The Solidarity between Humanity and the Universe

The creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God ([Rom. 8:19]) because it is into that very freedom that the creation too will be delivered (v. 21). In other words, the creation and the children of God are intimately intertwined both in present suffering and in future glory. As there was a solidarity in the fall, so also there will be a solidarity in the restoration.

--Sam Storms, "The Restoration of All Things" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 262.

The Criterion for Being a Christian

What is the criterion for someone's being a Christian? It is the fact that he or she has received citizenship not because of social, cultural, racial, or moral location but because of the grace of the King. Once an alien (Eph. 2:19), he or she is now a citizen with full rights and privileges in a new community.

--Stephen Um, "The Kingdom of God" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 203.

No Degrees of Citizenship in God's Kingdom

Since the gospel confirms the Christian of his legal standing and permanent status, he can gain confidence in knowing the truth that no degrees exist in citizenship.

In other words, either you are a citizen or you are not; either you are a child or you are not. This truth will repudiate any false notions and insecurities about one's performance determining his status as a citizen. In other words, one does not become a second-class citizen when one is less obedient and a first-class citizen when one is more obedient.

--Stephen Um, "The Kingdom of God" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 202-203.

Members of God's Kingdom

Christians conduct themselves in relationship to others in ways that adorn the gospel, seek the other's good, and bring glory to Christ. They do this because they are members of a radically different community, God's kingdom, and are in union with the person in charge of history.

--Stephen Um, "The Kingdom of God" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 202.

The Tyranny of Our Idols

Whether the personal center is one's career, relationships, money, academic achievement, or sex, if an individual lives for anything besides Jesus, then that functional god will abuse, crush, and tyrannize one's heart.

--Stephen Um, "The Kingdom of God" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 201.

What is the Kingdom of God?

What is the kingdom of God? Most modern dictionaries will define the word as a "sphere," "realm," or "place." This explanation has misguided interpreters away from the biblical understanding that emphasizes the rank, rule, reign, dominion, and royal authority of God.

--Stephen Um, "The Kingdom of God" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 194.

Not Shocked that Jesus is the Only Way

The one who has discovered the love of God in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ is actually not shocked that God has provided only one way to be saved; he is increasingly confounded and befuddled that God provided any way at all.

--Sandy Willson, "Christ's Redemption" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 148.

If you don't love Jesus now, then you really don't want heaven later.

The Bible teaches us that the citizens of heaven are obsessed with the praise of Jesus Christ--the very thing the natural person eschews. Anyone not in love with Christ would naturally despise heaven. On the other hand, it can be truly said that no one who truly desires to go to heaven would ever be excluded. The hearts of sinful humans are given a longing for heaven only by hearing and believing the gospel, which, of course, means that the church's obedience to the Great Commission is of the utmost importance.

--Sandy Willson, "Christ's Redemption" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 147-148.

Perfectly Represented and Continually Protected

Christ now reigns as mediatorial king, interceding for us, ruling over us, and advocating for us. He has taken our flesh into the councils of the triune God where we are perfectly represented and continually protected.

--Sandy Willson, "Christ's Redemption" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 142.

The Protection of God

God is much more concerned to make our eternal state secure than to make our temporal existence easy. For this reason he puts a spiritual hedge around our lives so that nothing can enter that would destroy our eternal status with him.

--Bryan Chapell, "What is the Gospel?" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 126.

God's Compassion and God's Righteousness

A holy God cannot simply hide his eyes or cover his ears to such sin. Its victims scream for justice, and God's compassion provides what his righteousness requires through Jesus' sacrifice.

--Bryan Chapell, "What is the Gospel?" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 118.

Seeing Jesus as the Root of Faith and Repentance

Faith and repentance are like two sides of a coin; you can't have one without the other. Faith and repentance are birthed together when you see the love and mercy of God or you in Jesus Christ.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 105.

Bearing Sin

When you die, you will not carry your sin and guilt into your death because he carried it into his death for you.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 102.

The Flesh-Spirit Battle in the Christian Life

The weakness of Adam, who failed, is in you, so be on your guard against temptation. But the strength of Christ, who triumphed, is also in you by the Holy Spirit, so when we are tempted, we can stand firm.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 99.

The God-Man Delivers the Promises of God

As we are born, so also was Christ born--to live our life and to die our death. He came to us and stands with us to act for us. As God, he delivers what God has promised; as man, he delivers what God has promised to us.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 98.

The Receiving and Transforming Grace of God

God receives us in our sin, but he never leaves us in our sins.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 96.

God Always Knows What He's Doing

But God is sovereign. He fulfills his own plan in his own time by his own power, and no one can stop him. God knows exactly what he is doing at every point in history in every nation of the world and through every event in your life.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 90.

How Satan became the Ruler of This World

When Adam sinned, the dominion of the earth transferred from Adam to Satan.

--Reddit Andrews III, "Sin and the Fall," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 85.

The Stubborn Will

Humans continue to resist God--which is exactly what they want to do--until God changes their will so that they want to submit to God.

--Reddit Andrews III, "Sin and the Fall," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 85.

Man Created from the Earth

I remember seeing an exhibit in the Boston Museum of Science that showed the outline of a man, and inside the outline were a series of chemical bottles of varying sizes filled with dry compounds. It represented a human body from which all water had been removed (the human body is over 60 percent water), and what was left were a bunch of chemical compounds and minerals, all of which can be mined from the earth!

--Andrew M. Davis, "Creation," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 70.