“The cross can be seen as proof of God’s love only when it is at the same time seen as a proof of his justice.”
- John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, Ill.; InterVarsity Press, 1986), 221.
The Victim was the Victor
“What looks like (and indeed was) the defeat of Goodness by evil is also, and more certainly, the defeat of evil by Goodness. Overcome there, he was himself overcoming. Crushed by the ruthless power of Rome, he was himself crushing the serpent’s head (Gn 3:15). The victim was the victor, and the cross is still the throne from which he rules the world.”
- John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, Ill.; InterVarsity Press, 1986), 228.
Every Time We Look at The Cross
“Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.’ Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.”
- John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians (London, 1968), 179.
(HT: Ray Ortlund)
Where we shrink to our true size
“Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.’ Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.”
—John Stott, The Message of Galatians (London: IVP, 1968), 179
(HT: Ray Ortlund)
Who Delivered Up Jesus to Die?
“Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy; — but the Father, for love!”
- Octavius Winslow, quoted by John Stott in The Message of Romans (Downers Grove, Ill.; Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 255.
Free Sons & Daughters
“The Christian life is the life of sons and daughters; it is not the life of slaves. It is freedom, not bondage. Of course, we are slaves of God, of Christ, and of one another. We belong to God, to Christ, to one another, and we love to serve those to whom we belong. But this kind of service is freedom. What the Christian life is not, is a bondage to the law, as if our salvation hung in the balance and depended on our meticulous and slavish obedience to the letter of the law. As it is, our salvation rests upon the finished work of Christ, on His sin-bearing, curse-bearing death, embraced by faith.”
- John Stott, The Message of Galatians (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1968), 108-109.
The Differences Between The Law & The Gospel
“The law requires works of human achievement; the gospel requires faith in Christ’s achievement. The law makes demands and bids us obey; the gospel brings promises and bids us believe.”
- John Stott, The Message of Galatians (Downers Grove, Ill.; InterVarsity Press, 1968), 71.
