How can we love a holy God? The simplest answer I can give to this vital question is that we can’t. Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him.


R.C. Sproul

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

The great question for us now is, Do we believe in that love of God which Christ taught by His words...
JAMES HASTINGS RASHDALL
God will never disappoint us… If deep in our hearts we suspect that God does not love us and canno...
ELISABETH ELLIOT
There is only one way of salvation. Men are sinful rebels against God, by nature, enemies of holines...
JAMES R. WHITE
Our God is Holy, His Name is Holy, His Throne is Holy, His Spirit is Holy, His Son is Holy, His Book...
KIMTO OCHE EMMANUEL
Human nature must be changed if we are ever to have an end to war or to correct the wrong situations...
PETER MARSHALL
Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877 I can see no intellectual objection to ...
DONALD O. SOPER
If deep in our hearts we suspect that God does not love us and cannot manage our affairs as well as ...
ELISABETH ELLIOT
Though we may not necessarily forfeit our lives in service to our God, we can certainly demonstrate ...
THOMAS S. MONSON
If in our hearts we really don’t believe that God loves us as we are, if we are still tainted by t...
BRENNAN MANNING
God's grace is amazing! We're saved by grace - God's undeserved favor - and we live by g...
JOYCE MEYER
We live aware of God moment by moment. He is not part of our lives; He is our life.
CRAIG GROESCHEL
Discussing God is not the best use of our energy. If we touch the Holy Spirit, we touch God not as a...
THICH NHAT HANH
My true religion, my faith in God. He gives me love and compassion. I simply return them by loving a...
ANN MARIE AGUILAR
How nearly is natural affection connected with the love of God (for if we love not our Brother whom ...
NATHANIEL SMITH
Why is it that it is often easier for us to confess our sins to God than to a brother? God is holy a...
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all lo...
J.C. RYLE
The Resurrection miracle is nothing to you and me if it is only an event of eighteen centuries bygon...
EDWARD EVERETT HALE
We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, ou...
BRENNAN MANNING
Our message is of truth, love and faith in a peaceful, respectful manner. We are created by God in G...
JENNIFER HALL
...we have chosen to speak of spirituality ultimately as the way in which we live out our respons...
JANET O. HAGBERG
Only God can give us a selfless love for others, as the Holy Spirit changes us from within. This is ...
BILLY GRAHAM
As we mature in faith, our willingness is tested, expanded, and refined. We become more conscious of...
JEANNETTE A. BAKKE
We are not looking for power, ... We are not looking for prestige. We are here because we care very,...
CHUCK COLSON
Our calling is not primarily to be holy women, but to work for God and for others with Him. Our holi...
FLORENCE ALLSHORN
If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit i...
OSWALD CHAMBERS
By having the Holy Spirit inside us, we can spread the Kingdom of God wherever we go
SUNDAY ADELAJA
35. God is entitled to a portion of our income—not because He needs it but because we need to give...
JAMES C. DOBSON
We shall say without hesitation that the atheist who is moved by love is moved by the Spirit of God;...
SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE
I know with all my heart and soul that God lives. I believe He will enlighten our lives with His lov...
JAMES E. FAUST
The Holy Ghost brings back memories of what God has taught us. And one of the ways God teaches us is...
HENRY B. EYRING
The greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make ...
LEONARD RAVENHILL
We came to say, the Quran is our constitution, we are committed to God and his holy book. God willin...
ISMAIL HANIYEH
To show great love for God and our neighbor we need not do great things. It is how much love we pu...
MOTHER TERESA
We cannot know whether we love God, although there may be strong reason for thinking so; but there c...
TERESA OF AVILA
I can love a person in this life only insofar as he tries to advance in the praise and service of Go...
SAINT IGNATIUS
But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, / Not by works of right...
BIBLE
Every woman and every man is the mother of God when we carry Jesus in our heart and body through a d...
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (LETTER TO THE FAITHFUL I
We do not build the kingdom of God on earth by our own efforts (however assisted by grace); the most...
HANS URS VON BALTHASAR
In Him we have . . . the forgiveness of sins . . . —Ephesians 1:7

Beware of the pleasan...
OSWALD CHAMBERS
If we hear, in our inner ear, a voice saying we are failures, we are losers, we will never amount to...
