Sir Robert Anderson Quotes on Grace, Christ, Scripture and Faith
Sir Robert Anderson headed the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard from 1888 to 1901, and he wrote about the Bible with a detective's habits: weigh the evidence, expose the weak argument, state the verdict plainly. That makes him very quotable. His sentences are often sharp, sometimes stern, and they keep coming back to one theme: the grace of God in Christ.
Every quotation below is copied exactly from his books in TheWay Library, with the book and chapter it comes from. For his life story, see who was Sir Robert Anderson. For a guide to all ten books, see Sir Robert Anderson books.
On grace
Anderson came to faith when a preacher told him that eternal life was God's free gift, to be taken there and then. He spent the rest of his life explaining what grace means.
Salvation is a gift — God's gift, bestowed on the principle of grace, received on the principle of faith.
"The Way": Chapters on the Christian Life, chapter IV
Law links a blessing with the commandment, but it is as the reward for obedience; with grace the blessing is freely given, and is itself the motive to obedience.
"The Way": Chapters on the Christian Life, chapter IV
The essential characteristic of law is the assertion of rights; the essential characteristic of grace is the giving up of rights.
"The Way": Chapters on the Christian Life, chapter V
Law forbids our taking what is another's; grace goes further, and enjoins our giving up what is our own.
"The Way": Chapters on the Christian Life, chapter V
All men are sinners; and being sinners they are absolutely dependent upon grace.
The Silence of God, Chapter IX
It is not that there is grace for the penitent or the elect, but that grace is the principle on which Christ now sits upon the throne of God.
The Coming Prince, chapter XI
He who preaches a mixed gospel robs God of His glory, and the sinner of his hope.
The Gospel and Its Ministry, chapter II
Grace and holiness together
He would not let grace become an excuse for carelessness. Some of his strongest lines warn against that.
The lasting wonder of redemption is that sinners can approach a holy God; not persons who have been sinners, but those who are such.
"The Way": Chapters on the Christian Life, chapter IV
…sin is not become less heinous because grace is reigning.
"The Way": Chapters on the Christian Life, chapter IV
The New Testament is read as though it were given to supersede the Old, and the grace and love of God are used to set aside the truth of His holiness and majesty.
"The Way": Chapters on the Christian Life, chapter IV
But fear, rightly understood, is the essential characteristic of godliness in every age — holy fear which springs from a due appreciation alike of the mercies, and of the majesty, of God.
"The Way": Chapters on the Christian Life, chapter VIII
Grace exacts homage from none, but is eager to render it wherever it is due.
"The Way": Chapters on the Christian Life, chapter VI
On the silence of God
The Silence of God asks why heaven has worked no public miracle since the apostles. Anderson's answer is that the silence itself is mercy.
…it is the silence of a great sabbatic rest, the silence of a peace which is absolute and profound — a silence which is the public pledge and proof that the way is open for the guiltiest of mankind to draw near to God.
The Silence of God, Chapter XIII
When faith murmurs, and unbelief revolts, and men challenge the Supreme to break that silence and declare Himself, how little do they realise what the challenge means! It means the withdrawal of the amnesty; it means the end of the reign of grace; it means the closing of the day of mercy and the dawning of the day of wrath.
The Silence of God, Chapter XIII
But the advent of Christ was God's full and final revelation of Himself to man.
The Silence of God, Chapter XIII
Men point to the sad incidents of human life on earth, and they ask "Where is the love of God?" God points to that Cross as the unreserved manifestation of love so inconceivably infinite as to answer every challenge and silence all doubt for ever.
The Silence of God, Chapter XIII
But of all the questions which immediately concern us, there is not one which the Cross of Christ has left unanswered.
The Silence of God, Chapter XIII
Ours is the higher privilege, the greater blessedness of those "who have not seen and yet have believed."
The Silence of God, Chapter XIII
On Jesus Christ
Anderson wrote The Lord from Heaven to show that the deity of Christ runs through the whole New Testament. He also loved to dwell on how Jesus treated sinners.
Any one, therefore, who refuses the truth that the Lord Jesus is God, must acknowledge two Gods.
The Lord from Heaven, Preface to the Second Edition
If, for example, we let go the Deity of Christ, which is the foundation truth of Christianity, the doctrine of the Atonement is destroyed.
The Lord from Heaven, Preface to the Second Edition
Sin He could not tolerate, but for sinners His love and pity were infinite. And His detractors mistook sympathy with sinners for sympathy with sin.
The Silence of God, Chapter XI
His death was not the beginning, but the close of His sufferings; in truth, it was the hour of His triumph.
The Coming Prince, chapter IX
The foundation truth of Christianity is that the Man of Calvary is now sitting upon the throne of God.
The Bible and Modern Criticism, chapter XIX
On the Bible and faith
As a lawyer, Anderson had no patience for weak arguments on either side. He wanted faith that could look at the evidence.
Faith is not the normal attitude of the human mind towards things Divine; the earnest doubter, therefore, is entitled to respect and sympathy.
The Coming Prince, chapter I
Though he believes in the unseen and the unprovable, his faith is strictly rational; for, assuming a Divine revelation, belief is the highest act of reason.
Daniel in the Critics' Den, chapter VII
But as God has no language of His own, He speaks to men in theirs.
The Bible and Modern Criticism, chapter VII
But surely it is a poor sort of faith that depends on the absence of difficulties.
The Bible and Modern Criticism, chapter XIX
We do not judge the Bible by the Church; we judge the Church and its teaching by the Bible.
The Silence of God, Chapter VIII
It is manifestly of greater consequence that we should have wholesome unadulterated bread, than that we should know who baked it, and by whom the wheat was grown and ground.
Pseudo-Criticism, chapter I
For in the sphere of faith, as in that of morals, all compromise is impossible.
Pseudo-Criticism, chapter V
On doubt and unbelief
Anderson wrote one whole book as a doubter talking to doubters. He thought honest skepticism, followed far enough, leads to faith, and that unbelief usually stops thinking too soon.
The knowledge that there is bad money in circulation does not make us fling our purse into the gutter, or refuse to replenish it when empty.
A Doubter's Doubts about Science and Religion, chapter IV
True scepticism connotes intellectual caution, but agnosticism is intellectual suicide.
A Doubter's Doubts about Science and Religion, chapter VIII
On the hope of Christ's coming
Anderson's prophecy books all end at the same place: the Lord who came once is coming again.
But His coming was the hope of His people in a bygone age, and it is the true hope of His people still.
The Lord from Heaven, chapter XI
To separate the believer from the Coming is as great an outrage upon Christianity as to separate him from the Cross.
The Coming Prince, Appendix III
Where to read more Anderson
If these lines make you want to read a whole book, start with The Coming Prince, his famous study of Daniel's seventy weeks. If the quotes on God's silence spoke to you, read The Silence of God and go straight to its last chapter. For something short and practical, try "The Way", and for the gospel stated plainly, The Gospel and Its Ministry. All ten books are on the Sir Robert Anderson author page, and our reading guide explains how they fit together.