Craig T. Owens

Yesterday I reviewed John MacArthur’s book The Truth About Forgiveness. Here are five of my favorite quotes from this book.

“These days everything wrong with humanity is likely to be explained as an illness. What we used to call sin is more easily diagnosed as a whole array of disabilities. All kinds of immorality and evil conduct are now identified as symptoms of this or that psychological illness. Criminal behavior, various perverse passions, and every imaginable addiction have all been made excusable by the crusade to label them medical afflictions. Even commonplace problems, such as emotional weakness, depression, and anxiety, are also almost universally defined as quasi-medical, rather than spiritual, afflictions. …In place of evil, therapeutic society has substituted ‘illness’; in place of consequences, it urges therapy and understanding; in place of responsibility, it argues for a personality driven by impulses. The illness excuse has become almost routine in cases of public misconduct.”

“The world’s wisdom: Guilt is a virtual mental defect. Don’t let it ruin your self-image. …Guilt functions in the spiritual realm like pain in the material realm. Pain tells us there is a physical problem that must be dealt with or the body will suffer harm. Guilt is a spiritual pain in the soul that tells us something is evil and needs to be confronted and cleansed.” 

“God does not love us ‘for what we are.’ He loves us in spite of what we are. … God loves us because He is love; love is essential to who He is. Rather than viewing His love as proof of something worthy in us, we ought to be humbled by it.”

“There can be no salvation for those who aren’t convinced of the seriousness of their sin. There can be no word of reconciliation for sinners who remain oblivious to their estrangement from God. True fear of God cannot grip those who are blind to the depth of their sinfulness. And no mercy is available for those who do not tremble at God’s holy threats. In other words, to attempt to eradicate the human conscience is one of the most spiritually destructive pursuits any individual or society can engage in.”

“You need to forsake your sin regularly, seeking not the pardon of an angry Judge but the forgiveness of your loving Father—displeased and grieved, yet loving all the same.”