A weak understanding of what the Bible says about sin is tied to a weak understanding of what the Bible says is achieved by the cross.
Interpretation
Understanding sin enhances our comprehension of the significance of the cross.
This quote emphasizes that a shallow grasp of sin leads to a limited understanding of the redemptive power of the cross in Christian theology. The implication is that both concepts are interlinked, and a deeper insight into one can enrich our understanding of the other, highlighting the importance of studying both aspects in the context of faith.
In practice
In a sermon about redemption, this quote could underscore the importance of understanding sin.
Both God's love and God's wrath are ratcheted up in the move from the old covenant to the new, from the Old Testament to the New. These themes barrel along through redemptive history, unresolved, until they come to a resounding climax - in the cross.
It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others.
Many of us in our praying are like nasty little boys who ring front door bells and run away before anyone answers.
There is a certain kind of maturity that can be attained only through the discipline of suffering.
The kingdom of heaven is worth infinitely more than the cost of discipleship, and those who know where the treasure lies joyfully abandon everything else to secure it.
Failure to believe stems from moral failure to recognize the truth, not from want of evidence, but from willful neglect or distortion of the evidence.
Peace can only be secured by justice; never by force of arms.
Events, once happened, lose reality, alter with a glance, a storm, a night. In time, the past never happened. But who could know? Who could know that the past is not as solid as this instant.
The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.
We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.
What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself.
There would be no great men if there were no little ones.
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