“Indeed, the gospel shocks us because it undercuts human pride. God sees nothing in us that impresses him. We must forsake all our illusions about our so-called ‘goodness’ and ‘accomplishments.’ We must put our trust in Christ crucified rather than leaning on ourselves. We see our utter poverty and find our riches in Christ. If we could be righteous before God based on our works, then Christ died for nothing.”

—Thomas Schreiner

"Paul saw the issue plainly. It was not just a question of circumcision and uncircumcision, of Gentile and Jewish customs. It was a matter of fundamental importance regarding the truth of the gospel, namely, of Christian freedom versus bondage. The Christian has been set free from the law in the sense that his acceptance before God depends entirely upon God’s grace in the death of Jesus Christ received by faith. To introduce the works of the law and make our acceptance depend on our obedience to rules and regulations was to bring a free man into bondage again. Of this principle Titus was a test case. It is true that he was an uncircumcised Gentile, but he was a converted Christian. Having believed in Jesus, he had been accepted by God in Christ, and that, Paul said, was enough."

"Did God call me on account of my holy life? Or on account of my pharisaical religion? Or on account of my prayers, fasting, and works? Never. Well, then, it is certain God did not call me on account of my blasphemies, persecutions, oppressions. What prompted Him to call me? His grace alone."

“In our church in Washington, I always ask our prospective members to tell me the gospel in one minute or less. . . .

Here’s what I understand the good news to be: the good news is that [God] one and only God , who is holy, made us in his image to know him. But [man] we sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In his great love, [Christ] God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us has been exhausted. [Response] He now calls us to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God.”—Mark Dever

“If Jesus was resurrected, then he is the long-awaited Messiah, Christ, King, Son of God, and Prophet par excellence. And if that’s true, then we’d better pay attention to him, including his endorsement of the entire Old Testament as the Word of God. Not only that, but we have every reason to trust that he did precisely what he promised he would do—send the Holy Spirit to guide his apostles into all the truth he wanted to reveal to them for the good of the church—and then to trust the Spirit’s work of guiding the church in recognizing that truth.”—Greg Gilbert

“I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.” —Martin Luther

“At the end of the book [of Joshua], in his last recorded public act as their leader, Joshua leads the people to renew their covenant with God . . . As Christians, we are called to trust in [Jesus] and to follow his example. We should publicly profess our faith in Christ. We should take vows, if you will, and live to fulfill them, like the people in this book. This is one reason our church covenants together as a congregation, and then regularly reads that covenant out loud in our public meetings. Like the people of God of old, we want to publicly profess our allegiance to God, as all Christians do through their baptism and participation in the Lord’s Supper.”—Mark Dever

Question: What is your only comfort in life and in death?

Answer:  "That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him."

—Heidelberg Cathechism Question #1

“Christian freedom is not ‘I always do what I want.’ Nor is it ‘I always do whatever the other person wants.’ It is “I do what brings glory to God. I do what brings others under the influence of the gospel. I do what leads to peace in the church.” —Andy Naselli and J. D. Crowley

“These slaves of Pharaoh hardly looked like heirs of Yahweh. Surely they would die making Egypt’s bricks rather than live eating Canaan’s figs. But in the fullness of time God sent forth his plagues into Pharaoh’s heart until he relented and, unbelievably, God led his people toward his land. Then, as if time and slavery were not enough, it seemed that God’s own people had conspired to frustrate his promise (Num. 13–14). Forty years were then spent wandering in the wilderness. Only when we see the barriers Yahweh smashes in order to fulfill his word, only when we see his promise trampling all apparent obstacles put in its way, only then will we appreciate how tenacious our God’s fidelity is to his promise and his people.” —Dale Ralph Davis