Quotes by David Garland
David Garland (b. 1947) — Neutestamentler / Theologe · Baptistisch / Evangelikal · USA
David E. Garland (* 1947) ist ein US-amerikanischer baptistischer Theologe und Neutestamentler, der über Jahrzehnte am Southern Baptist Theological Seminary sowie an der Baylor University lehrte. Er ist vor allem für seine fundierten Bibelkommentare zu den Evangelien und neutestamentlichen Briefen bekannt, die historische und altgriechische Textanalyse mit theologischer Ausgewogenheit verbinden. Für heutige Bibelleser bieten seine Auslegungen verlässliche Zugänge zum antiken Kontext und den theologischen Grundaussagen des Neuen Testaments.
Era: Today
Recurring topics: God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit, Grace & Redemption, Discipleship, Growth & Character, Temptation & Struggle, Eternity & Hope Beyond Death, Service & Love of Neighbour, Guilt & Forgiveness
Quotes by David Garland
Jesus did not come to reward the deserving but to serve the needy with reckless abandon.
David Garland
A forgiving spirit is the outstretched hand by which we grasp God’s forgiveness.
David Garland
A person should respond not on the basis of how one is treated but on the basis of how one wants to be treated. Maybe nothing happens to enemies. They may hate one all the more, but incredible things happen within the one who lives this ethic out. Hate has nowhere to go except inside. Love frees up energy.
David Garland
Prayer is not a spiritual crowbar or jackhammer that pries open God’s willingness to act but a means by which Christians open themselves up to God – to grasp God’s will and be grasped by it.
David Garland
[When God tests us] discipline and purification are usually the object, not punishment and destruction.
David Garland
God’s grace does not mean that God benignly accepts humans in all their fallenness, forgives them, and then leaves them in that fallenness. God is in the business not of whitewashing sins but of transforming sinners.
David Garland
We ought not to expect to receive from God what we are not prepared to bestow on others.
David Garland
When the devil comes to [tempt], he is not in control or all-powerful. He can be resisted, and Christians have a far more powerful ally in the Holy Spirit to fend him off.
David Garland
Jesus Christ can only be preached as the crucified one, and no one can preach Christ crucified to win personal renown.
David Garland
The Savior who dies on a shameful cross was placed in a lowly trough for barn animals when He was born.
David Garland
Grace is not something that one earns or gets; it is something that one can only receive.
David Garland
The promise of reward remains in heaven, but the joy of anticipation can be experienced now on earth.
David Garland
[In explaining his imprisonment, the Apostle] Paul subtly notifies his readers that proclaiming the mystery of Christ crucified is more likely to open the door to a prison cell for them instead of the door to financial and social success.
David Garland
The cross must be borne before the crown can be worn.
David Garland
The story of Christmas celebrates the fulfillment of God’s promises and the incarnation of God in human flesh. That meaning is memorably captured by John 3:16. God loves, and God gives in order to save… It meant giving rather than getting, and Christ gave until He was empty; but His obedience led to an empty tomb and ultimate vindication that will culminate when throngs in heaven and on earth and under the earth, not just a host of angels, will bow down and sing glory in the highest to the One whose name is above every name.
David Garland
Knowledge provides the illusion of certainty, which then becomes a poor substitute for the more vital confidence of faith.
David Garland
“Cross-bearing” derives from the Roman custom of making condemned persons carry their crossbar to the place of execution…. It implies that one’s life in this world is already finished.
David Garland
The sentimental Christmas may be popular as a religious holiday for some because it can come off as celebrating the birth of a helpless baby. Jesus lies in a manger to be gazed upon and adored, but not to be heard and heeded. A speechless babe wrapped tightly in swaddling cloths seems more obliging in allowing people to tailor their religious beliefs however they see fit.
David Garland
The absolutely worst way to respond to the challenge of secularism is to adapt to secular standards in language, thought, and way of life. If members of a secularist society turn to religion at all, they do so because they are looking for something other than what the culture already provides. It is counterproductive to offer them religion in a secular mode that is carefully trimmed in order not to offend their secular sensibilities.
David Garland
If one sees oneself as being saved without the obligation to be saving, then clearly one needs to grow in salvation. The evidence of salvation – that God’s grace has taken effect in one’s life – is to be found in one’s participation in bringing salvation to others.
David Garland
Prophets…declare what God will do and what God requires. They speak the truth that people often do not want to hear. This rubs against the grain of a culture that treats religion as a consumer item. Those who adjust the Word of God to meet market trends, assuming the consumer is always right, are simply peddlers (2 Cor. 2:17). Those who come to religion assuming that the chief goal of God is to glorify humankind and asking, “What will it all get me?” receive only spiritual chaff.
David Garland
There is a limit beyond which patience, tolerance and charity toward another’s sin ceases to be a virtue.
David Garland
The "flesh" stands for a certain orientation of life. It is the sin-bent self characterized by self-sufficiency that wages war against God… The flesh and the spirit denote not two coexisting parts of the individual, but a contrast of tendencies and loyalties which compete for dominance as powers within each person… It creates estrangement from God that is broken only when persons submit in faith to the gospel and allow God’s Spirit to seize control.
David Garland
Deliverance ministries assume that demons are behind the inability to stop certain sins and addictions, and they tend to look for the quick fix. But sin is not so easily dispatched. Being rid of these sins requires yielding oneself completely to God, and it can take time… What Christians need is not deliverance from demons (from which they have already been delivered) but immersion and submersion in the Holy Spirit.
David Garland
Humans do not bring in God’s reign, build God’s kingdom, hasten its final consummation, or hinder its advance. Jesus’ preaching announces that God is in action and that one’s ultimate well-being is tied to what God is doing, not what they are doing. They can only receive it and enter it or reject it and be swept away in judgment.
David Garland
The danger for us is that we will want to keep up with our entertainment culture and its focus on the eyes by turning our worship into a religious stage show. We must walk a fine line between offering worship that is appealing and engaging without becoming simply a splashy performance, and worship that has depth without becoming tedious and flat.
David Garland
Sources: baylor.edu, zondervan.com, baptistnews.com, texastribune.org
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