Lewis B. Smedes

“Some people still have causes they will not desert, even though the cause seems lost.”

“Our history is an inevitable component of our being. One thing only can release us from the grip of our history. That one thing is forgiveness.”

“The God who has the whole world in his hands has grace for the whole world in his heart.”

“At the cross, God was punishing Jesus for the sins of the world. God's justice required a penalty from sinners, and in his unspeakable love, he paid the penalty himself in the person of his crucified Son.”

“Our sense of fairness tells us that people should pay for the wrong they do.”

“Modern Americans suffer from a fear of judging. Passing judgment on the behavior of fellow human beings is considered an act of medieval, undemocratic intolerance.”

“True, the apostles did not expressly say that people will be saved only if they repent, believe, and confess. But most evangelicals assume - with good reason - that this is what the apostles implied.”

“Forgiving is love's toughest work, and love's biggest risk.”

“Jesus said that we should render to the state what properly belongs to the state, and though he had taxes in mind, we might reasonably infer that giving the state the job of punishing wrongdoers is one way of giving the state its due.”

“The lies we tell ourselves are the most subtle of all lies.”

“When we have been badly injured and clearly wronged, we make an instant caricature of the person who did it to us. We define him totally by the one wrong he did.”

“The Holy Spirit, thank God, often enables people to forgive even though they are not sure how they did it.”

“Retributive justice did not arise from any Christian principle; almost every pre-Christian society dealt with wrongdoers by causing them pain.”

“Some people still make promises and keep those they make. When they do, they help make life around them more stably human.”

“Promise keeping is a powerful means of grace in a time when people hardly depend on each other to remember and live by their word.”

“No one really forgives unless he has been hurt.”

“Our society is pluralistic. We who accept the privilege of membership in that society agree to respect the people's right to live by their own religious precepts.”

“Some people have loved ones they will not forsake, even though they are a pain in the neck.”

“In a sinful world, no community can exist for long where nobody is ever held accountable: no teacher would grade a student's performance; no citizen would sit on a jury or call a failed leader to account.”

“God does not give us salvation because we believe. Our believing is only the normal way of receiving the salvation he freely gives.”