Quotes from GC Berkouwer

Worthy partakers are those who confess their sins in self-abhorrence, humiliation, faith in God's promises, and gratefulness of heart. This is the 'worthiness' that belongs to the Lord's Supper. It is not at all meritorious in nature, but is in complete harmony with what is signified and sealed in the Lord's Supper. It is a worthiness that coincides with a confession of 'unworthiness' and with trust in the salvation of God.

Lord, will those who are saved be few?" ... Jesus' answer seems so noncommittal, so evasive ... Strive to enter by the narrow door (Luke 13:23f.) ... this evasiveness is only apparent ... This is the answer to this question ... this question has been answered, once for all time.

Reality and symbolism in the sacraments ... Only if we reject false dilemmas ... it will be possible to delve deeper, to discern the sovereign manner in which God stoops down to us, taking up simple earthly elements and using them for the affirmation and strengthening of our faith.

On the route of faith and action, along with hope, we see that the gospel we believe is far removed from the picture of a future without bearing on the present, a heavenly hope without concern for the neighbour and his world.

The authority of God's Word ... We must be aware of the dangers of an experience-theology ... We must be critical of the suggestion that all scriptural questions could possibly be solved by excluding them on the basis of a childlike faith ... We must warn against a subjectification of authority, which might only become reality through acknowledgment ... We must also speak of the unique authority which can only be acknowledged and experienced on the way.

Grace is at work even in fallen man ... to bend partially back in the right direction those human powers and endowments which were man left to himself would be wholly perverted.

Common grace ... an imperfect solution ... does centre our attention on the gracious act of God in protecting man's corrupt and apostate nature from total demonization.

The true nature of good works cannot be understood apart from Christ who is our 'sanctification' (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Sanctification is not the humanly operated successor to the divinely worked justification.

Genuine sanctification has a 'continued orientation toward justification.

The Spirit alone could perform the miracle of making man walk on the road of sanctity without a sense of his own worth.

The hesitations and doubts that are present at many points in modern theology do not in themselves indicate a deep and final uncertainty... an alienation from the gospel.