“With regard to eternal salvation, rather than speaking of belief, trust, or faith in Jesus, we should speak instead of fidelity to Jesus as cosmic Lord or allegiance to Jesus the king.” — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share Image
“The gospel is not just a story about Jesus; it is a transformative story because the gospel unleashes God’s saving power for humanity.” — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“The Greek word pistis, generally rendered “faith” or “belief,” as it pertains to Christian salvation, quite simply has little correlation with “faith” and “belief”… — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“Human salvation is directed toward God's intention to restore individuals, communities, and the world as the kingdom of God continues to break into history.… — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“Jesus proclaimed the one gospel by announcing the inauguration of the kingdom of God as well as its anticipated culmination” — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“the gospel is the power-releasing story of Jesus’s life, death for sins, resurrection, and installation as king, but that story only makes sense in… — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“With regard to eternal salvation, rather than speaking of belief, trust, or faith in Jesus, we should speak instead of fidelity to Jesus as… — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“For reasons that will become clear in due course, I submit that the gospel is not primarily about the necessity of the human response… — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“The gospel has been entrusted to the whole church for the sake of the entire world.” — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“the gospel is the power-releasing story of how Jesus became king and the only adequate response is allegiance alone.” — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“Some still need to be convinced that enacted obedience is essential to salvation. Those who are already persuaded need a more robust theological grammar… — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“God’s superabundant, prior gift is granted without regard to our relative worth, but the reception of God’s gift demands a return gift from us,… — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“The key point is that true pistis is not an irrational launching into the void but a reasonable, action-oriented response grounded in the conviction… — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“gift-giving, or grace, in the ancient world always required reciprocation.” — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“In reading Paul’s summary of the gospel, we quickly recognize that the gospel is not at its most basic level a tale about me… — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
“In short, for many today faith is defined as the opposite of evidence-based truth. This is neither a biblical nor a Christian understanding of… — Matthew W. Bates Copy Share
