Truth has been relegated to subjectivity; beauty has been subjugated to the beholder; and as millions are idiotized night after night, a global commune has been constructed with the arts enjoying a totalitarian rule.
Ravi ZachariasRead
When God is our Holy Father, sovereignty, holiness, omniscience, and immutability do not terrify us; they leave us full of awe and gratitude. Sovereignty is only tyrannical if it is unbounded by goodness; holiness is only terrifying if it is untempered by grace; omniscience is only taunting if it is unaccompanied by mercy; and immutability is only torturous if there is no guarantee of goodwill.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that understanding God's nature with attributes like sovereignty and holiness can inspire awe rather than fear when accompanied by goodness and grace.
Ravi Zacharias points out that the divine attributes of God—sovereignty, holiness, omniscience, and immutability—can evoke fear if viewed independently and without the context of goodness, grace, mercy, and goodwill. He argues that these qualities, when understood as integral to the nature of God, invoke a sense of awe and gratitude, highlighting the importance of a balanced view of divine character that reassures rather than terrifies the faithful.
Themes
GodSovereigntyHolinessAweGratitudeGraceMercyImmutability
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon about the nature of God, this quote can illustrate how faith transforms fear into gratitude.
More from Ravi Zacharias
All quotes →I am convinced that all our attempts to change the letter of the law and to reeducate people have been, and are, merely band-aid solutions for a fatal hemorrhage. The system will never change because our starting point is flawed. The secular view of man can neither give the grandeur that God alone can give, nor can it see the evil within the human heart that God alone can reveal and cure, for atheism implicitly denudes each individual of the grand image God has imprinted upon His creation.
Ravi ZachariasRead
Does that not sound odd to you? When God decides who should live or die, he is immoral, When you decide who should live or die, it's your moral right. There was a pin-drop silence.
Ravi ZachariasRead
Everyone - pantheist, atheist, skeptic, polytheist - has to answer these questions: 'Where did I come from? What is life's meaning? How do I define right from wrong and what happens to me when I die?' Those are the fulcrum points of our existence.
Ravi ZachariasRead
It is the resurrection that makes Good Friday good.
Ravi ZachariasRead
You cannot really have the world and hold on to it. It is all too temporary and the more you try to hold on to it, the more it actually holds you. By contrast, the more you hold on to the true and the good, the more you are free to really live.
Ravi ZachariasRead
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