“Between God as Creator and all other things as created the distinction is absolute. There is not another such gulf within the universe.” -Geerhardus Vos, Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation
Category Archives: The Doctrine of God and Creation
The Holy Spirit’s Supernatural Ministry
“In his 1974 position paper for the Lausanne congress on evangelization, Schaeffer tells the story of the deep period of doubt and perplexity in his life in 1951 and 1952. Troubled by the lack of spiritual reality in the Christian groups he worked with, Schaeffer began asking what was missing and why. He thought his way all the way back to his original agnosticism and put all his beliefs and commitments back on the table for renegotiation. He paced back and forth for months or took long walks when the weather permitted. He notified his wife, Edith, that if he didn’t find what he needed in Christianity, he would reject it and then do something else with his life. His conclusion: I came to realize that indeed I had been right in becoming a Christian. But then I went on further and wrestled deeper and asked,
“But then where is the spiritual reality, Lord, among most of that which calls itself orthodoxy?” And gradually I found something. I found something that I had not been taught, a simple thing but profound. I discovered the meaning of the work of Christ, the meaning of the blood of Christ, moment by moment in our lives after we are Christians—the moment-by-moment work of the whole Trinity in our lives because as Christians we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That is true spirituality.
From Fred Sander’s book, The Deep Things of God
Why it Matters to Confess that Jesus is *The Son* of God
“The temptation to gloss over the fact that Jesus was the Son, in our hurry to get to the fact that he was God, is a temptation to be resisted. His sonship explains so much about what he did among us because it is the secret to his personal identity. “God” describes what Jesus is, but “Son” describes who he is. That is why the perception of his sonship takes us into the heart of the doctrine of the Trinity.” -Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God
A Unique Revelation of God’s Love
“And you say, ‘Well the religions of the world say God is a God of love.’ Don’t you believe that. Buddhism doesn’t believe that God is personal. Neither does Hinduism really. And actually one time I remember having a dialogue, a public dialogue, with the Muslims–Muslims and Christians together–and we talked about God’s love. And the Muslims are willing to say ‘We believe in God being merciful,’ but when I brought up the Christian idea from the Bible, ‘God is our spouse, God is our lover, God is our father, God is our friend, God sheds his love abroad in my heart.’ And our Muslim friends said, ‘That is disrespectful. We would never talk about God that way.'” -Tim Keller, sermon “The God Who Is”
A Christian’s Source of Courage
“As the power of God is infinite, so they [God’s people] conclude that it shall be invincible against all the assaults, outrages, preparations, and forces of the whole world. And, indeed, unless we ascribe this honor to God, our courage shall be always failing us.” -John Calvin, on Psalm 3
The Life of the Trinity Revealed
“The missions of the Son and Spirit are the acting out, in the history of Jesus, of what has been going on in God’s triune life eternally, namely, the communication of God’s light, life, and love: ‘God enacts his perfection.'” -Kevin Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority After Babel
God’s Nature Seen In His Works
“God’s mighty acts in history theatrically represent the perfections of God’s nature and the outworking of God’s decree.” -Kevin Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority after Babel
Redemption: God Sharing His Life with Us
“The mystery of redemption, made known in Christ, is that God graciously shares his own perfect life with those who are not perfect.” -Kevin Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority After Babel
Grace is God’s gift of himself to Sinners
“Grace is the gift of God’s beneficent presence and activity–that is, the communication of God’s own light, life, and love to those who have neither the right to them nor a claim on God.” -Kevin Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority after Babel
Grace is
“Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.” -John Stott, Christ the Controversialist