Stott on Spiritual Development

The greatest single secret of spiritual development lies in personal, humble, believing, obedient response to the Word of God. It is as God speaks to us through his Word that his warnings can bring us to conviction of sin, his promises to assurance of forgiveness, and his commands to amendment of life. We live and grow by his Word.

--From "Confess your Sins" (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1964), p. 82. JRW Stott. 

Stott on the Sons of God

What visions of intimacy with God the word 'sonship' conveys! Access to God and fellowship with God as Father -- these are the privileges of his children. Not all human beings are God's children, however. Verse 14 of Romans 8 definitely and deliberately limits this status to those who are being led by the Spirit, who are being enabled by the Spirit to walk along the narrow path of righteousness. To be led by the Spirit and to be sons of God are virtually convertible terms. All who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God, and therefore all who are sons of God are led by the Spirit of God.

--From "Men Made New" (London: IVF, 1966), p. 93. JRW Stott

Adorning the Gospel

There are many pastors today who, for fear of being branded 'legalists', give their congregation no ethical teaching. How far we have strayed from the apostles! 'Legalism' is the misguided attempt to earn our salvation by obedience to the law. 'Pharisaism' is a preoccupation with the externals and the minutiae of religious duty. To teach the standards of moral conduct which adorn the gospel is neither legalism not pharisaism but plain apostolic Christianity.

-From "I Believe in Preaching" (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982), p. 158. JRW STOTT

Stott Reflects on Prayer

Men and women are at their noblest and best when

 they are on their knees before God in prayer.

 To pray is not only to be truly godly; 

it is also to be truly human. 

For here are human beings, 

made by God 

like God and 

for God, 

spending time in fellowship with God.

So prayer is an authentic activity in itself,

 irrespective of any benefits it may bring us.

 Yet it is also one of the most effective of all means of grace.

 I doubt if anybody has ever become at all Christlike 

who has not been diligent in prayer.

--From "Your Confirmation" (rev. edn. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991), p. 118.

Holiness

Self-control is primarily mind-control. 

What we sow in our minds 

we reap in our actions.

John R. W. Stott

Sowing to the Flesh

To 'sow to the flesh' is to pander to it,

to cosset, cuddle and stroke it, 

instead of crucifying it. 

The seeds we sow are largely thoughts and deeds. 

Every time we allow our mind to 

harbour a grudge, 

nurse a grievance, 

entertain an impure fantasy, 

or wallow in self-pity, 

we are sowing to the flesh. 

Every time we linger in bad company whose 

insidious influence we know we cannot resist, 

every time we lie in bed when we ought to be up and praying, 

every time we read pornographic literature, 

every time we take a risk which strains our self-control, 

we are sowing, sowing, sowing to the flesh. 

Some Christians sow to the flesh every day and 

wonder why they do not reap holiness.

Taken from Authentic Christianity © 1995 John Stott and Timothy Dudley-Smith.

Spiritual Growth

The idea of spiritual growth is foreign to many people, not least in the areas of faith and love. We tend to speak of faith in static terms as something we either have or have not. 'I wish I had your faith,' we say, like 'I wish I had your complexion,' as if it were a genetic endowment. Or we complain 'I've lost my faith,' like 'I've lost my spectacles,' as if it were a commodity. But faith is a relationship of trust in God, and like all relationships is a living, dynamic, growing thing. There are degrees of faith, as Jesus implied when he said, 'You of little faith' and 'I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith' (Mt. 8:26, 10). It is similar with love. We assume rather helplessly that we either love somebody or we do not, and that we can do nothing about it. But love also, like faith, is a living relationship, whose growth we can take steps to nurture.

