R. C. Sproul (1939–2017) was a prominent American theologian, pastor, and author known for his contributions to Reformed Christianity. Founder of Ligonier Ministries and pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel, Sproul emphasized the sovereignty of God and Reformed theology’s key tenets. His impactful writings, including “The Holiness of God” and “Chosen by God,” reflected a commitment to deepening understanding of Christian doctrine. Through his prolific work, lectures, and radio program “Renewing Your Mind,” Sproul played a significant role in promoting biblical authority and theological education within the evangelical and Reformed communities. His legacy endures as a respected figure who inspired many to engage thoughtfully with Christian theology and the teachings of the Reformation.
R. C. Sproul Quotes
1. “To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.”
— R.C. Sproul
2. “Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once and He volunteered.”
— R.C. Sproul
3. “A god who is all love, all grace, all mercy, no sovereignty, no justice, no holiness, and no wrath is an idol.”
— R.C. Sproul
4. “We are secure, not because we hold tightly to Jesus, but because He holds tightly to us.”
— R.C. Sproul
5. “There is nothing in this universe you need more desperately than Christ.”
— R.C. Sproul
6. “I don’t always feel His presence. But God’s promises do not depend upon my feelings; they rest upon His integrity.”
— R.C. Sproul
7. “Right now counts forever.”
— R.C. Sproul
8. “Hope is called the anchor of the soul because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ I wish that such-and-such would take place rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.”
— R.C. Sproul
9. “We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.”
— R.C. Sproul
10. “What we celebrate at Christmas is not so much the birth of a baby, but the incarnation of God Himself.”
— R.C. Sproul
11. “To know that God knows everything about me and yet loves me is indeed my ultimate consolation.”
— R.C. Sproul
12. “The gospel is only good news when we understand the bad news.”
— R.C. Sproul
13. “God wants your life. Not one hour a week, not 10% of your income, He wants you.”
— R.C. Sproul
14. “If there is one maverick molecule in all the universe, then God is not sovereign. And if God is not sovereign, He is not God.”
— R.C. Sproul
15. “Reformed theology so far transcends the mere five points of Calvinism that it is an entire worldview.”
— R.C. Sproul
16. “The question is not, “Why is there only one way to God?” but “Why is there even one way?””
— R.C. Sproul
17. “The Word of God can be in the mind without being in the heart; but it cannot be in the heart without first being in the mind.”
— R.C. Sproul
18. “When God writes our names in the ‘Lamb’s Book of Life’ He doesn’t do it with an eraser handy. He does it for eternity.”
— R.C. Sproul
19. “Give me the biblical Christ or give me nothing.”
— R.C. Sproul
20. “Mindless Christianity is no Christianity at all. You can’t love what you don’t know.”
— R.C. Sproul
21. “Every sin is an act of cosmic treason, a futile attempt to dethrone God in His sovereign authority.”
— R.C. Sproul
22. “To be known by God is the highest goal of human existence.”
— R.C. Sproul
23. “I can’t make the Bible come alive for anyone. The Bible is already alive. It makes me come alive.”
— R.C. Sproul
24. “God just doesn’t throw a life preserver to a drowning person. He goes to the bottom of the sea, and pulls a corpse from the bottom of the sea, takes him up on the bank, breathes into him the breath of life and makes him alive.”
— R.C. Sproul
25. “God is serious about how we worship Him, and we must be serious about it, too.”
— R.C. Sproul
26. “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”
— R.C. Sproul
27. “God doesn’t want us to just feel gratitude, but for us to show it by giving thanks to God with our lives.”
— R.C. Sproul
28. “Scripture does not say that God is ‘love, love, love’ or that He is ‘wrath, wrath, wrath,’ but that He is ‘holy, holy, holy.’”
— R.C. Sproul
29. “To say that God’s sovereignty is limited by man’s freedom is to make man sovereign.”
— R.C. Sproul
30. “Sin is not simply making bad choices or mistakes. Sin is having the desire in our hearts to do the will of the enemy of God.”
— R.C. Sproul
31. “The worst sin against stewardship is to waste your life.”
— R.C. Sproul
32. “Doctrine divides, but doctrine also unites. It binds together the hearts of God’s people who celebrate the truth of God together.”
— R.C. Sproul
33. “In Christian marriage, love is not an option. It is a duty.”
— R.C. Sproul
34. “Truth is too important to kill it in the streets for the sake of peace.”
— R.C. Sproul
35. “At its root, this is what faith is. It is not believing in God. It’s believing God.”
— R.C. Sproul
36. “At the final judgment, everyone will stand before God alone.”
— R.C. Sproul
37. “Natural man’s sin is precisely this: He wants the benefits of God without God Himself.”
— R.C. Sproul
38. “We do not segment our lives, giving some time to God, some to our business or schooling, while keeping parts to ourselves. The idea is to live all of our lives in the presence of God, under the authority of God, and for the honor and glory of God. That is what the Christian life is all about.”
