#merit

In Him we have . . . the forgiveness of sins . . . —Ephesians 1:7 Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours. Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God, this price had to be paid. Never accept a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the atonement He cannot forgive— He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the supernatural realm. Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin. Paul never got away from this. Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God. ↗

— Oswald Chambers

#christ #forgiveness #god #unmerited-grace #experience

The oak has long been an enduring and mighty tree. It is truly a part of our national heritage and it merits the formal distinction of America's National Tree. ↗

— Bob Goodlatte

#been #distinction #enduring #formal #heritage

I could give you some names of Workshop participants who are as good as many who are being published but haven't had the right editor recognize their merit or have not been adequately published. ↗

— James Gunn

#been #being #could #editor #give

I know more than anyone the divergent views about my father. I want to be judged on my own merits. ↗

— Park Geun-hye

#anyone #divergent #father #i #judged

Miller didn't write Death of a Salesman. He released it. It was there inside him, waiting to be turned loose. That's the measure of its merit. ↗

— Elia Kazan

#him #inside #loose #measure #merit

The unions say 'last hired - first fired,', we say hire and fire based on merit. We want the best and brightest in the classroom. ↗

— Scott Walker

#best #brightest #classroom #fire #fired

Now things have changed for the better. Our reforms end seniority and tenure so we can hire and fire based on merit and pay based on performance. That means we can put the best and the brightest in our classrooms - and we can keep them there. ↗

— Scott Walker

#best #better #brightest #changed #classrooms

I am willing to compete on my merits and on my character - not with the color of my skin. We talk about being a color-blind society, but I don't think the political process could actually handle that. ↗

— J. C. Watts

#actually #am #being #character #color

A necessary consequent of religious belief is the attaching ideas of merit to that belief, and of demerit to its absence. ↗

— Francis Wright

#attaching #belief #consequent #ideas #merit

So that's why one of my rules of parody writing is that it's gotta be funny regardless of whether you know the source material. It has to work on its own merit. ↗

— Al Yankovic

#gotta #know #material #merit #own