God is not going to negotiate His holiness... in order to accommodate us.

Any conception of a god that is less than sovereign is an idol and no god at all.

Perhaps the most difficult task for us to perform is to rely on God’s grace and God’s grace alone for our celebration. It is difficult for our pride to rest on grace. Grace is for other people—for beggars. We don’t want to live by a heavenly welfare system. We want to earn our own way and atone for our own sins. We like to think that we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there.

Jesus' life was a storm of controversy. The apostles, like the prophets before them, could hardly go a day without controversy. Paul said that he debated daily in the marketplace. To avoid controversy is to avoid Christ. We can have peace, but it is a servile and carnal peace where truth is slain in the streets.

Not until we take God seriously will we ever take sin seriously.

There is nothing more foreign, more alien, to our nature than holiness.

The house that is built upon the sand will crumble at the first sign of a windstorm.