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Quote by Ruth Chou Simons

“Now we are getting to the heart of how the Gospel differs from the moral grid. As one writer put it, 'The main thing between you and God is not your sins, but your damnable good works.' Ouch. And herein lies the whole reason why we must cease striving through good works: they do not save. If there is a gospel of self-improvement, it is a damning one. It is a gospel that is not good news at all. It will wall you if, shrivel you up, and destroy your sensitivity to God's pursuit. This is why it must be utterly destroyed and replaced with the true gospel of life-transforming grace.”

Quote by Ruth Chou Simons

Book:When Strivings Cease: Replacing the Gospel of Self-Improvement with the Gospel of Life-Transforming Grace
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When Strivings Cease: Replacing the Gospel of Self-Improvement with the Gospel of Life-Transforming Grace

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Ruth Chou Simons

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“And after the repentance, dearover, comes the truly hard part—you must learn how to let the shame go. It has its purpose, a right and needful one. It can take us to life and repentance and return us to God. But if we’re not careful, it can just as easily carry us away and drown us.… Guard against that. But only after you are once again clean.” Mam dipped her head down to catch Senara’s gaze. “Aye? You must take it to the Lord, Senara. And then let Him truly take it from you.”

ChristianSinShameRepentanceChristian Living
Book:To Treasure an Heiress
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“Therefore, all your care and attention must be concentrated on keeping watch, and it is particularly necessary for you to guard against sin in the place where it usually begins, to resist temptation at once the very first time it appears and thus to eliminate the evil before it can grow and spread. When something has to be feared from its smallest beginnings and is the more easily overcome the more speedily it is resisted, one must not wait for it to grow; that is why divine scripture exclaims: Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life (Pr.4.23). 27, 1. One has to make a distinction, however, between those of one’s thoughts which the will favors and embraces affectionately, and those which are wont to flit past the mind like an insubstantial shadow and merely show a glimpse of themselves in passing - the Greeks call them typoi, ‘impressions’ - and also those, to be sure, which offer promptings to a mind which is resistant and unwilling and as glad when they are expelled as it was sad when they were admitted in the first place. In those which show themselves only fleetingly to the mind and reveal themselves as if in flight, there is no underlying sin at all and no sign of fight; but with those which the soul struggles against for some time and which the will resists, we can expect an even contest. Either we consent to them and are conquered or we reject them and conquer them and win a victory in battle. Thus sin exists only in the thought which has given the mind’s consent to a suggestion, which flatters and fosters its own evil tendency and longs for it to erupt into action. This kind of thought, even if it is prevented from reaching any outcome and so fails to fulfill the wish that lies behind it, is nevertheless condemned as a criminal act by the Lord.”

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Book:The Letters of Pelagius
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