Marcus Dods Quotes on Christ, Grace, Sin and Becoming Like Jesus
Marcus Dods was a Glasgow pastor for twenty-five years and then a professor and principal at New College, Edinburgh. His volumes in The Expositor's Bible on Genesis, John and 1 Corinthians are still read by preachers, partly because he had a gift for the short sentence that sums up a passage and then turns it on the reader.
Every quotation below is copied exactly from his books in TheWay Library, with the book and chapter it comes from. Lines he quotes from other writers are left out. For his life story, see who was Marcus Dods. For a guide to all five books, see Marcus Dods books.
On Jesus Christ
Dods's two volumes on John keep coming back to one conviction: God is known in the life of Jesus.
Never again can men separate the idea of the true God from the life of Jesus Christ; it is in that life we come to know God, and through that life His glory shines.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. II, chapter 16
He never forgot that He came, not to judge the world, not to deal with us on our merits, but to save the world from its sin and its blindness.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I, chapter 2
One look, one word from Himself will go further to persuade a man of His majesty and love than all that any one else can say.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I, chapter 4
Christ is needful to us not only as sinners; He is needful to us as men.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I, chapter 14
Life with God, and in God, must be immortal; life without God He does not call life at all.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I, chapter 23
And so Christ does not say, I have the power, but, I am.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I, chapter 23
Every man out of Christ is really an isolated individual.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. II, chapter 4
On the cross
All the power that dwells in God to draw men out of sin to holiness and to Himself was actually in the Cross.
The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 4
As matter of fact, it is not Christ's teaching, but His death, which has kindled the enthusiasm and the devotion of men.
The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 1
The blood of Christ also cries to God, but cries not for vengeance but for pardon.
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis, chapter 3
Do not live as if the cross of Christ had never been, or as if you had never sinned and had no connection with it.
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis, chapter 2
On grace and faith
His Genesis volume follows Abraham's long schooling in faith, and it's full of lines like these.
God's favour is always a matter of grace, it is favour conferred on the undeserving; it is never a matter of debt, it is never favour conferred because it has been won.
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis, chapter 11
What have you ventured that you would not have ventured but for God's promise?
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis, chapter 7
He who believes that God is pledged to provide for him cannot be greedy, anxious, covetous; can only be liberal, even magnanimous.
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis, chapter 9
We find God's provision only on the mount of sacrifice, not at any stage short of this, but only there.
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis, chapter 16
We are not in advance of Noah, but behind him, if we cannot speak to God about common things.
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis, chapter 6
On sin and pardon
Dods was honest about sin. He didn't want God's forgiveness treated as cheap.
To ask for pardon Without real shame is to treat sin lightly; and to treat sin lightly is to treat God lightly.
How to Become Like Christ, Shame on Account of God's Displeasure
He is no better who accepts pardon as if it cost God nothing.
How to Become Like Christ, Shame on Account of God's Displeasure
Before we sin, it is the gain we see; after we sin, the guilt.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. II, chapter 7
On becoming like Christ
These come mostly from his short book of addresses, where he argues that likeness to Christ is not out of reach for ordinary believers.
Every Christian has that for a destiny: to be changed into the image of his Lord.
How to Become Like Christ, How to Become Like Christ
And He says all that you have to do in order to be like Christ is to carry His image with you in your heart. That is all.
How to Become Like Christ, How to Become Like Christ
We are living in a real world; Christ lived in a real world: Christ did not retire from men.
How to Become Like Christ, How to Become Like Christ
It is not by imitating successful men we become influential for good, but by living with Christ.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. II, chapter 9
To conform to one or two habits of godly people is not what is required of us; but to be at heart godly.
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis, chapter 22
On love
Until our own heart is flooded with the great and regenerating love of Christ, we strive in vain to love our fellows.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. II, chapter 13
Let the love of Christ possess any soul and that soul cannot avoid being a blessing to the world around.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. II, chapter 25
But it is not the suffering that does us good and brings us to God, but the love which underlies the suffering.
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. II, chapter 21
On the church and the Christian life
Last, a few lines from 1 Corinthians, his study of a church with many troubles.
No man has ever fully recognised this apparently simple truth, that we are not our own, but God's.
The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 8
The kingdom of God is within us; if not there, in our own dispositions and likings, it is nowhere.
The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 9
This Epistle is well fitted to disabuse our minds of the idea that the primitive Church was in all respects superior to the Church of our own day.
The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 18
Where to read more Dods
If you read one book of his, start with How to Become Like Christ, six short addresses you can finish in an evening. For Bible study, his Gospel of John, Vol. II on the Upper Room and the cross is his finest work. All his books are on the Marcus Dods author page.