Jonathan K. Dodson > Quotes

“We need relationships that are so shaped by the gospel that we will exhort and encourage one another to trust Jesus every single day. We need gospel-centered discipleship.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“A disciple motivated by the spiritual license drinks from the empty cup of spiritual freedom. Gospel-centered disciples drink deeply from the cup of costly grace and fight to live lives of obedience to King Jesus. Faith in the gospel actually makes us slaves to Christ, who frees us from sin and graciously binds us to his side. At his side, we discover a better God and enjoy a more gracious Master. Spiritual license deceives us by saying: Because God has forgiven me, I'am free to disobey. The truth of the gospel is Because God has forgiven me in Christ, I am bound to obey.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson

“The wonderful news of the gospel is that Jesus frees us from trying to impress God or others because he has impressed God on our behalf. We can tell people our sins because our identity doesn’t hang on what they think of us. We can be imperfect Christians because we cling to a perfect Christ.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“Gospel-centered discipleship is not about how we perform but who we are—imperfect people, clinging to a perfect Christ, being perfected by the Spirit.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“The gospel calls us back to look at Jesus over and over again. A disciple of Jesus is a person who so looks at Jesus that he or she actually begins to reflect his beauty in everyday life. The gospel gives us the eyes to see Jesus as well as the power to look like him.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“Disciples are gospel people who introduce and reintroduce themselves and others to the person and power of Jesus over and over again. A disciple of Jesus never stops learning the gospel, relating in the gospel, and communicating the gospel.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“How do we repent? We repent through faith . . . turning to God in faith and from sin in repentance are the same movement.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“Making disciples requires not only “sharing our faith,” but also sharing our lives—failures and successes, disobedience and obedience.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“Unfortunately, repentance is commonly viewed as something we do to get on God’s good side. We think to ourselves, “If I feel sorry enough, get angry enough at my sin, then God will forgive me.” This view splits the coin of repentance. It assumes that turning from sin is our work, and returning to Christ is God’s work. But, remember, repentance is one movement, one coin. To turn from sin is to turn to Christ, a fluid movement of grace, which is a gift from God (Rom. 2:4).”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“If we really believed that porn and gossip were based on lies that don’t satisfy, we wouldn’t participate in them.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“How many times have we rationalized away an opportunity to communicate the gospel? “They are in a hurry.” “She would think I’m weird.” “I don’t even know that person.” These rational objections didn’t stop Philip with the Ethiopian, or Peter with Cornelius’s family, or Paul with Lydia. Instead of assuming that your thoughts are a dialogue with your reason, enter into dialogue with the Spirit. Ask him for clarity, direction, and power to believe the gospel. In a word, surrender! Surrender to the Spirit’s promptings, follow his nudging, and talk to him about it along the way. When we surrender to the Spirit, we become more like Jesus. Communion with the Spirit releases the power of the Spirit to follow Jesus and make disciples.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship: Revised and Expanded

“The Spirit will direct us into undesirable circumstances. He led Jesus to fast for forty days, in a human body, in the wilderness, under the attack of the Devil. The leading of the Spirit sometimes includes suffering, but even that suffering is designed for our gospel holiness. Consider how Jesus relied on the Spirit during his wilderness temptations. During each temptation, Jesus relived the temptations of Israel during their forty years in the wilderness. Yet, instead of failing at each temptation of food, faith, and fame, Jesus succeeded. How? He relied on the power of the Spirit to believe the promises of God. When faced with the promises of Satan, Jesus responded by faith in God’s promises. He realized God’s words were true and reliable and that the Devil’s words were false and unreliable. Jesus trusted in the promises of God by the power of the Spirit.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“We live in a society that thinks faster is better. We prize the efficient pastor, not the contemplative pastor.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, The Unwavering Pastor: Leading the Church with Grace in Divisive Times

“Paul tells us: “because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:4 – 5). The gospel they believed and received wasn’t just a theological construct or a churchy platitude. Sure, it came through spoken and written words, and it was preached, taught, and shared. But it also came in power. Often Christians are either “word” people or “power” people. On the one hand, we may lean toward a rationalized Christianity. This type of Christianity holds to the gospel Word without gospel power. It preaches, teaches, catechizes, studies, memorizes, and shares the word but with little effect. It possesses “wise and persuasive words” but not “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4). This kind of Christianity can master systematic, biblical, and historical theology without being mastered by Christ. It can identify idols but remains powerless to address their power. Why? Because it replaces the power of the Spirit with the power of knowledge. On the other hand, there is an equal danger in spiritualized Christianity. Such Christianity prays, sings, shouts, and claims victory over a lost world without lifting a finger to share God’s gospel. It is not enough to pray for power; we must proclaim God’s Word. The power of the Spirit works through the proclaimed Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. My pastor during college, Tom Nelson, always said: “Don’t just stand on a shovel and pray for a hole.” Spiritualized Christianity tends to stand and pray, emphasizing private or emotional experiences with God. What we need is prayer and proclamation, power and Word. The Thessalonians had word and power, they grew in understanding and experience, but they also had full conviction. It is not enough to have spiritual power and good theology. These must also be coupled with faith, an active embrace of God’s promises in Christ, which brings about conviction. Full conviction comes when we are set free from false forms of security and experience Spirit-empowered faith in the word of Christ. It springs from genuine encounter with Christ. Full conviction transcends intellectual doubt and emotional experiences, and in the silence of persecution it says: “Christ is enough.” True security, deep security, comes through the reasonable, powerful, Christ-centered conviction that Jesus is enough, not only for us but for the world. When we falter, the church is present to exhort, encourage, and pray for one another to set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts. May we toss out the penny stocks of the fear of man to invest deeply in the limitless riches of Christ.”
― Jonathan Dodson, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