— R.C. Sproul
39. “The irony of New Testament lordship is that only in slavery to Christ can a man discover authentic freedom.”
— R.C. Sproul
40. “To honor God as God, we must worship Him as He and He alone decrees.”
— R.C. Sproul
41. “Satan can do only what the sovereign God allows him to do.”
— R.C. Sproul
42. “It is one thing to believe in God; it is quite another to believe God.”
— R.C. Sproul
43. “The holiness of God is traumatic to unholy people.”
— R.C. Sproul
44. “The fundamental deception of Satan is the lie that obedience can never bring happiness.”
— R.C. Sproul
45. “It is the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible. It is the Holy Spirit who illumines the Bible.”
— R.C. Sproul
46. “There is not one piece of cosmic dust that is outside the scope of God’s sovereign providence.”
— R.C. Sproul
47. “A holy God is both just and merciful. He is never unjust.”
— R.C. Sproul
48. “No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian is a theologian. Perhaps not a theologian in the technical or professional sense, but a theologian nevertheless. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones.”
— R.C. Sproul
49. “Not until we take God seriously will we ever take sin seriously.”
— R.C. Sproul
50. “The presumptuous sin of Uzzah was that He assumed his hands were less polluted than the dirt.”
— R.C. Sproul
51. “If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.”
— R.C. Sproul
52. “We cannot change God. God is unchangeable. If changes are to be made, they must be made in us.”
— R.C. Sproul
53. “Sin can bring pleasure, but never happiness.”
— R.C. Sproul
54. “If God says, ‘I forgive you,’ you are forgiven no matter how you feel, and to refuse that forgiveness is an act of arrogance.”
— R.C. Sproul
55. “Prayer is to the Christian what breath is to life, yet no duty of the Christian is so neglected.”
— R.C. Sproul
56. “Isn’t is amazing that almost everyone has an opinion to offer about the Bible, and yet so few have studied it?”
— R.C. Sproul
57. “Prayer does change things, all kinds of things. But the most important thing it changes is us.”
— R.C. Sproul
58. “Your personal testimony, however meaningful it is to you, is not the gospel.”
— R.C. Sproul
59. “In salvation, we are not only saved from sin and damnation; we are saved unto holiness. The goal of redemption is holiness.”
— R.C. Sproul
60. “God Himself supplies the necessary condition to come to Jesus, that’s why it is ‘sola gratia,’ by grace alone, that we are saved.”
— R.C. Sproul
61. “Genuine love for Jesus manifests itself in obedience to His commandments.”
— R.C. Sproul
62. “We break our promises to one another. We break our promises to God. But God never breaks His promises to us.”
— R.C. Sproul
63. “I rest solely in His righteousness and in His atonement because I know there is nothing I can do to make up for my own iniquity.”
— R.C. Sproul
64. “Christ is still in Christmas, and for one brief season, the secular world broadcasts the message of Christ over every radio station and television channel in the land. Never does the church get as much free air time as during the Christmas season.”
— R.C. Sproul
65. “The greatest weakness in the church today is that the servants of God keep looking over their shoulder for the approval of men.”
— R.C. Sproul
66. “The only freedom that man ever has is when he becomes a slave to Jesus Christ.”
— R.C. Sproul
67. “Repentance is something that is brought about in the human heart by the work of God the Holy Spirit.”
— R.C. Sproul
68. “For the Arminian, salvation is possible for all but certain for none. In the Calvinist position, salvation is sure for God’s elect.”
— R.C. Sproul
69. “In Reformed theology, if God is not sovereign over the entire created order, then he is not sovereign at all. The term sovereignty too easily becomes a chimera. If God is not sovereign, then he is not God.”
— R.C. Sproul
70. “The gospel of Jesus Christ must be defended in every generation. It is always the center of attack by the forces of evil.”
— R.C. Sproul
71. “The cross was a glorious outworking of the grace of God, by which the Father commissioned the Son to make full satisfaction so that sinners might be saved with no sacrifice of God’s justice.”
— R.C. Sproul
72. “Confession should be a daily activity for the Christian, whose entire pilgrimage is characterized by the spirit of repentance.”
— R.C. Sproul
73. “All that God had to do to harden Pharaoh’s heart, or to harden your heart, is to withhold His own grace.”
— R.C. Sproul
74. “The fundamental loss of a desire for God is the heart of original sin.”
— R.C. Sproul
75. “True faith always produces real conformity to Christ.”
— R.C. Sproul
76. “The only way the kingdom of God is going to be manifest in this world before Christ comes is if we manifest it by the way we live as citizens of heaven and subjects of the King.”
— R.C. Sproul
77. “Touching His human nature, Jesus is no longer present with us. Touching his Divine nature, He is never absent from us.”
— R.C. Sproul
78. “Change marriage and you change the world. Convince people that government, not God, lays down the rules for marriage, and they will believe more strongly that they determine right and wrong, that not even the world’s rulers are subject to a higher authority.”
