John Stott (1921-2011) was a pastor to pastors, a servant of the church in countries across the globe, and author of more than 50 books, including seminal classics such as Basic Christianity and The Cross of Christ.1
May His quotes below inspire you to go deeper in your walk with the Lord.2
“Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.”
“Our love grows soft if it is not strengthened by truth, and our truth grows hard if it is not softened by love.”
“Every Christian should be both conservative and radical; conservative in preserving the faith and radical in applying it.”
“Why is it that some Christians cross land and sea, continents and cultures, as missionaries? What on earth impels them? It is not in order to commend a civilization, an institution or an ideology, but rather a person, Jesus Christ, whom they believe to be unique. ”
“Many people visualize a God who sits comfortably on a distant throne, remote, aloof, uninterested, and indifferent to the needs of mortals, until, it may be, they can badger him into taking action on their behalf. Such a view is wholly false. The Bible reveals a God who, long before it even occurs to man to turn to him, while man is still lost in darkness and sunk in sin, takes the initiative, rises from his throne, lays aside his glory, and stoops to seek until he finds him.”
“In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?”
“Perhaps the transformation of the disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the resurrection.”
“Jesus Christ is indeed a crutch for the lame, to help us walk upright, just as he is also medicine for the spiritually sick, bread for the hungry and water for the thirsty. We do not deny this; it is perfectly true. But then all human beings are lame, sick, hungry and thirsty. The only difference between us is not that some are needy, while others are not. It is rather that some know and acknowledge their need, while others either don’t through ignorance or won’t through pride.”
“The Bible isn’t about people trying to discover God, but about God reaching out to find us.”
“Christianity is a religion of salvation, and the fact is that there is nothing in any of the non-Christian religions to compare with this message of a God who loved, and came after, and died for, a world of lost sinners.”
“The church has a double responsibility in relation to the world around us. On the one hand we are to live, serve and witness in the world. On the other hand, we are to avoid becoming contaminated by the world. So, we are neither to seek to preserve our holiness by escaping from the world nor to sacrifice our holiness by conforming to the world.”
“It is when we begin to see the gravity of sin and the majesty of God that our questions change. No longer do we ask why God finds it difficult to forgive sins, but how he finds it possible.”
“Some Christians sow to the flesh every day and wonder why they do not reap holiness. Holiness is a harvest; whether we reap it or not depends almost entirely on what and where we sow.”
“As we face the cross, then, we can say to ourselves both, “I did it, my sins sent him there,” and “He did it, his love took him there.”
“The very first step to becoming a follower of Jesus Christ is the humble admission that we need him. Nothing keeps us out of the kingdom of God more surely than our pride and self-sufficiency.”
“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.”
“If the Cross of Christ is anything to the mind, it is surely everything – the most profound reality and the sublimest mystery.”
“Life is a pilgrimage of learning, a voyage of discovery, in which our mistaken views are corrected, our distorted notions adjusted, our shallow opinions deepened and some of our vast ignorance’s diminished.”
“We are not, therefore, to regard the cross as defeat and the resurrection as victory. Rather, the cross was the victory won, and the resurrection the victory endorsed, proclaimed and demonstrated.”
“The radical biblical perspective is to see death not as the termination of life but as the gateway to life.”
“The glory of the gospel is that when the Church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it.”
“All true worship is a response to the self-revelation of God in Christ and Scripture, and arises from our reflection on who He is and what He has done…The worship of God is evoked, informed, and inspired by the vision of God…The true knowledge of God will always lead us to worship.”
“We must freely admit that our minds, being finite, cannot possibly discover God by their own efforts. We depend on God to make himself known. I am not saying that we should suspend rational thinking. On the contrary, the psalmist encourages us not to be ‘like the horse or the mule which have no understanding.’ We must use our minds; but we must also admit their limitations.”
“The forgiveness of God is a gift to be received, not a reward to be merited.”
“Love for God is not an emotional experience so much as a moral commitment.”
“The purpose of prayer is emphatically not to bend God’s will to ours, but rather to align our will to his.”
“Greatness in the kingdom of God is measured in terms of obedience.”
2 All of the following quotes are from the website below:
John R.W. Stott Quotes (Author of The Cross of Christ) (goodreads.com)