God who sees neither the score nor the scorekeeper but only his child redeemed by Christ.

Judas betrayed Jesus. Peter denied him. Both were lost children. Judas, no longer able to hold on to the truth that he remained God's child, hung himself. In terms of the prodigal son, he sold the sword of his sonship. Peter, in the midst of his despair, claimed it and returned with many tears. Judas chose death. Peter chose life. I realize that this choice is always before me. Constantly

We live a short period of time in this world, but we live it according to the laws of eternal life.

Don't say that a loving God is going to send you to hell- He's not. The thing that's going to send you to hell is that you're a sinner and you don't want to admit it.

Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin.

It is because of the doctrine of judgment and hell that Jesus' proclamations of grace and love are so astounding.

The jubilation of God's salvation corresponds to man's very real condition of lostness ... In Scripture, there is never any mention of a relativizing of sin since any such relativizing of sin would also automatically relativize the unspeakably wonderful nature of salvation.

Men have tried to construct abstract and causal answers to this question of sin's origin and have violated the very limits of objectivity. Whoever reflects on the origin of cannot engage himself in a merely theoretical dispute; rather he is engaged intimately, in the problem of sin's guilt.

We've let selfish and sinful attitudes poison our thoughts and lead us into shameful behaviors, and suddenly all we want is out.

Still seems it strange, that thou shouldst live forever Is it less strange, that thou shouldst live at all This is a miracle and that no more.