“The last days, though centuries long and anxiety-filled, are a precious time for gospel witness in the Spirit’s power.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, The Unwavering Pastor: Leading the Church with Grace in Divisive Times

“The gospel promises us the arms of God’s loving embrace every single minute of every single day, provided we give up on ourselves.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“A disciple of Jesus is a person who so looks at Jesus that he or she actually begins to reflect his beauty in everyday life.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together argues that social media creates the illusion of companionship while leaving us isolated from one another.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

“Jesus proclaimed the same gospel to the crowds that he taught to the disciples. He did not have the twelve on a special, gospel-plus track to study advanced subject matter. The good news is for everyone because nobody ever graduates from the gospel. Jesus taught the same gospel of the kingdom to sinners and to saints. Why? Because his agenda of grace is the only solution to our common predicament of sin, Christian or non-Christian. Both desperately need the forgiving, reconciling, and restoring power of the gospel to know and enjoy God, not just once but for a lifetime.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship: Revised and Expanded

“Confession divorced from repentance reduces holiness to half-hearted morality.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship: Revised and Expanded

“I’m discovering that most of the time the power of the Spirit is subtle, not showy. The Spirit is present in our subtle inclinations to serve our spouses, do what’s right, read the Bible, love the marginalized, make disciples, and commune with God. He is that renewing presence that says: “Choose what is good, right, and true.” He is that tug toward self-sacrifice for the good of others. He is that challenge to boldly tell someone how Jesus is changing your life. He is the Person that brings Scripture to mind and coaxes you to believe it. He is the one who prompts you to pray for others. He is the one who restrains you from clicking on that image on the Internet, making that purchase, or silently judging someone. He prompts you to encourage a friend, to praise the good in a coworker, or to rejoice in God’s remarkable grace. If you are in Christ, you have the Spirit, and he prompts you all the time. We simply need to surrender to his prompting!”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“Instead of being transfixed by a particular cause and holding church leaders hostage to a supposed best practice, Christians should examine how Scripture speaks to issues, instructs us to relate to our leaders, and allows for a diversity of approaches in mission, while charitably pursuing a Christ-centered ethic together.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, The Unwavering Pastor: Leading the Church with Grace in Divisive Times

“the gospel frees us from the struggle or search to derive confidence from human approval.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

“What is the gospel? The gospel is the good and true story that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil through his own death and resurrection and is making all things new, even us. Staggering, isn’t it?”
― Jonathan Dodson, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

“Neither. It was my fault. Although I didn’t understand it at the time, my motivation for obeying Jesus had shifted from grace to works. It progressed from attempting to earn God’s favor, to gaining the favor of my disciples. “Discipleship” had become a way to leverage my identity and worth in relationship with others. I was comfortable on the pedestal dispensing wisdom and truth.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“Not an ounce of holiness is possible apart from the work of Jesus applied through the Spirit. To bluntly summarize Owen: no Spirit, no gospel holiness. Without reliance on the Spirit we may get morality, even a veneer of Christianity, but no gospel holiness. Apart from the presence and power of the Spirit, our attempt to desire God, believe his promises, fear his warnings, and walk in his ways is absolutely futile. Disciples need more than resolve to believe the gospel; they need the Holy Ghost.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship: Revised and Expanded

“The gospel is both wonderfully simple and complex. It is simple enough for a child to grasp and profound enough that we will spend eternity pondering its beauty and its implications.”
― Jonathan Dodson, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

“Edwards explains faith by comparing it to honey.6 Allow me to paraphrase Edwards: I can show you honey. You can marvel at its golden hue, the way it refracts light, and its viscosity. And I can tell you that it is sweet . . . and you can believe that it is sweet. But unless you have tasted it, you don’t know it is sweet. Believing honey is sweet doesn’t mean you really know it is sweet. I could be lying to you. You only know honey is sweet when you have tasted it. Similarly, it’s not enough to believe Jesus is the Son of God and that he died on the cross for our sins. There are many people in the southern states who believe these facts but have not tasted their sweetness. Religious affection compels us beyond “mere belief” into genuine faith, a relishing of all that God is for us in Jesus. It is not enough to agree with Jesus; we must worship Jesus. Genuine faith not only believes but “tastes” the sweetness of Christ. How can we cultivate this affection?”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship: Revised and Expanded

“As it turns out, the gospel is for disciples, not just for “sinners;” it saves and transforms people in relationship, not merely individuals who go it alone.”
― Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“Jesus came preaching repentance and faith: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15, italics added).4 The gospel is something that must be believed. When the Bible speaks of belief, it draws from Hebrew culture, where belief was a whole person phenomenon (heart, soul, and mind). In Western culture, belief is often relegated to the mind, a matter of intellectual assent. But when Jesus called people to believe the gospel, he called for a radical reorientation of not just their intellectual beliefs, but their personal devotion and life response. In this sense, you could say that the preaching of the gospel calls a person to make doctrinal, personal, and missional changes. This threefold response mirrors the three dimensions of the gospel. Our doctrines change based on beliefs about history, our lives change based on beliefs about the person of Christ and what he has done for us, and our mission changes as we seek to renew our surroundings.”
― Jonathan Dodson, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing