R.C. Sproul > Quotes

“Jesus suffered so deeply because the extent of evil in the world is so vast. Every consequence of every sin of each one of His people was placed on Him. To carry this dreadful burden was His vocation. To bear this pain and disease was His mission. The magnitude of this horror is beyond our understanding. But He understood it because it was His to bear.
Jesus endured His suffering in order to redeem His people. But those He redeemed are not thereby delivered from all pain and misery. Indeed, as we shall see, we His people are called to participate in His suffering.”
― R.C. Sproul, Surprised by Suffering: The Role of Pain and Death in The Christian Life

“If God’s sovereignty is restricted by man’s freedom, then God is not sovereign; man is sovereign.”
― R.C. Sproul, Chosen by God

“To suffer as a Christian carries no shame. Peter concludes: "Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator" (1 Peter 4:19). Here, Peter erases all
doubt about the question of whether it is ever the will of God that we should suffer. He speaks of those who suffer "according to the will of God." This text means that suffering itself is part of the sovereign will of God.”
― R.C. Sproul, Surprised by Suffering: The Role of Pain and Death in The Christian Life

“Kung asks the right question. The issue is not why does God punish sin but why does He permit the ongoing human rebellion?”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“Everyone has the right to do his own thing. This slogan is as crass as it is silly. If it were followed by everyone resolutely, society itself would be an impossibility. No one would have any true rights protected, because it at any given moment my rights could trample your rights”
― R.C. Sproul, Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue

“We are not really surprised that God has redeemed us. Somewhere
deep inside, in the secret chambers of our hearts, we harbor the notion that God owes us His mercy. Heaven would not be quite the same if we were excluded from it. We know that we are sinners, but we are surely not as bad as we could be. There are enough redeeming features to our personalities that if God is really just, He will include us in salvation. What amazes us is justice, not Brice.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“When I read the Bible, the Bible criticizes me, I don't criticize the Bible.”
― R.C. Sproul

“if God is not sovereign, God is not God. If there is even one maverick molecule in the universe—one molecule running loose outside the scope of God’s sovereign ordination—we cannot have the slightest confidence that any promise God has ever made about the future will come to pass.”
― R.C. Sproul, Does God Control Everything?

“To be a saint means to be separated. But it means more than that. The saint also is to be involved in a vital process of sanctification. We are to be purified daily in the growing pursuit of holiness. If we are justified, we must also be sanctified.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“if God’s sovereignty is limited one ounce by our freedom, He is not sovereign. What kind of a concept of God do we have that we would say that God is paralyzed by human choices? If His freedom is limited by our freedom, we are sovereign, not God. No, we are free, but God is even more free. This means that our freedom can never limit God’s sovereignty.”
― R.C. Sproul, Does God Control Everything?

“God requires perfection to get into his heaven. We either find that perfection in ourselves or we find it somewhere else, in someone else. If we think we can find it in ourselves, we delude ourselves and the truth is not in us (see 1 John 1:8).”
― R.C. Sproul, Chosen by God

“If there is a secret, a carefully guarded secret, to human happiness, it is that one expressed in a seventeenth-century catechism that says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” The secret to happiness is found in obedience to God. How can we be happy if we are not obedient? How can we be obedient if we do not know what it is we are to obey? Thus the top and the tail of it is that happiness cannot be fully discovered as long as we remain ignorant of God’s Word.”
― R.C. Sproul, Knowing Scripture

“When you struggle with your faith, when you face the dark night of the soul, when you are not sure of where you
stand with the things of God, flee to the Scriptures. It is from those pages that God the Holy Spirit will speak to you, minister to your soul, and strengthen the faith that He gave to you in the first place.”
― R.C. Sproul, What Is Faith?

“What accounts for Luther's behavior? One things is certain: Whatever defense mechanisms normal people have to mute the accusing voice of conscience, Luther was lacking.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“If we are unconverted, one thing is absolutely certain: We hate God.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“All true Christian love is one and the same in its principle. It comes from the same source or fountain and is communicated to the believer by the same Holy Spirit. In this love, both God and man are loved from the same motive, namely, for holiness' sake.”
― R.C. Sproul, Loved by God

“Death frightens us. When we see another person die, we are reminded that we are also mortal, that someday death will come to us. It is a thought we try to push from our minds. We are uncomfortable when another's death rudely intrudes into our lives and reminds us of what we will face at some unknown future date. Death reminds us that we are creatures. Yet as fearsome as death it is, it is nothing compared with meeting a holy God. When we encounter Him, the totality of our creatureliness breaks upon us and shatters the myth that we have believed about ourselves, the myth that we are demigods, junior-grade deities, who will try to live forever.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“If I thought even for one moment that a single molecule were running loose in the universe outside the control and domain of almighty God, I wouldn't sleep tonight.”
― R.C. Sproul

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15).”
― R.C. Sproul, Surprised by Suffering: The Role of Pain and Death in The Christian Life

“The tongue is a restless evil, full o deadly poison. This was the realization of Isaiah. He recognized that he was not alone in his dilemma. He understood that the whole nation was infected with dirty mouths: "I live among a people of unclean lips." in the flash of the moment Isaiah had a new radical understanding of sin. He saw that is was pervasive, in him and in everyone else.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“Though sin often brings immediate pleasure, it gives no lasting joy. If we understand the difference, we can avoid the pitfalls that entice the believer.”
― R.C. Sproul, Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow

“The kingdom of God is not of the people, by the people, or for the people. It is a kingdom ruled by a King, and God does not rule by the consent of His subjects but by His sovereign authority. His reign extends over me whether I vote for Him or not.
'The”
― R.C. Sproul, The Prayer of the Lord

“When we engage in the quest to understand God, it is theology. When our quest is limited to understanding how people react to theology, it is religion.”
― R.C. Sproul, What is Reformed Theology?: Understanding the Basics

“three stanzas says the same thing: May the Lord bless; may the Lord make His face shine; may the Lord lift up His countenance upon you. The Israelite understood blessedness concretely: to be blessed was to be able to behold the face of God. One could enjoy the blessing only in relative degrees: the closer one got to the ultimate face-to-face relationship, the more blessed he was. Conversely, the farther removed from that face-to-face”
― R.C. Sproul, Who Is Jesus?

“Paul's favorite description of himself was doulos, which means "slave"-one purchased for service. He said the same status applies to all believers, for we all have been "bought at a price" (1 Cor. 6:20). We belong to the one who has paid for us in order to redeem us, and now we are called to serve Him.”
― R.C. Sproul, Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow

“Actually, one of the most dangerous things we can do as Christians is to determine our theology by our experience, because no one's experience is normative for the Christian life. We have to determine our theology from the Word of God, not from what we feel. Not”
― R.C. Sproul, Can I Be Sure I'm Saved?

“Don't ever ask God for justice-you might get it.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“If we are going to deal with the discipline of Bible study, we must recognize at the outset that we will need the grace of God to persevere.”
― R.C. Sproul, Knowing Scripture

“Christian pilgrims live in tents. They are seminomads. They are never so at home in this world that they completely settle in. Life is always a frontier for them. The water they drink is never stagnant.”
― R.C. Sproul, Pleasing God: Discovering the Meaning and Importance of Sanctification

“Sanctification is a process. It is a gradual process. Run for your life from those who promise you instant sanctification.”
― R.C. Sproul, Pleasing God: Discovering the Meaning and Importance of Sanctification