Of First Importance

“Our only hope for living the radical demands of the Christian life is that God is totally for us now and forever. Therefore, God has not ordained that living the Christian life should be the basis of our hope that God is for us. That basis is the death and righteousness of Christ, counted as ours through faith alone. On the cross Christ endured for us all the punishment required of us because of our sin. And in order that God, as our Father, might be completely for us and not against us forever, Christ has performed for us, in his perfect obedience to God, all that God required of us as the ground of his being totally for us forever. 

This punishment and this obedience are completed and past. They can never change. Our union with Christ and the enjoyment of these benefits is secure forever. Through faith alone, God establishes our union with Christ. This union will never fail, because in Christ God is for us as an omnipotent Father who sustains our faith, and works all things together for our everlasting good. The one and only instrument through which God preserves our union with Christ is faith in Christ—the purely receiving act of the soul.”

- John Piper, The Future of Justification (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007), 184.

“The Christian life is built upon the foundation of (1) facing who you really are and (2) trusting who Christ truly is. Everything you do will be shaped by the degree to which you act on the blessings that are yours in Christ.

If you only look at yourself and carry around a load of guilt, you will hide, excuse, blame, rationalize, and cover up your shame rather than enjoy the freedom of confession and the joy of forgiveness. You will not enjoy the lasting fruit that comes from following the wisdom that is already yours in Christ! Instead, you will reduce the Christian life to a simplistic list of rules and behaviors that never touch the real problems, and you will be blind to the gaps in your relationship to Christ.”

- Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Winston-Salem, NC: Punch Press, 2006), 65.

“A priest presents God to us; he also presents us to God. He brings together the divine and the human. Priests do not protect God’s holiness from human sinfulness by setting up barriers to access. Nor do priests protect human weakness from divine judgment by arranging ritual defense systems.

The priest opens up routes closed by fear or guilt or ignorance or superstition so that there is access. A priest mediates. He is just as much on God’s side as on our side. He is just as much on our side as on God’s side.

If we aspire after more than we are, a priest promises help. If we regret the mess we are in, a priest promises help. If the Son of Man does the work of priest, there is much to be in awe of but nothing to be afraid of: mediation results in loving union. If the Son of Man does the work of priest, there is much to be repented of but nothing of which to despair: mediation results in gracious forgiveness.”

—Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder (New York: HarperCollins, 1988), 33-34

“We could not take one step in the pursuit of holiness if God in His grace had not first delivered us from the dominion of sin and brought us into union with His risen Son. Salvation is by grace and sanctification is by grace.”

- Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1994), 73.

“We thus see that union with Christ has its source in the election of God the Father before the foundation of the world and its fruition in the glorification of the sons of God.

The perspective of God’s people is not narrow; it is broad and it is long. It is not confined to space and time; it has the expanse of eternity. Its orbit has two foci, one the electing love of God the Father in the counsels of eternity, the other glorification with Christ in the manifestation of his glory. The former has no beginning, the latter has no end.”

- John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1955) 164.

“An unbreakable bond or unity exists between Christ and Christians in the experience of resurrection. This bond has two components - one that has already taken place, at the beginning of Christian life when the sinner is united to Christ by faith, and one that is still future, at Christ’s return.

In terms of a distinction Paul himself makes (2 Cor. 4:16), so far as believers are ‘outer man,’ that is, in terms of the body, they are yet to be raised; so far as they are ‘inner man,’ at the core of their beings, they are already raised.”

- Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. “Resurrection and Redemption: How Eschatology and the Gospel Relate“

“The Lord willingly and freely reveals himself in his Christ. For in Christ, he offers all happiness in place of our misery, all wealth in place of our neediness; in him he opens to us the heavenly treasures that our whole faith may contemplate his beloved Son, our whole expectation depend upon him, and our whole hope cleave to and rest in him.”

—John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.20.1