Jesus was baptized as Man— but He remitted sins as God…- Gregory of Nazianzus (329-89), On the Son
He was tempted as Man, but He conquered as God…
He hungered— but He fed thousands…
He thirsted— but He cried, If anyone thirst, let him come unto Me and drink…
He was wearied, but He is the Rest of them that are weary and heavy laden…
He was heavy with sleep, but He walked lightly over the sea…
He prays, but He hears prayer…
He weeps, but He causes tears to cease…
He asks where Lazarus was laid, for He was Man; but He raises Lazarus, for He was God…
He is sold for a cheap thirty pieces of silver; but He redeems the world at the great price of His own blood.
As a sheep He is led to the slaughter, but He is the Shepherd of Israel, and now of the whole world.
As a Lamb He is silent, yet He is the Word…
He is bruised and wounded, but He heals every disease and every infirmity.
He is lifted up and nailed to the Tree, but by the Tree of Life He restores us;
He dies, but He gives life, and by His death destroys death.
He is buried, but He rises again…
"In the Christian theology of history, the death of Christ is the central point of history; here all the roads of the past converge; hence all the roads of the future diverge.”- Stephen Neill, quoted by John Stott in The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, Ill.; InterVarsity Press, 1986), 45."
"When we speak of wisdom, we are speaking about Christ. When we speak about virtue, we are speaking about Christ. When we speak about justice, we are speaking about Christ. When we are speaking about truth and life and redemption, we are speaking about Christ."“We never feel Christ to be a reality until we feel him to be a necessity.”
- Austin Phelps, quoted by Gordon Keddie in Preacher on the Run: The Message of Jonah (Hertfordshire, England: Evangelical Press, 1986), 85.
“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for 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 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 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 light of his.”—John Stott, The Cross of Christ (IVP, 1986), pp. 335—336
“God requires two things of us: punishment for our sins and perfection in our lives. Our sins must be punished, and our lives must be righteous. But we cannot bear our own punishment, and we cannot provide our own righteousness. Therefore, God, out of His immeasurable love for us, provided his own Son to do both. Christ bears our punishment, and Christ performs our righteousness. And When we receive Christ, all of his punishment and all of his righteousness is counted as ours.”
- John Piper, This Momentary Marriage (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009), 46.
It is not a pastor's job to help people reach their full potential. Our full potential is terrifying. If we all reached our full potential, we'd be out in the streets murdering each other.
The only reasons we're not all out in the streets murdering each other is because of the grace of God and because we prefer more convenient and more comfortable sins.
It is a pastor's job to remind people that their full potential is utter depravity but that the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus the risen Lord.
The minister's job is not aiding self-actualization, but self-denial and Christ-exaltation.
