Machen “The Person of Jesus” Quotes
Over this summer I read through the radio addresses of J. Gresham Machen that he gave back in the 1930’s shortly before his death. What a delightful read! Here’s some of the quotes I found most helpful.
“We should never say with regard to a human friend that it makes no difference whether our view of him is right or wrong. How, then, can we say that absurd thing with regard to God?”
If we think of God as having some attributes which we also possess, we may conceivably be doing it for one or the other of two reasons. In the first place, we may be doing it because we are making God in our own image. But, in the second place, we may be doing it because God made us in his image.
The Bible tells us that this second alternative is correct. God made man in the image of God, and that is the reason why possesses some attributes which man also possesses *wisdom, justice, goodness, truth), though God possesses them to an infinitely higher degree.”
“God is no pale abstraction. He is a person. That simple truth…is more profound than all the philosophies of all the ages”
“The Christian believes that there is a personal God, Creator and Ruler of the universe, a God who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. So when the Christian says that Jesus Christ is God, or when he says that he believes in the deity of Christ, he means that that same person who is known to history as Jesus of Nazareth existed, before he became man, from all eternity as infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God, the second person of the holy Trinity.”
“Jesus does not present himself merely as an example for faith but presents himself as the object of faith “
“Jesus was a blasphemer if he was a mere man. At that point the enemies saw clearly. You may accept the lofty claims of Jesus. You may take him as very God. Or else you must reject him as a miserable, deluded enthusiast. There is really no middle ground. Jesus refuses to be pressed into the mold of a mere religious teacher.”
“The extreme skepticism of the day will always be refuted by common sense”
“The belief of the disciples in the resurrection, according to the New Testament, was due simply to the fact of the resurrection. Those disciples came to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead for the simple reason that Jesus had risen from the dead.”
