More quotations from Robert Farrar Capon…

“Any authentically Christian system is going to have to keep off the kick of human merit and demerit and stick resolutely to a ubiquity of grace that overrides the subject of human works.”

“Salvation is not a matter of getting a reward that will make up for a rotten deal; it is a matter of entering by faith into the happiness – the hilarity beyond all liking and happening – that has been pounding on our door all along.”

“Only when you are finally able, with the publican, to admit that you are dead will you be able to stop balking at grace.”

“In the Bible, as a matter of fact, God does so many ungodly things – like not remembering our sins, erasing the quite correct handwriting against us, and becoming sin for us – that the only safe course is to come to Scripture with as few stipulations as possible.”

“Adultery can indeed be pleasant, and tying one on can amuse. But betrayal, jealousy, love grown cold, and the gray dawn of the morning after are nobody’s idea of a good time.”

“At the very worst, all you can be is dead – and for him who is the Resurrection and the Life, that just makes you his cup of tea.”

“For the church to act as if it dare not have any dealings with sinners is as much a betrayal of its mission as it would be for a hospital to turn away sick people or for a carpenter to refuse to touch rough-cut wood.”

“The Bible is about the mystery of the kingdom – a mystery that, by definition, is something well hidden and not at all likely to be grasped by plausibility-loving minds.”