--Excerpted from "Authentic Christianity", p. 214, by permission of InterVarsity Press. RIP JRW Stott

Stott on Private Speaking in Tongues

What, then, about the contemporary practice of private tongue-speaking as an aid to personal devotion? Many are claiming to discover through it a new degree of fluency in their approach to God. Others have spoken of a kind of 'psychic release' which they have found liberating and which one would not want to deny them. On the other hand, it needs to be said (from 1 Cor. 14) that if Paul completely forbids public tongue-speaking without interpretation, he strongly discourages private tongue-speaking if the speaker does not understand what he is saying. Verse 13 is often overlooked: 'He who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret'. Otherwise his mind will be 'unfruitful' or unproductive. So what is he to do? Paul asks himself. His reply is that he will pray and sing 'with the Spirit', but he will do so 'with the mind also'. It is clear that he simply cannot contemplate Christian prayer and praise in which the mind is not actively engaged.

--From "Baptism and Fullness" (London: IVP, 1975), p. 113. Rest with Christ JRW Stott.

More Evidence

If you know as a fact that God is righteous, John says, then you will perceive as a logical consequence *that everyone who does what is right has been born of him* (1 Jn. 2:29). The child exhibits the parent's character because he shares the parent's nature. A person's righteousness is thus the evidence of his new birth, not the cause or condition of it.

From "The Letters of John" (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: rev. edn. Leicester: IVP, 1988), p. 122

John Stott

If it's one man I like to quote a lot hear on the blog it would be John R. W. Stott. He is the writer of the renown book The Cross of Christ. It was just last saturday that he died and went to be in Christ's presence. This quote of his came to my mailbox from his collection describing the work of the Trinity in the Christian's assurance of their faith and it's worth a share.

The witness of God the Holy Spirit 

confirms the word of God the Father 

concerning the work of God the Son.

Where the Evidence Is

It is only the Lord who knows and recognizes his own people, and can tell the true from the spurious, for only he sees the heart. But though we cannot see the heart, we can see the life, which is the one reliable evidence of the heart's condition, and is apparent to all.

-Excerpted from "Authentic Christianity", p. 202, by permission of InterVarsity Press.

A Life Biography in Two Volumes

I find it helpful to think in these terms. Our biography is written in two volumes. Volume one is the story of the old man, the old self, of me before my conversion. Volume two is the story of the new man, the new self, of me after I was made a new creation in Christ. Volume one of my biography ended with the judicial death of the old self. I was a sinner. I deserved to die. I did die. I received my deserts in my Substitute with whom I have become one. Volume two of my biography opened with my resurrection. My old life having finished, a new life to God has begun.

--Excerpted from "Authentic Christianity", p. 200, by permission of InterVarsity Press. Thanks John Stott.

A Wreckage...

The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, 

half-built towers: 

the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish.

 For thousands of people still ignore Christ's warning and 

undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so.

 The result is the great scandal of Christendom today: 

so-called 'nominal Christianity'.

--From "Basic Christianity" (rev. edn. London: IVP, 1971), p. 108. Thanks Pastor Stott

What Attracted You to Christianity?

"In a questionnaire submitted to members of All Souls
congregation I asked both: 'What first attracted you to
Christ and the gospel?' and 'What mainly or finally brought
you to Christ?' In their answers over half referred to
something they had seen for themselves in Christian people,
their parents, pastors, teachers, colleagues or friends.
As one put it, these 'had something in their lives which I
lacked but desperately longed for'. In several cases it
was 'their external joy and inward peace'. To a student
nurse it was 'the genuine and open friendship' offered by
Christians; to an Oxford undergraduate studying law their
'sheer exuberance'; to a police constable the 'clear aim,
purpose and idealism which Christian life offered' as seen
in Christians; to a secretary in the BBC 'the reality of
the warmth and inner resources which I observed in
Christians'; and to a house surgeon 'the knowledge of
Christ's working in another person's life'."

