Thursday, May 07, 2009

redeeming us from the system

"But our inclination to replace the King with a thing does not die easily. It rears its ugly head even when we search for answers in Scripture. We approach the Bible with a "where can I find a verse on blank " mentality. We forget that the only hope the principles offer rests on the person, Jesus Christ. And we forget that the Bible is not an encyclopedia, but a story of God's plan to rescue hopeless and helpless humanity. It's a story about people who are rescued from their own self-sufficiency and wisdom and transported to a kingdom where Jesus is central and true hope is alive.
We cannot treat the Bible as a collection of therapeutic insights. To do so distorts the message and will not lead to lasting change. If a system could give us what we need, Jesus never would have come. But he came because what was wrong with us could not be fixed any other way. He is the only answer, so we must never offer a message that is less than the good news. We don't offer people a system; we point them to a Redeemer."

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands


Great great book. Looks like a counseling book at first (and is in a lot of ways), but turns out its extremely helpful if you have any sort of relationship with any other human being. Meaning... its pretty applicable for everyone.

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