True freedom is the gift of the Spirit, the result of grace: but, precisely because it is freedom FOR as well as freedom FROM, it isn't simply a matter of being forced now to be good, against our wills and without our cooperation, but a matter of being released from slavery precisely into responsibility, into being able at last to choose, to exercise moral muscle, knowing both that one is doing it oneself and that the Spirit is at work within, that God himself is doing that which I too am doing.
christianity god jesus justification paul

About This Quote

About N.T. Wright

N.T. Wright was a contemporary English anglican bishop. Nicholas Thomas Wright, known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is an English New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • God — Spiritual reflections on the divine, faith, and creation

More quotes by N.T. Wright

“...left to ourselves we lapse into a kind of collusion with entrophy, acquiescing in the general belief that things may be getting worse but that there's nothing much we can do about them. And we a...”
— N.T. Wright
eschatology hope missions resurrection

“What we have at the moment isn't as the old liturgies used to say, 'the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead,' but a vague and fuzzy optimism that somehow things may work out in th...”
— N.T. Wright
eschatology hope resurrection

“Dont misunderstand me. The terrorist actions of Al-Qaeda were and are unmitigatedly evil. But the astonishing naivety which decreed that America as a whole was a pure, innocent victim, so that the ...”
— N.T. Wright
ethnocentrism evil god justice

“If, therefore, those called to office and leadership roles in the church remain content merely to organize and manage the internal affairs of the church, they are leaving a vacuum exactly where the...”
— N.T. Wright
christian scripture

“All Christian language about the future is a set of signposts pointing into a mist.”
— N.T. Wright
christianity future religion

“Unless a person can give reasons, there is, literally, no reason why anyone else should take that person seriously. But without reasons, all we are left with is emotional blackmail. We sometimes ca...”
— N.T. Wright
character church discipleship inspirational
View all quotes by N.T. Wright →

Related Quotes

“The dripping blood our only drink,The bloody flesh our only food:In spite of which we like to thinkThat we are sound, substantial flesh and blood--Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.”
— T.S. Eliot
christianity good-friday jesus spirituality

“...the secret to joy is to keep seeking God where we doubt He is.”
— Ann Voskamp
christianity spirituality

“Joy is thankfulness, and when we are joyful, that is the best expression of thanks we can offer the Lord, Who delivers us from sorrow and sin.”
— Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
christianity eastern-orthodoxy joy joyfulness

“I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: "Go down again - I dwell among the people.”
— John Henry Newman
god inspirational love

“We limit ourselves and God who wants to work through us”
— Sunday Adelaja
god limit money ourselves

“God can only work through those who have totally identified themselves with His will and purpose”
— Sunday Adelaja
god identified purpose totally

“You can't get too far into the Gospels without noticing that Jesus made a pretty lousy apologist.”
— Rachel Held Evans, Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions
jesus spirituality

“True spirituality is "the place where desperation meets Jesus.”
— Mark Batterson
jesus spirituality

“In Jesus the full meaning of peace is revealed: he gave peace, made peace and is our peace (Jn. 14:27; Eph. 2:14f.).”
— Gordon J. Wenham
jesus peace