Bo Giertz > Quotes

“One ought not talk about oneself, it may hide Jesus from view.”
― Bo Giertz, The Hammer of God

“Read God’s Word now as God’s Word, without skipping anything. Underline heavily everything about what our Savior has done for us. And if you like, write ‘For me’ in the margin. You need this yourself, and it is your duty to preach it to your congregation, as well.”
― Bo Giertz, Hammer of God, Revised Edition

“No, what was the good in this! Torvik turned over in bed and folded his hands. After all, they could not shoot God. Temples had been desecrated in times past in Christendom, but the Church remains. The gates of hell would never overcome her. In the final account, all this was only a drop in the cup of suffering that mankind through the millennia again and again had prepared for itself through its disobedience. Was it reasonable to think that our generation, which maybe had been more disobedient than any preceding one, would be spared from it? And had not Christ himself fully drunk the cup to show that the way did not go above a cruel reality but straight through its blood and anguish?”
― Bo Giertz, Hammer of God, Revised Edition

“Anders, it is not your sins that separate you from God, but your virtues. Or more properly: it is that you need to have something to bring before you step before God. This is why God has allowed you to be stripped of the shroud of holiness that you wore in Fröjerum. Not because you were zealous and pious. God grant that all priests would be as zealous as you! But because you made it into an article of faith and into your righteousness and put it between you and Christ. Now you are poor, destitute, and naked—like the prodigal son. Now the heavenly Father stand and waits for you. Now he wants to fold you in his arms and clothe you with the most precious garment, which is called Christ’s righteousness, in which not a single thread is spun by your hands, but for just that reason it lasts forever.”
― Bo Giertz, Faith Alone: The Heart of Everything

“The stony soil of our heart, the rock foundation of our corrupt human nature, need not, therefore, be the basis for judgment upon us. It can be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, just as the hill of Golgotha was when drops of blood fell upon it and it was transformed from a place of execution to the Rock of Atonement.”
― Bo Giertz, The Hammer of God

“Why is the church standing there, pointing toward heaven? Was it just an illusion that once moved these enormous forces that created the greatest edifice in the area? Was it just a mirage they followed, all those generations that for centuries crowded the slope up to the church? Now the church has a question for you: Is it rather you who pursues nothing but emptiness, instead of having your life’s stronghold at God’s altar that is raised within these white walls?”
― Bo Giertz, Christ’s Church: Her Biblical Roots, Her Dramatic History, Her Saving Presence, Her Glorious Future

“And even if I know myself to be a balky and obstinate ass and have no concept of how the Lord would be able to use me, I can let the matter rest with Him and let Him direct the matter.”
― Bo Giertz, A Year of Grace, Volume 1: Collected Sermons of Advent through Pentecost

“I am a sinner, a great sinner.
"Yes, that you are, Johannes. But Jesus is a still greater Savior.”
― Bo Giertz, Hammer of God

“When Jesus speaks about a reward here, he means the reward in the kingdom that comes.”
― Bo Giertz, The New Testament Devotional Commentary, Volume 1: Matthew, Mark, and Luke

“Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? He that hath ... a pure heart. But never, never I:”
― Bo Giertz, Hammer of God