1. God’s goodness spoke a promise of peace and mercy to the bewildered, a promise that rings out to this day.
  2. At the heart of The Idiot is Dostoevsky's confession of faith and the confession of all Christians.
  3. Faith is like a horse with blinders because it only beholds God’s promise. It is obsessed with what God has already said.
  4. Sometimes I think we should be more tempted to laugh at the gospel than we are, not in derision but in sheer surprise and awe.
  5. The spirit indeed is willing and desires bodily death as a gentle sleep. It does not consider it to be death; it knows no such thing as death.
  6. With Christ as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, the future is secure already. It’s solid right now, even when the cords seem to be fraying.
  7. History is the painful realization that we aren’t the ones who can save the world but, rather, we’re the ones who get saved.
  8. Christian mercy should not seek its own. It must be round, and open its eyes and look at all alike, friend and foe, as our heavenly Father does.
  9. The undercurrent of Scripture is the sheer fact that Jehovah God is a God of his word.
  10. The worship service is less like servants entering the throne room to wait on the king’s needs and more like a father joining his family around the dining room table.
  11. There’s no possibility of understanding the grace of Romans 6 and the glory of Romans 8 unless you identify with the excruciating struggle of Romans 7.
  12. The only solution to free will is the announcement from a preacher that the Father forgives us for Christ's sake.