DONALD MILLER
Only the supernatural love of God through changed lives can solve the problems that we face in our w...
BILLY GRAHAM
Feast of Paulinus, Bishop of York, Missionary, 644 God is especially present in the hearts of His...
JOHN ROBINSON
We, like the people of Israel, would like to think we get to name God. By naming God, we hope to get...
STANLEY HAUERWAS
To be convinced in our hearts that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is ...
MARTIN LUTHER
If a man say, 'I love God,' and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his...
JOHN THE APOSTLE
We can do nothing on our own except by the power of the Holy Spirit.
LAILAH GIFTY AKITA
Lament is a cry of belief in a good God, a God who has His ear to our hearts, a God who transfigures...
ANN VOSKAMP
Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871 Bu...
MILFORD C. OLSON
What we would like to do is change the world--make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, a...
DOROTHY DAY
Life is a crusade in the service of God. Whether we wished to or not, we set out as crusaders to fre...
NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS
Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being.
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
The yogi can relate to his Beloved in the form of a personal relationship-as a friend, a child, a sp...
PREM PRAKASH
Commemoration of Eglantine Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of 'Save the Children', 1928 Following...
J. B. PHILLIPS
To surrender our control is to become vulnerable to pain, but within that vulnerability there is pow...
LEIF ERICSSON LEO VENESS
The same God who loves us as we are also loves us to much to leave us as we are. Perhpas because we ...
JOSEPH LANGFORD
God has created us and poured love into our hearts so that we may do our best to alleviate the suffe...
DADA VASWANI
God gives us His spirit , while we give Him our bodies by fully submitting to Him and doing His will
SUNDAY ADELAJA
But since cause and effect is under the personal control of God, He can introduce into the situation...
KENNETH L. PIKE
The nativity mystery “conceived from the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary”, means, that...
KARL BARTH
We must face the recognition that what the early Christians saw in Jesus Christ, and what we must ac...
H. RICHARD NIEBUHR
Our assurance is anchored in the love and grace of God expressed in the glorious exchange: our sin f...
TULLIAN TCHIVIDJIAN
A person who goes in search of God is wasting his time. He can walk a thousand roads and join many r...
PAULO COELHO
It's not the law of religion nor the principles of morality that define our highways and pathways to...
C. JOYBELL C.
We don’t find God
in temples and cathedrals.
We don’t find Him
by standing on a <...
KAMAND KOJOURI
For god is nothing other than the eternally creative source of our relational power, our common stre...
CARTER HEYWARD
On the question of relating to our fellowman - our neighbor's spiritual need transcends every comman...
EDITH STEIN
If you don’t delight in the fact that your Father is holy, holy, holy, then you are spiritually de...
R.C. SPROUL
We will not be measured by the world’s standards anymore. We will be measured by the plumb line of...
TERESA SCHULTZ
You know when we are blessed when our love strengthens for each other, that’s how you know God has...
FRANCESCO NICHOLAS CECE
We were made for God. Only by being in some respect like Him, only by being a manifestation of His b...
C.S. LEWIS
Holy Child of God, You are a Beautiful Creation of a Loving God. Let not the dreams of the world per...
DAVID HOFFMEISTER
Feast of Juliana of Norwich, Mystic, Teacher, c.1417 I saw full surely in this and in all, that e...
JULIANA OF NORWICH
Unless you love God, can you be able to love your neighbour.
LAILAH GIFTY AKITA
The spirit of bondage works by fear for the slave fears the rod: but love cries, Abba, Father; it di...
JONATHAN EDWARDS
Using our Imagination to be closer to God is how we will achieve the mountain top of love
STEVEN ESPINOSA
If we delight in God, He shall give us our hearts desires.
LAILAH GIFTY AKITA
But we all suffer. For we all prize and love; and in this present existence of ours, prizing and lov...
NICHOLAS WOLTERSTORFF
Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protectio...
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Poetry is itself a thing of God; He made his prophets poets;and the more We feel of poesie do ...
PHILIP JAMES BAILEY
Concluding a short series on prayer: He that seeks God in everything is sure to find God in everyt...
WILLIAM LAW
God called us to live a holy life by his grace.
LAILAH GIFTY AKITA
If we are interested in Christ by faith, notwithstanding our imperfections and sins, God will be our...
