Quotes from Fleming Rutledge

God's justice, as Desmond Tutu insisted, is not retributive but restorative. It is natural that many do not understand this, because "God's love, resisted, is felt as wrath.

Paul calls these Powers by the names of Sin and Death. These Powers cannot be accounted for simply as the product of individual guilt.

Here is an important distinction with far-reaching implications for Christian behavior. The deeds of Christians in this present time — however insignificant they may seem, however "vain" they may appear to those who value worldly success — are already being built into God's advancing kingdom.

From beginning to end, the Holy Scriptures testify that the predicament of fallen humanity is so serious, so grave, so irremediable from within, that nothing short of divine intervention can rectify it.

Whenever we are sure that we are among the righteous, we immediately find ourselves among the arrogant.

If our preaching does not intersect with the times, we are fleeing the call to take up the cross. We can learn from the example of Dostoevsky, who in The Brothers Karamazov used material that he read in the newspapers to give a human face to the problem of evil.

Justice for everyone is an alarming thought because it raises the possibility that it might come upon oneself after all. As the author of Ephesians puts it, "by nature" we are all "children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Eph. 2:3).

If sin is not exposed, named, and renounced, then there has been no justice and God is dishonored.

Perhaps the strongest statement we can make about the resurrection in this book about the crucifixion is that if Jesus had not been raised from the dead, we would never have heard of him.

If we think of Christian theology and ethics purely in terms of forgiveness, we will have neglected a central aspect of God's own character and will be in no position to understand the cross in its fullest dimension.

The New Testament writings all presuppose that the fallen human race and the equally fallen created order are sick unto death beyond human resourcefulness.

America had, I believe, a divine founding. Call it American exceptionalism if you like. But that makes America all the more vulnerable to God's judgment if we become accustomed to glamorizing war, excusing lies, and parading our might and dominance.