Dallas Willard Quotes

"Otherwise grace is no more grace," since it is bestowed on us, not because we have done good works, but that we may be able to do them.

God in His wisdom has decided that He will reward no works but His own.

Most people have settled for a wimpy grace. It's something that doesn't change their lives. There is a difference between grace and mercy. Mercy is the decision of God not to punish us. But grace is the decision of God to save and bless us.

History has brought us to the point where the Christian message is thought to be essential concerned only with how to deal with sin: with wrongdoing or wrong-being and its effects. Life, our actual existence, is not included in what is now presented as the heart of the Christian message, or it is included only marginally.

Faith is the substance of whatever it is that we hope for. The important thing is that we teach that faith is connected to good works and responsibility.

Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not the apologist of sin.

...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.

Humankind's ladder to God is a ladder of deeds.

Grace alone brings about every good work in us.

God holds his people responsible for righteousness, not for results.

Abhor all idea of being saved by good works, but O, be as full of good works as if you were to be saved by them!

There is a great difference between Christianity and religion at the south. If a man goes to the communion table, and pays money into the treasury of the church, no matter if it be the price of blood, he is called religious.

I'm ensuring my place in heaven.

I never had an intellectual struggle with the Bible, with the gospel, with the claims of Christ.

God loves us all, wants us all to share his kingdom, has a role for us all.

Because of total depravity, you and I were desperate for God's grace before we were saved. Because of total depravity, you and I remain desperate for God's grace even after we're saved.

Sin, also for those who don't have faith, exists when one goes against one's conscience. To listen to and obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.

The imperative is to define what is right and do it.

Someday I suspect, when Jesus has definitely got me for a sunbeam, my works may be adequately assessed.

Salvation cannot be bought with the currency of obedience; it is purchased by the blood of the Son of God. Thinking that we can trade our good works for salvation is like buying a plane ticket and then supposing we own the airline. Or thinking that after paying rent for our home, we now hold title to the entire planet earth.

When we say yes to the grace of God, we are learning how to die.

According to God's word, everybody at some point is going to be given the opportunity to know the truth.

I know that many of you do wear such a cross of Christ, not in any ostentatious way, not in a way that might harm you at your work or recreation, but a simple indication that you value the role of Jesus Christ in the history of the world, that you are trying to live by Christ's standards in your own daily life.

Justification and sanctification are both God's work, and while they can and must be distinguished, the Bible won't let us separate them. Both are gifts of our union with Christ, and within this double-blessing, justification is the root of sanctification and sanctification is the fruit of justification.

I hope, by God's grace, that I am truly a Christian, not deviating from the faith, and that I would rather suffer the penalty of a terrible death than wish to affirm anything outside of the faith or transgress the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ.