John Stott Quotes

63 Sourced Quotes

Because in no other person but the historic Jesus of Nazareth has God become man and lived a human life on earth, died to bear the penalty of our sins, and been raised from death and exalted to glory, there is no other Savior, for there is no other person who is qualified to save.

John Stott
Instead of inflicting upon us the judgment we deserved, God in Christ endured it in our place.

John Stott
Baptism with water is the sign and seal of baptism with the Spirit, as much as it is of the forgiveness of sins. Water-baptism is the initiatory Christian rite, because Spirit-baptism is the initiatory Christian experience.

John Stott
The purpose of prayer is emphatically not to bend God's will to ours, but rather to align our will to his.

John Stott
The major mark of justified believers is joy, especially joy in God himself. We should be the most positive people in the world. For the new community of Jesus Christ is characterized not by a self-centered triumphalism but by a God-centered worship.

John Stott
In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?

John Stott
Social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also of Christian conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God without being thereby converted to our neighbor.

John Stott
Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, 'I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.' Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross.

John Stott
The Bible isn't about people trying to discover God, but about God reaching out to find us.

John Stott
For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God [Gen. 3:1-7], while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man [2 Cor. 5:21]. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be.

John Stott
Moved by the perfection of His holy love, God in Christ substituted Himself for us sinners. That is the heart of the cross of Christ.

John Stott
The truth is that there are such things as Christian tears, and too few of us ever weep them.

John Stott
Every powerful movement has had its philosophy which has gripped the mind, fired the imagination and captured the devotion of its adherents.

John Stott
Perhaps the transformation of the disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the resurrection.

John Stott
Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.

John Stott
The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales.

John Stott
All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousn ess, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.

John Stott
Our love grows soft if it is not strengthened by truth, and our truth grows hard if it is not softened by love.

John Stott
At the cross in holy love God through Christ paid the full penalty of our disobedience himself. He bore the judgment we deserve in order to bring us the forgiveness we do not deserve. On the cross divine mercy and justice were equally expressed and eternally reconciled. God's holy love was 'satisfied.'

John Stott
The question is not so much what the hand is doing (passing over some cash or a check) but what the heart is thinking while the hand is doing it.

John Stott
Nobody can call himself a Christian who does not worship Jesus.

John Stott
The Cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us.

John Stott
Knowledge is indispensable to Christian life and service. If we do not use the mind that God has given us, we condemn ourselves to spiritual superficiality and cut ourselves off from many of the riches of God's grace.

John Stott
Indignation and compassion form a powerful combination. They are indispensable to vision, and therefore to leadership.

John Stott
The other gods were strong; but thou wast weak; they rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but thou alone.

John Stott
Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God.

John Stott
No theology is genuinely Christian which does not arise from and focus on the cross.

John Stott
Word and worship belong indissolubly to each other. All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of His name. Therefore, acceptable worship is impossible without preaching. For preaching is making known the name of the Lord, and worship is praising the name of the Lord made known.

John Stott
God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him. He must disclose to us who he is before we can offer him what we are in acceptable worship. The worship of God is always a response to the Word of God. Scripture wonderfully directs and enriches our worship.

John Stott
There is evidence for the deity of Jesus — good, strong, historical, cumulative evidence; evidence to which an honest person can subscribe without committing intellectual suicide.

John Stott