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.
Alcohol is perfectly consistent in its effects upon man. Drunkenness is merely an exaggeration. A foolish man drunk becomes maudlin; a bloody man, vicious; a coarse man, vulgar.
We do not wish to enter Heaven until our work is done, for it would make us uneasy if there were one single soul left to be saved by our means.
Lies are infinite in number, and the truth so small and singular.
If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that avarice, anger, pride and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes.
The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.
To become who we are as creatures made in the image and likeness of God, we have to be nothing and everything at once, since this is what God is. ... If we accept who we are, we are manifesting God and radiating Christ. The latter unfolding of the divine life within us does not need to go anywhere _x000D_ or do anything special.
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