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Famous Brian Zahnd Quotes

“Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ Jesus didn’t reply, ‘Well, you’ve got a Bible verse. If the Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it. Where are the rocks? Let’s get this stoning started!’ No, Jesus says something new: ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ That wasn’t what the Law said, but Jesus was revealing the heart of God, not giving a conservative reading of the Torah. Jesus gives us a new ethic of life-affirming mercy, which sets aside the old ethic that supported death penalties. Biblicists who desire to condemn sinners to death can quote the Bible by citing Moses. But Jesus says something else. [...] We cannot create Christian ethics while ignoring Christ!”

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Book:Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God: The Scandalous Truth of the Very Good News
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“When Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them,” what was forgiven? Everything. Not only the betrayal committed by Judas; not only the murder committed by Barabbas; not only the false accusations leveled by Caiaphas; not only the unjust sentence handed down by Pontius Pilate; not only the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus; not only the jeering crowd who mocked Jesus, but everything! Every sin, every transgression, every act of idolatry, every deed of injustice, every stone-age murder, every space-age iniquity, every notorious crime, every hidden sin—it was all forgiven. On Good Friday all the sins of the world became a single sin that it might be forgiven once and forever. This is what makes Good Friday good!”

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Book:The Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross - Library Edition
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