ADONIRAM JUDSON
Love is a gift from God, and as we obey His laws and genuinely learn to serve others, we develop God...
DAVID B. HAIGHT
By reading quotes i realized that some of them containing simple words, but this simple words could ...
ABOOD DWEIK
If we can find God only as he is revealed in nature we have no moral God.
REINHOLD NIEBUHR
If we can find God only as he is revealed in nature we have no moral God
REINHOLD NIEBUHR
If our love of God does not directly influence, and even change, how we engage in the issues of our ...
RICHARD ROHR
God tells us not to question him, is this because he can not answer our questions?
LIVVY ANDERSON
God is glorified in his people by the way we experience him, not merely by the way we think about hi...
JOHN PIPER
We may seek God by our intellect, but we only can find him with our heart.
COTVOS
The creation of man is evidence for the love of God, the preservation of man is evidence for the pat...
CRISS JAMI
We cannot count on God to arrange what happens in our lives in ways that will make us feel good.We c...
LARRY CRABB
I know how much you grieve over those who are under your care: those you try to help and fail, those...
IRIS MURDOCH
On the question of relating to our fellowman - our neighbor's spiritual need transcends every co...
EDITH STEIN
How can we be witnesses of the one true God if we hold the truth as our own possession? God meant hi...
FRANCINE RIVERS
We are Not Our thought , return to being in You and enjoy the Love that shared by the God(infinity).
SUSHIL SINGH
Despite our earnest efforts, we couldn't climb all the way up to God. So what did God do? In an amaz...
WILLIAM H. WILLIMON
God freely created us so that we might know, love, and serve him in this life and be happy with him ...
IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA
You (God) have not only commanded continence, that is, from what things we are to restrain our love,...
SAINT AUGUSTINE
The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.
JULIAN OF NORWICH

More R.C. Sproul

The simplistic way of not conforming is to see what is in style in our culture and then do the oppos...
R.C. SPROUL
Our lives say much more about how we think than our books do. The theories we preach are not always ...
R.C. SPROUL
If you don’t delight in the fact that your Father is holy, holy, holy, then you are spiritually de...
R.C. SPROUL
How we understand the person and character of God the Father affects every aspect of our lives. It a...
R.C. SPROUL
Prayer does change things, all kinds of things. But the most important thing it changes is us. As we...
R.C. SPROUL
Most Christians salute the sovereignty of God but believe in the sovereignty of man.
R.C. SPROUL
I rest solely in His righteousness and in His atonement because I know there is nothing I can do to ...
R.C. SPROUL
I cannot read God's mind, however I can read God's Word.
R.C. SPROUL
When we understand the character of God, when we grasp something of His holiness, then we begin to u...
R.C. SPROUL
Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme in...
R.C. SPROUL
God’s grace is not infinite. God is infinite, and God is gracious. We experience the grace of an i...
R.C. SPROUL
For a Christian to be a Christian, he must first be a sinner. Being a sinner is a prerequisite for b...
R.C. SPROUL
I'm afraid that in the United States of America today the prevailing doctrine of justification is no...
R.C. SPROUL
To say that God's sovereignty is limited by man's freedom is to make man sovereign.
R.C. SPROUL
The most obscene symbol in human history is the Cross; yet in its ugliness it remains the most eloqu...
R.C. SPROUL
We want to be saved from our misery, but not from our sin. We want to sin without misery, just as th...
R.C. SPROUL
The clearest sensation that a human being has when he experiences the holy is an overpowering and ov...
R.C. SPROUL
If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sover...
R.C. SPROUL
Death is a divine appointment.
R.C. SPROUL
The day of one's birth is a good day for the believer, but the day of death is the greatest day that...
R.C. SPROUL
It is fashionable in some academic circles to exercise scholarly criticism of the Bible. In so doing...
R.C. SPROUL
It is a profound political reality that Christ now occupies the supreme seat of cosmic authority. Th...
R.C. SPROUL
I do not want to drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who believed the numbers in structura...
R.C. SPROUL
Every sin is an act of cosmic treason, a futile attempt to dethrone God in His sovereign authority.
R.C. SPROUL
The concept of divine revelation was central to Augustine's epistemology, or theory of knowledge. R.C. SPROUL If we are unconverted, one thing is absolutely certain: We hate God.
