Inspirational Quotes by D.A. Carson
“When the people of God avoid syncretistic entanglements, it is a sign that the Lord is with them (Josh. 22:31). By contrast, when they oppress one another and follow other gods, it is because truth has perished (Jer. 7:28) and the people have rejected the word of the Lord (Jer. 8:9). Again and again Deuteronomy warns the people to be careful to follow all that the Lord has commanded, to avoid entanglements, including marriage, with the surrounding peoples, for fear of learning and following their ways (e.g., Deut. 4; 6:13-19; 7:21-26; 13:6-8). In part, the preservation of the covenant community depends on each generation carefully passing on to the next the exclusive greatness and covenant fidelity of Yahweh (chapter 6). The people are not even to inquire about how the surrounding pagans worship, lest they be tempted to follow them (12:30). “You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates” (12:31). God’s people are not even to have idols in their hearts (Ezek. 14:1-5). Some of the severity of Ezra and Nehemiah turns on the fact that the Exile was supposed to have obliterated any tendency toward compromise with idolatry, so that when residual hankerings reappeared, these leaders were struck with horror and fear.”
“This is stunning. The psalmist thanks God for testing his covenant people, for refining them under the pressure of some extraordinarily difficult circumstances and for sustaining them through that experience. This is the response of perceptive, godly faith. It is not heard on the lips of those who thank God only when they escape trial or are feeling happy”
“. God wants his servant Israel to understand “that I am he” (43:10; cf. 41:4; 48:12). The Hebrew conjures up associations with Exodus 3:14; the Greek rendering of this phrase is precisely the expression that Jesus repeatedly applies to himself in John 8 (e.g., John 8:58, “I am”). How then does Isaiah 43 shape how we must think of Jesus?”
“That is more than a creedal commitment; it sets out Paul’s priorities, his lifestyle, and, in this context, his style of ministry. If he really holds that God has supremely disclosed himself in the cross and that to follow the crucified and risen Savior means dying daily, then it is preposterous to adopt a style of ministry that is triumphalistic, designed to impress, calculated to win applause.”
“Sin is so serious and so pervasive in the world that God’s redemptive work is the only antidote for it.”
“tolerance has become more important than truth, morality, or any widely held value system.”
“The deep cultural animus against the category of sin means that many preachers much prefer to talk about weaknesses, mistakes, tragedies, failures, inconsistencies, hurts, disappointment, blindness—anything but sin.”
“God’s love for the world is to be admired not because the world is so big but because the world is so bad.”
“In short, if we do not comprehend the massive role that sin plays in the Bible and therefore in biblically faithful Christianity, we shall misread the Bible.”
“Piense en ese hermano o hermana a quien no se ha molestado en conocer porque no piensa que serán compatibles. Piense en esa persona con la que tiene una relación rota y no ha querido repararla. Ahora considere que esa misma persona ama y adora al mismo Señor que usted. Considere que el mismo Señor que murió por usted, también murió por él, o ella. Me pregunto si su entendimiento del evangelio de Jesucristo–las buenas nuevas de que Jesús le salvó sin que usted lo mereciera–es lo suficientemente profundo como para tragarse las pequeñas críticas que tiene contra sus hermanos y hermanas. Me pregunto si es lo suficientemente profundo como para enterrar las ofensas que han cometido en su contra, incluyendo las más dolorosas, y como para llevarle a perdonarlos y amarlos justo como Jesús mismo lo ha hecho por usted. Me pregunto si la vastedad del amor de Dios por usted ha incrementado su amor por los demás.”
“God does not declare us righteous because we are ourselves righteous. And thank God that is true, because none of us would meet that standard! No, God declares us righteous because by faith, we are clothed with Christ’s righteous life. God saves us by pure grace, not because of anything we have done, but solely because of what Jesus has done for us.”
topics: christ , faith , god , gospel , justification , man , mercy-seat , propitiation , righteous , sin
“In the days of the early church, the declaration “Jesus is Lord!” was a seditious and blasphemous rejection of the emperor’s authority, and they killed Christians for saying it. Today, the declaration “Jesus is Lord” is an intolerant and bigoted rejection of pluralism, and the world reviles us for it.”
“It's (sin) the breaking of a relationship, and even more, it is a rejection of God Himself--a repudiation of God's rule, God's care, God's authority, and God's right to command those to whom He gave life.”
“In the last book of J. R. R. Tolkien’s magnificent epic The Lord of the Rings, the heroes of the story come to the darkest part of their journey. They’ve traveled a thousand miles and come finally to the evil land that has been their goal, but for several different reasons, everything seems lost now. Yet in that darkest moment, one of the heroes, Sam, looks into the black sky. Here’s what Tolkien writes: Far above the mountains in the west, the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. That is one of my favorite moments in the story, because it is right there that Tolkien, who himself professed faith in Christ, points us to where we find the courage to press on through darkness. It comes from hope. It comes from knowing that our present sufferings are indeed a small and passing thing, and that, as Paul said, they truly are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us when our King returns.”
“When Adam and Eve bit into the fruit, therefore, they weren’t just violating some arbitrary command, “Don’t eat the fruit.” They were doing something much sadder and much more serious. They were rejecting God’s authority over them and declaring their independence from him. Adam and Eve wanted to be, as the Serpent promised them, “like God,” so both of them seized on what they thought was an opportunity to shed the vice-regency and take the crown itself. In all the universe, there was only one thing God had not placed under Adam’s feet—God himself. Yet Adam decided this arrangement was not good enough for him, and so he rebelled.”
“When a church listens and follows, it begins to look like the One it is following.”
“He had been privy to much, and blind to even more.”
“We need to saturate our minds and hearts with the riches of biblical theology, such that we think and act from a profoundly scriptural base. We need to be in the Word constantly. We need also to pray hard and regularly, asking God to give us wisdom for our daily lives and power to kill our nagging sins. We need to continually reapply the gospel to our specific sins and weaknesses.”
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Donald Arthur Carson is a Canadian-born evangelical theologian and professor of New Testament.
Carson served as pastor of Richmond Baptist Church in Richmond, British Columbia from 1970 to 1972. Following his doctoral studies, he served for three years at Northwest Baptist Theological College (Vancouver) and in 1976 was the founding dean of the seminary. In 1978, Carson joined the faculty of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he is currently serving as research professor.
Carson has written or edited 57 books, many of which have been translated into Chinese.