1. At the heart of The Idiot is Dostoevsky's confession of faith and the confession of all Christians.
  2. Faith is like a horse with blinders because it only beholds God’s promise. It is obsessed with what God has already said.
  3. Vilification of the other is married to the justification of the self.
  4. 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.
  5. In Jesus, the most totalizing summary of the law becomes the gospel of the one made perfect through obedience.
  6. Moses is no Jesus but he, like us, is saved by Him. The law cannot enter the promised land, and yet the true and greater promised land is occupied by nothing but lawbreakers.
  7. Through Martin Luther, God would unleash a far greater storm than the one which overwhelmed Luther on July 2, 1505.
  8. With every bone in our bodies, we declare war on grace. We declare war on the gift.
  9. The undercurrent of Scripture is the sheer fact that Jehovah God is a God of his word.
  10. The world hates Jesus because he comes to lead us to love and forgive all, including our enemies.
  11. 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.