A love that left people alone in their guilt would not have real people as its object. So, in vicarious responsibility for people, and in His love for real human beings, Jesus becomes the one burdened by guilt.
A god who let us prove his existence would be an idol.
Thus the call to follow Christ always means a call to share the work of forgiving men their sins. Forgiveness is the Christlike suffering which it is the Christian’s duty to bear.
God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.
The more isolated a person is, the more destructive the power of sin over him.
Every call of Christ leads into death.
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
Wherever there are sinners, the weak, the sorrowful, the poor in the world, that is where God goes.
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace.
We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.
Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.
The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them.
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
A pastor should never complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men.
It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others.
The gift of Christ is not the Christian religion, but the grace and love of God which culminate in the cross.
Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.
The church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ himself who has taken form among people.
God’s truth judges created things out of love, and Satan’s truth judges them out of envy and hatred.