Can you recall a time in your life when someone has said something to you that changed the way you saw the world? . . .

A few years ago, I was preparing to teach at a recovery ministry event. A fellow leader and I were discussing some nuances on how I could best communicate a key point. This may seem a bit obscure, but he shared a phrase from the Protestant Reformation that forever shifted my thinking. These words have both haunted my theological point of view and given me great comfort ever since. It’s the crescendo statement of Martin Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, “God’s love does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it.” . . . Let it seep into your bones.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, 102-103.

The Christian life isn’t a climb to spiritual excellence and achievement; it’s a pattern of death and resurrection. Repentance and forgiveness. This is the circular pattern of the Christian life. Where the Law has said “do this and live” (and it never gets done), Jesus says, “I have done it all,” and the believer rests in that finished work. Repentance and forgiveness, repentance and forgiveness until we get that big old dirt nap. As we’ve said all along, God deals in death and resurrections, so it’s going to work out.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, 91.

Sometimes I wonder why God used bread and wine to deliver grace to us. But then I think, maybe it’s because when we’re eating it’s the only time we shut up and stop talking. We stop talking about our future plans or even our own failures. While our mouths are busy consuming, God gives us the pure gift of himself. You don’t have to do anything special or be anywhere special in order to receive that.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, 58.

It’s true. We Christians can buy into some pretty dumb things sometimes.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, 13.

It’s only by faith that we can grasp that God reveals his character on the cross. On the cross, God subverted everything we intuitively understand about power.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, 10.

In 2012, a scholarly study came out that attempted to answer how Christians can come to such opposing conclusions when they look at political issues through the eyes of their faith. The basic gist of the study was that Christians characterize Jesus in their own image and project their politics and priorities onto the divine will.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, 7.

Even Jesus’s disciples — the twelve men who had spent three years with him — continually missed the point of who he was and what he was up to. They wanted a king to overthrow the Romans and restore their people to cultural, political, and religious significance. They thought they needed a powerful military leader unafraid of storming the castle. Instead, they got a Savior who died on a cross.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, 5.

The Jesus being portrayed in our megachurch culture was beginning to feel more and more cartoonish and one dimensional — as if Jesus were a sort of pop-culture guru building an empire by selling spiritual commoditites to accessorize the American dream. This wasn’t the Jesus I’d read about in the Bible.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, xii.

What is voting? Should Christians vote? How should Christians vote? Who should Christians vote for?

Lots of folks are asking these questions. Lots of disagreement, e.g.,

Consider applying this scriptural formula for holy living to voting in the upcoming election (from Joel R. Beeke, Living for God’s Glory, Loc. 2771).

“[W]e should develop a scriptural formula for holy living before God and man.

“When hesitating over a course of action, ask yourself the following questions, based on 1 Corinthians:

“1. Does this glorify God? (1 Cor. 10:3 1)

“2. Is this consistent with the lordship of Christ? (1 Cor. 7:23)

“3. Is this consistent with biblical examples? (1 Cor. 11:1)

“4. Is this lawful and beneficial for me-spiritually, mentally, and physically? (1 Cor. 6:9-12)

“5. Does this help others positively and not hurt others unnecessarily? (1 Cor. 10:33; 8:13)

“6. Does this bring me under any enslaving power? (1 Cor. 6:12)”

Similar to the preexilic prophets, Daniel merges the story of Israel with the cosmic story of the nations begun in Genesis 1-11. The restoration of Israel is cast into the light of — indeed, apparently subordinated to — God’s ultimate plan for all of human history. The restoration of Israel is swallowed up by the larger theme of the kingdom of God.

J. Daniel Hays, The Message of the Prophets, 73.