Anyways it was an absolutely good read. I know this is a blog to be informative on my future plans and God's work in my life, so a book review might not seem appropriate. However this book, as most good books that contain scripture references every other sentence and are written by someone with awesome theology and writing skills, has helped me understand what "New Birth" and "New Life" really is and what it really looks like in Christ alone. I won't bore you with all my comments written on every other page of the now bent and stained thoroughly read book. But to follow are some awesome passages.
"I am my main problem. Not my deeds, and not my circumstances, and not the people in my life, but MY NATURE is my deepest personal problem."49
"The perfection we do not have, Jesus provided. The judgement we do not want, Jesus bore."74
"This truth, this living and abiding word, this gospel, is not a mantra. And it doesn't work like a mantra. It doesn't work through the repetition of sacred sounds. It works because it is the intelligible truth about what really happened when Jesus died and rose again, and because God means for his Son to be glorified by our knowing and believing who his Son really is and what he really did to save sinners...... the whole worldview supporting mantra is misguided and mistaken. It isn't rooted in history. It isn't rooted in Jesus Christ. it isn't rooted in the intelligibility of historical narrative. I pray that you don't just sign up for your local yoga class and not know what you are doing. Yoga is to the body what mantra is to the mouth."114
"The incarnation lasts forever. The second person of the Trinity will forever be united with human nature. We will always know him as Jesus, one like us, and infinitely above us - the first born among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). God did not, and does not, despise the physical creation that he made."146
"So let us first be a very practical people who love in deeds and not just words (talking of people after their new birth in Christ). Then let's be a sacrificial people who deny ourselves for the sake of others and lay down our lives the way Christ laid down his life. And then let's be a lavishly generous people with everything we have, knowing that it all belongs to God, and we belong to God. We are his children. We have his nature. And he is love."161
"Seeking to bring my vagrant feelings into line with the ultimate reality. My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God's word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes- many times- my feelings are out of sync with the truth. When that happens I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but rather, I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth."165
"Religious fakes were no surprise to Jesus. He prepared his most stinging words for them. They do not contradict the new birth. They confirm it. What could possibly change a "brood of vipers" (Matt. 12:34)? Reformation is not what vipers need. They need regeneration. Religious fraud does not make the new birth nonsense;it makes it necessary."191
"The perfection we do not have, Jesus provided. The judgement we do not want, Jesus bore."74
"This truth, this living and abiding word, this gospel, is not a mantra. And it doesn't work like a mantra. It doesn't work through the repetition of sacred sounds. It works because it is the intelligible truth about what really happened when Jesus died and rose again, and because God means for his Son to be glorified by our knowing and believing who his Son really is and what he really did to save sinners...... the whole worldview supporting mantra is misguided and mistaken. It isn't rooted in history. It isn't rooted in Jesus Christ. it isn't rooted in the intelligibility of historical narrative. I pray that you don't just sign up for your local yoga class and not know what you are doing. Yoga is to the body what mantra is to the mouth."114
"The incarnation lasts forever. The second person of the Trinity will forever be united with human nature. We will always know him as Jesus, one like us, and infinitely above us - the first born among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). God did not, and does not, despise the physical creation that he made."146
"So let us first be a very practical people who love in deeds and not just words (talking of people after their new birth in Christ). Then let's be a sacrificial people who deny ourselves for the sake of others and lay down our lives the way Christ laid down his life. And then let's be a lavishly generous people with everything we have, knowing that it all belongs to God, and we belong to God. We are his children. We have his nature. And he is love."161
"Seeking to bring my vagrant feelings into line with the ultimate reality. My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God's word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes- many times- my feelings are out of sync with the truth. When that happens I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but rather, I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth."165
"Religious fakes were no surprise to Jesus. He prepared his most stinging words for them. They do not contradict the new birth. They confirm it. What could possibly change a "brood of vipers" (Matt. 12:34)? Reformation is not what vipers need. They need regeneration. Religious fraud does not make the new birth nonsense;it makes it necessary."191
