Andrew David Naselli > Quotes

“Don’t roll your eyes. This question may make you “face palm” in amazement at how strange someone else’s conscience might be. That’s typically how someone with a strong conscience reacts when they hear about the scruples of the weak. But to the weak of conscience, these are life-and-death matters. Conscience is always a life-and-death matter since sinning against it is always a sin, and getting used to sinning against conscience in one area will make it easier to sin against conscience in other areas. The strong must not look down on the weak but bear with them (Romans 15:1) and, if opportunity arises, gently help them calibrate their conscience (p. 79).”
― Andrew David Naselli, Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ

“It shouldn’t surprise you that you have a conscience. You’re made in the image of God, and God is a moral God, so you must be a moral creature who makes moral judgments.”
― Andrew David Naselli, Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ

“As creatures made in the image of a moral God, we are incapable of not making moral judgments, whatever our situation. A church that thinks it has gotten beyond last generation’s debates over music and wine will find that this generation’s debates over recycling and child discipline are just as divisive. A believer who has prided himself on being generous on disputable matters will suddenly find himself judging a fellow believer who doesn’t buy fair-trade coffee. Conscience issues will remain an important part of your personal life, your church life, and your ministry life for the rest of your life.”
― Andrew David Naselli, Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ

“Christian freedom is not “I always do what I want.” Nor is it “I always do whatever the other person wants.” It is “I do what brings glory to God. I do what brings others under the influence of the gospel. I do what leads to peace in the church (p. 115).”
― Andrew David Naselli, Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ

“Here’s what Jesus did: Jesus lived, died, and rose again for sinners. This is God’s solution to our predicament (i.e., that we are sinners and thus deserve God’s wrath). Jesus lived and died instead of sinners, in the place of sinners, as a substitute for sinners.”
― Andrew David Naselli, Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written

“He wrote the letter to: (1) apply lessons from his recent conflicts in Galatia and Corinth; (2) prepare for the looming crisis in Jerusalem; (3) secure a missionary base for his work in Spain; (4) unify the church in Rome around the gospel; and (5) defend his theology against accusations that he is antilaw and even anti-Jewish (see 3:8).”
― Andrew David Naselli, Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written

“God’s sovereignty (9:6b–29) and human responsibility (9:30–10:21) are compatible.”
― Andrew David Naselli, Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written

“The only way a sinner can have this objective peace with God is “through our Lord Jesus Christ”—that is, through what Jesus the Messiah accomplished for sinners who trust and treasure him.”
― Andrew David Naselli, Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written

“On a lighter note, I recently reread Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.97 When I first read it in high school, I hated it. I considered it frivolous, gossipy, and unmanly. But a pebble in my shoe were two short statements C.S. Lewis wrote in letters: I’ve been reading Pride and Prejudice on and off all my life and it doesn’t wear out a bit.98 Her [i.e., Jane Austen’s] books have only 2 faults and both are damnable. They are too few & too short.99 So Lewis made me rethink my aversion to Pride and Prejudice. On top of that, my daughter was about to read Pride and Prejudice in her integrated humanities program. And my wife loves it. And so do some of our close friends—Tom and Abigail Dodds and Joe and Jenny Rigney. So as a forty-two-year-old father of four daughters, I decided to give the girly novel a second chance. I read it twice in a row—first a dramatized audiobook and then one by a single narrator.100 I loved it. I enjoyed the wit and colorful characters the first time and even more the second time. Now I understand what Lewis was talking about. The novel is clever and hilarious. I’m glad I gave it a second chance—”
― Andrew David Naselli, How to Read a Book: Advice for Christian Readers

“If it doesn't seem unpleasant, then it's not discipline. If it doesn't seem painful, then it's not discipline.”
― Andy Naselli, Good: The Joy of Christian Manhood and Womanhood

“The gospel reveals how God is righteously righteousing (i.e., justifying) unrighteous individuals—both Jews and Gentiles—at this stage in the history of salvation.”
― Andrew David Naselli, Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written

“Adam is both the physical or biological head of all humans and the federal or covenantal head who represents all humans.”
― Andrew David Naselli, Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written

“Suffering is painful, distressful, and hard. Why would we rejoice or glory in that? Because we know that God uses suffering to help us develop endurance, which produces character, which produces hope. God designs our sufferings to build us up so that we confidently expect him to do what he has promised.”
― Andrew David Naselli, Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written

“A text’s meaning is something you discover, not something you create.”
― Andrew David Naselli, How to Read a Book: Advice for Christian Readers

“there is the truism, so ably articulated by Luther in his response to Erasmus on the will, that the task of the preacher is to preach God’s Word, not to second-guess what the practical problems such causes may”
― Andrew David Naselli, Perspectives on the Extent of the Atonement: 3 Views

“So what exactly is the gospel? Here’s one way to define the gospel succinctly, capturing its very core: Jesus lived, died, and rose again for sinners, and God will save you if you turn and trust Jesus.”
― Andrew David Naselli, Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written