"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body... He says not, Let it not be; but, Let it not reign. So long as sin must be in your members, let its reigning power at least be taken away, let not its demands be obeyed. ... Let the inward ruler keep possession of the citadel, because it stands there under a greater ruler, and is certain of assistance."
— Augustine
Source: Tractates on the Gospel of John, 41.12
Defeat, Renew, Win
Views: 526
"We would do well to think of the Christian life as the path of disciplined grace. It is discipline, because there is work for us to do. It is grace because the life of God which we enter into is a gift which we can never earn. … Remember, discipline in and of itself does not make us righteous; it merely places us before God. … The transformation that comes is God’s work."
— Richard Foster
Source: “Discipline: We Can Live By It” (1982), reprinted at Renovaré
Spiritual, grace, life
Views: 556
"The saints are at the same time sinners while they are righteous: righteous because they believe in Christ, whose righteousness covers them and is imputed to them; but sinners because they do not fulfill the law and are not without concupiscence. They are like sick people under the care of a physician: really sick, yet healthy in beginning and in hope—or rather, being made healthy."
— Martin Luther
Source: Lectures on Romans (1515–16), scholion on Rom. 7:25 (translated from the Latin)
"In chapter 8, St. Paul comforts fighters such as these and tells them that this flesh will not bring them condemnation. … The Holy Spirit assures us that we are God's children no matter how furiously sin may rage within us, so long as we follow the Spirit and struggle against sin in order to kill it."
— Martin Luther
Source: Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans (1522), tr. Andrew Thornton
"If the stones were to speak, they could tell of their breaker, how he took them from the quarry, and made them fit for the temple, and cannot we tell of our glorious Breaker, who broke our hearts with the hammer of his word, that he might build us into his temple? If the stones should cry out they would magnify their builder, who polished them and fashioned them after the similitude of a palace; and shall not we talk of our Architect and Builder, who has put us in our place in the temple of the living God?"
— Charles H. Spurgeon
Source: Morning and Evening, March 23 (Evening)
design
Views: 491
"The inclusion of the Gentiles as recipients of the Kingdom is taught in other sayings. … It is part of God's eschatological purpose that before the end, all nations should have the opportunity to hear the gospel."
— George Eldon Ladd
Source: The Presence of the Future (1974), ch. 11, "The Kingdom and the Church", pp. 266–267