R.C. SPROUL
Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.
R.C. SPROUL
Was Luther crazy? Perhaps. But if he was, our prayer is that God would send to this earth an epidemi...
R.C. SPROUL
What accounts for Luther's behavior? One things is certain: Whatever defense mechanisms normal peopl...
R.C. SPROUL
Death frightens us. When we see another person die, we are reminded that we are also mortal, that so...
R.C. SPROUL
The tongue is a restless evil, full o deadly poison. This was the realization of Isaiah. He recogniz...
R.C. SPROUL
The kingdom of God is not our only inheritance. In His last will and testament, Jesus left His heirs...
R.C. SPROUL
To be a saint means to be separated. But it means more than that. The saint also is to be involved i...
R.C. SPROUL
I was new Christian. My conversation had been sudden and dramatic, a replica for me of the Damascus ...
R.C. SPROUL
It’s dangerous to assume that because a person is drawn to holiness in his study that he is thereb...
R.C. SPROUL
It is one thing to fall victim to the flood or to fall prey to cancer; it is another thing to fall i...
R.C. SPROUL
The idea of holiness is so central to biblical teaching that it is said of God, “Holy is his name�...
R.C. SPROUL
True faith always produces real conformity to Christ.
R.C. SPROUL
Luther examined the Great Commandment, "'Live the Lord your God with all your heart and with all you...
R.C. SPROUL
Why would the disciples invent a God whose holiness was more terrifying than the forces of nature th...
R.C. SPROUL
It has been said that nothing dispels a lie faster than the truth; nothing exposes the counterfeit f...
R.C. SPROUL
Holiness provokes hatred. The greater the holiness, the greater the human hostility toward it. It se...
R.C. SPROUL
The cliche is that misery loves company. Another is that there is fellowship among thieves. But thie...
R.C. SPROUL
To be conformed to Jesus, we must first begin to think as Jesus did. We need the "mind of Christ." W...
R.C. SPROUL
We tend to have mixed feelings about the holy. There is a sense in which we are at the same time att...
R.C. SPROUL
When God's justice falls, we are offended because we think God owes perpetual mercy. We must not tak...
R.C. SPROUL
The most violent expression of God's wrath and justice is seen in the Cross. If ever a person had ro...
R.C. SPROUL
The more faithful preachers are to the Word of God in their preaching, the more liable they are to t...
R.C. SPROUL
It is one thing to believe in God; it is quite another to believe God.
R.C. SPROUL
The prayer of faith is a prayer of trust. The very essence of faith is trust.
R.C. SPROUL
I’ve often wondered where Jesus would apply His hastily made whip if He were to visit our culture....
R.C. SPROUL
We do not segment our lives, giving some time to God, some to our business or schooling, while keepi...
R.C. SPROUL
Together my wife and I are building the kingdom of God, exercising dominion, beating back the weeds ...
R.C. SPROUL JR.
I long for the solitude
of a sunset at sea,
and the chill of the breeze
coming in with the...
R.C. GIBBONS
When a man retires and time is no longer a matter of urgent importance, his colleagues generally pre...
R.C. SHERRIFF
Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. The stars are always there.
R.C. LEWIS
The way the audience treats you in those situations is way different. I'd say it's good to have a ba...
DANIEL SPROUL
We're all on the same page, as far as doing what's right and waiting for the right time. We had some...
DANIEL SPROUL
I saw the advertisements and decided to come. It was really cool that Monica Rao decided to spend ti...
JAKE SPROUL
Perhaps. Or perhaps it's a tradition of covering first albums.
JAKE SPROUL
If we were going to do this for the first time and we're covering a Led Zeppelin album, let's do Led...
JAKE SPROUL
Brendan is a really cool guy. It was a really cool thing to hang out with him in this niche environm...
JAKE SPROUL
Don Bradman will bat no more against England, and two contrary feelings dispute within us: relief, t...
R.C. ROBERTSON-GLASGOW
I had actually gone to a church-related college, but I went on a football scholarship, not because o...
R. C. SPROUL
'Economics for Everybody' begins with understanding God's principles for organizing His ...
R. C. SPROUL
For (Martin) Luther, the sola of "Sola Scriptura" was inseparably related to the Scriptures' unique ...
R. C. SPROUL