--From "Our Guilty Silence" (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1967), p. 71. Thanks for this observation JRW Stott

Unbreakable Promises

I sometimes wonder if there is any more vital lesson for Christian living than this: that God has condescended to our weakness by making us promises, that he will never break them, and that faith reckons on his faithfulness by grasping hold of them. We sometimes smile at the Victorians' 'promise-boxes'. Biblical promises were printed on small pieces of paper, rolled up like miniature scrolls and stored in a wooden box for random selection in times of need. And, to be sure, that practice did wrench the divine promises from the context in which they were originally given. Nevertheless, I rather think that even such a naive trust in detached promises was better than the present-day accurate but unbelieving knowledge of the promises in their context. So many of us complain of spiritual doubt, darkness, depression and lethargy, of besetting sins and unconquered temptations, of slow progress towards Christian maturity, of sluggishness in worship and in prayer, and of many other spiritual ills, while all the time we do not use the secret weapon which God has put into our hands.

--From "Life in Christ" (Eastbourne: Kingsway; Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1991), p. 27. Thanks JRW Stott.

Images of Salvation

'Images' of salvation (or of the atonement) is a better term than 'theories'. For theories are usually abstract and speculative concepts, whereas the biblical images of the atoning achievement of Christ are concrete pictures and belong to the data of revelation. They are not alternative explanations of the cross, providing us with a range to choose from, but complementary to one another, each contributing a vital part to the whole. As for the imagery, 'propitiation' introduces us to rituals at a shrine, 'redemption' to transactions in a market-place, 'justification' to proceedings in a lawcourt, and 'reconciliation' to experiences in a home or family. My contention is that 'substitution' is not a further 'theory' or 'image' to be set alongside the others, but rather the foundation of them all, without which each lacks cogency. If God in Christ did not die in our place, there could be neither propitiation, nor redemption, nor justification, nor reconciliation.

--From "The Cross of Christ" (Leicester and Downers Grove: IVP, 1986), p. 168. Thanks John Stott & Happy 90th Birthday.

How do we get Christian blessings?

The gospel offers blessings; what must we do to receive them? 

The proper answer is 'nothing'! 

We do not have to *do* anything. 

We have only to *believe*.

Our response is not 'the works of the law' but 'hearing with faith', that is, 

not obeying the law, but believing the gospel. 

For obeying is to attempt to do the work of salvation ourselves, 

whereas believing is to let Christ be our Saviour and to rest in his finished work.

--From "The Message of Galatians" (The Bible Speaks Today series: London and Downers Grove: IVP, 1968), p. 75. Thanks John Stott!

A God of Love and Wrath?

God is not omnipotent in the sense that he can do anything. 

God can only do those things which are consistent with his nature. 

He cannot therefore readily pardon the sinner, 

because he is a God of infinite justice.

 But neither can he readily punish the sinner, 

because he is also a God of infinite mercy. 

Here, then, if we may use human language, was the divine dilemma. 

How could he pardon the sinner without compromising his justice? 

How could he judge the sinner without frustrating his love? 

How in the face of human sin could he be at the same time

a God of love and of wrath?

How could he both pardon the sinner and punish the sin? 

How could a righteous God forgive unrighteous men without involving himself 

in their unrighteousness?

--From "Our Guilty Silence" (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1967), p. 50.

Stott on Self-Aggrandizement

It would be hard to improve on Luther's description of fallen man as *homo in se incurvatus*, 'man curved in on himself'. Human fallenness is human selfishness. Most ambition is selfish ambition. People who 'succeed', because they attain wealth, fame or power, do so mainly because they are driven by an inner urge to self-aggrandizement. This is not pessimism, but the sober realism of Christians who want to look facts in the face.

--From "Life in Christ" (Eastbourne: Kingsway; Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1991), p. 86. Thanks John Stott. 

A Declaration

The gospel is not good advice to men, 

but good news about Christ; 

not an invitation to us to do anything, 

but a declaration of what God has done; 

not a demand, 

but an offer.

--From "The Message of Galatians" (The Bible Speaks Today series: London and Downers Grove: IVP, 1968), p. 70. Thankful to God for JRW Stott.