Quotes from Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

This book was recommended to me by Russell.  We met while I was on sabbatical and had a great conversation about discipleship, gospel, law, grace, parenting and more.  We covered a lot of ground in our 3 hour conversation outside Starbuck's in Dallas. Russell said he has read this book several times.  Based on what I have read so far, I think I might refer back and read it often too. Here are some quotes from the first chapter:

Real obedience does not only consist of external good works and acts of love...True holiness is a matter of the heart...true holiness is not simply a matter of refraining from acting out your sinful lusts...True holiness means that you delight in doing God's will; you long to do it more than you long to do anything else! True holiness means that you cheerfully obey God.

My whole book is about the means by which you can become holy, but many people will see this part as irrelevant and useless. Why? Because they only want to know what they have to do.

Many pastors contribute to the problem...They tell people all that they have to do, but they never spend any time telling their people how they can actually do it! They never tell people about the means to attain true obedience to the law.

The doctrine of original sin has one major implication for your life: it means that you cannot live a holy life by your own power. You have to be empowered by God to live a holy life.

The Scriptures tell you two things about living a godly life: first, they tell you what God wants you to do (the law); second, they tell you how you can actually do it (the gospel).

They (people in Scripture and us today) knew what God's law required of them! What they lacked was the power--the way and the means--to keep God's law.