For us Christians, all truth is "relative," relative to this Jew named Jesus.  We really do not know what the world is, much less where it is headed, until we know him.

William H. Willimon in Exilic Preaching

The repeated promises in the Qu'ran of the forgiveness of a compassionate and merciful Allah are all made to the meritorious, whose merits have been weighed in Allah's scales, whereas the gospel is good news of mercy to the undeserving.  The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales.

John R. W. Stott

Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died.  If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is a farce, there was no need for it. 

    We trample the blood of the Son of God under foot if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins.  The only explanation of the forgiveness of God, and of the unfathomable depth of His forgetting, is the Death of Jesus Christ.  

    The Death of Jesus Christ is the performance in history of the very Mind of God.  There is no room for looking on Jesus Christ as a martyr; His death was not something that happened to Him which might have been prevented: His death was the very reason why He came. 

    God could forgive men in no other way. 

    The greatest note of triumph that ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross: "It is finished."  That was the last word in the Redemption of man. 

Oswald Chambers

Order of Worship, September 26 2010

Grace Presbyterian Church