Herman Bavinck

Knowing God in Christ brings with it eternal life, imperturbable joy, and heavenly blessedness. These are not merely effects, but the knowing of God is itself immediately a new, eternal, and blessed life.

—Herman Bavinck

The treasure of merit is therefore not deposited by Christ anywhere on earth, not in the hands of a pope or a priest, not in a church or a sacrament; but the treasure of merit lies solely with and in Christ himself.

—Herman Bavinck

Not law but gospel, not demand but promise is the center of revelation, even in the days of the old covenant, to which man’s part is to respond in faith and in the walk of faith (Gen. 17:1), just as Paul in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 understood the revelation of God to Abraham.

—Herman Bavinck

Christianity is no less than the real, supreme work of the Triune God, in which the Father reconciles his created but fallen world through the death of his Son and re-creates it through his Spirit into the kingdom of God.

—Herman Bavinck

God did not reveal himself, so that from his revelation we might construct a philosophical concept of God, but so that we might receive, acknowledge, and confess him, the one true, living God, as our God.

—Herman Bavinck

Knowledge is power—so much we can understand, at least to a certain extent. All knowing is a triumph of the spirit over matter, a subjection of the earth to the lordship of man. But that knowledge should be life—who can understand that?

—Herman Bavinck

The resurrection is the day of Christ’s crowning. He was Son and Messiah already before His incarnation. He was that also in His humiliation. But then His inner being was hidden under the form of a servant.

—Herman Bavinck

Cross and crown, death and resurrection, humiliation and exaltation lie on the same line. As Jesus Himself put it after His resurrection: It was necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and so enter His glory (Luke 24:26).

—Herman Bavinck

At the creation the morning stars sang together and all the children of God rejoiced. At the birth of Christ the multitude of heavenly hosts raised the jubilee of God’s good will. On the birthday of the church that church itself sings the wonderful works of God in myriad tones.

—Herman Bavinck

Theology is the science which derives the knowledge of God from His revelation, which studies and thinks into it under the guidance of His Spirit, and then tries to describe it so that it ministers to His honor.

—Herman Bavinck

It is not by might or violence, therefore, that Christ rules in the kingdom given Him by the Father. He did not do this in His humiliation, and He does not do it in His exaltation.

—Herman Bavinck

Christ is the head of every believer, of every local congregation, and also of the church as a whole.

—Herman Bavinck

Ascending on high, He took captivity captive, gave gifts to men, and was exalted above all heavens, in order that He should fulfill all things (Eph. 4:8–10).

—Herman Bavinck

The treasure of merit is therefore not deposited by Christ anywhere on earth, not in the hands of a pope or a priest, not in a church or a sacrament; but the treasure of merit lies solely with and in Christ himself.

—Herman Bavinck

God by His Spirit must change the hearts of the people, if they are to walk in His ways, and keep His ordinances and statutes. The Spirit of the Lord alone works the true, spiritual, and moral life.

—Herman Bavinck

All the benefits that Christ by his Spirit gives to the church and to every believer can be summarized under one word: grace (John 1:16). But this one word implies a wealth of blessings.

—Herman Bavinck

In short, Christ and all His benefits, the love of the Father, and the grace of the Son, become our portion only in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

—Herman Bavinck

At the creation the morning stars sang together and all the children of God rejoiced. At the birth of Christ the multitude of heavenly hosts raised the jubilee of God’s good will. On the birthday of the church that church itself sings the wonderful works of God in myriad tones.

—Herman Bavinck

There is no partaking in the benefits of Christ without our sharing in his person, for the benefits are inseparable from his person.

—Herman Bavinck

The resurrection is the day of Christ’s crowning. He was Son and Messiah already before His incarnation. He was that also in His humiliation. But then His inner being was hidden under the form of a servant.

—Herman Bavinck

Death may therefore have come into the world by a man; but the resurrection from the dead came also by a man (1 Cor. 15:21). Christ is Himself the resurrection and the life ( John 11:25).

—Herman Bavinck

Every ceremony is fulfilled in Christ. Sunday is the day of resurrection.

Under the Old Testament the pattern was first work, then rest– that is, the worship of God.

—Herman Bavinck

Cross and crown, death and resurrection, humiliation and exaltation lie on the same line. As Jesus Himself put it after His resurrection: It was necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and so enter His glory (Luke 24:26).

—Herman Bavinck

Faith . . . reaches out in a single act to the person of Christ as well as to Scripture. It embraces Christ as Savior and Scripture as the word of God.

—Herman Bavinck

My learning does not help me now; neither does my Dogmatics; faith alone saves me.

—Herman Bavinck

It is the Spirit of God alone who can make a person inwardly certain of the truth of divine revelation.

—Herman Bavinck

The confession of the Trinity is the core and the main element of the entire Christian religion. Without it, neither creation, nor redemption, nor sanctification can be purely maintained.

—Herman Bavinck

The gospel is gospel, good news for all creatures, not a proclamation of destruction and death, but of resurrection and life.

—Herman Bavinck

While everything in the Old Testament was in preparation for Christ, everything now stems from him. Christ is the turning point of time. The promise made to Abraham extends now out to all nations.

—Herman Bavinck

In Christ, justice and mercy embrace, suffering is the road to glory, the cross points to a crown, and the timber of the cross becomes the tree of life.

—Herman Bavinck