— R.C. Sproul
79. “To focus our mind on the task at hand-with fierce concentration-m akes for a productive use of time.”
— R.C. Sproul
80. “It’s dangerous to assume that because a man is drawn to holiness in his study that he is thereby a holy man. I am sure that the reason that I have a deep hunger to learn of the holiness of God is precisely because I am not holy.”
— R.C. Sproul
81. “The principle rule of interpreting Scripture is that Scripture interprets Scripture.”
— R.C. Sproul
82. “For the Christian, every tragedy is ultimately a blessing, or God is a liar.”
— R.C. Sproul
83. “If God is the Creator of the entire universe, then it must follow that He is the Lord of the whole universe. No part of the world is outside of His lordship. That means that no part of my life must be outside of His lordship.”
— R.C. Sproul
84. “We are cosmic traitors. We must recognize this problem within ourselves if we are to grasp the necessity of the cross.”
— R.C. Sproul
85. “The Christian should be able to say with the psalmist, ‘Oh, how I love your law.’”
— R.C. Sproul
86. “Without God man has no reference point to define himself. 20th century philosophy manifests the chaos of man seeking to understand himself as a creature with dignity while having no reference point for that dignity.”
— R.C. Sproul
87. “When we behold the face of God, all memories of pain and suffering will vanish. Our souls shall be totally healed.”
— R.C. Sproul
88. “Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. He is the Seeker; we are the ones who are running.”
— R.C. Sproul
89. “Though sin often brings immediate pleasure, it gives no lasting joy.”
— R.C. Sproul
90. “In every age the church is threatened by heresy, and heresy is bound up in false doctrine. It is the desire of all heretics to minimize the importance of doctrine. When doctrine is minimized, heresy can exercise itself without restraint.”
— R.C. Sproul
91. “The modern movement of worship is designed to break down barriers between man and God, to remove the veil, as it were, from the fearsome holiness of God, which might cause us to tremble. It is designed to make us feel comfortable.”
— R.C. Sproul
92. “Grace, by definition, is something that God is not required to grant. He owes a fallen world no mercy.”
— R.C. Sproul
93. “Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.”
— R.C. Sproul
94. “The grand difference between a human being and a Supreme being is precisely this: Apart from God I cannot exist; apart from me God does exist. God does not need me in order for Him to be. I do need God in order for me to be. We are dependent. We are fragile. This is how we differ from God.”
— R.C. Sproul
95. “Burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads.”
— R.C. Sproul
96. “The human dilemma is this: God is Holy and we are not. God is Righteous and we are not.”
— R.C. Sproul
97. “By His life, death, and resurrection, our Savior has conquered our enemies, and by His Spirit He has granted us to share in the victory.”
— R.C. Sproul
98. “The gospel is the proclamation of the person and work of Jesus Christ and how those benefits can be applied to us by faith alone.”
— R.C. Sproul
99. “The sin of fallen man is this: Man seeks the benefits of God while at the same time fleeing from God Himself.”
— R.C. Sproul
100. “Those who understand God’s sovereignty have joy even in the midst of suffering, a joy reflected on their very faces, for they see that their suffering is not without purpose.”
— R.C. Sproul
101. “The grounds of your justification are the perfect works of Jesus Christ. We’re saved by works, but they’re not our own.”
— R.C. Sproul
102. “Scratching people where they itch and addressing their ‘felt needs’ is a stratagem of the poor steward of the oracles of God. This was the recipe for success for the false prophets of the Old Testament.”
— R.C. Sproul
103. “Sin is cosmic treason.”
— R.C. Sproul
104. “Once we are reconciled to God, the estrangement is over, the hostilities have ended, and the peace is sealed for eternity.”
— R.C. Sproul
105. “I’ll retire when they pry my cold, dead fingers off of my Bible.”
— R.C. Sproul
106. “If you don’t know you’re in a state of grace, then you’re vulnerable to the paralysis of the accusations of the enemy.”
— R.C. Sproul
107. “We have a tendency to think of GOD being glorified only in the manifestation of his mercy – – He is just as glorified by His justice.”
— R.C. Sproul
108. “The great triad of enemies for Christian growth contains the world, the flesh, and the devil.”
— R.C. Sproul
109. “When there’s something in the Word of God that I don’t like, the problem is not with the Word of God, it’s with me.”
— R.C. Sproul
110. “At the moment I sin, I desire the sin more than I desire to please God.”
— R.C. Sproul
111. “God’s grace is not infinite. God is infinite, and God is gracious.”
— R.C. Sproul
112. “If you are of the truth, if you have learned the truth, if you see the sanctity of the truth, then speak truth. We are not called to be deceivers or liars. God is a God of truth, and His people are called to have an enormously high standard of truth.”
— R.C. Sproul
113. “Whenever I read the psalms, I feel like I am eavesdropping on a saint having a personal conversation with God.”
— R.C. Sproul
114. “The glory of the gospel is this: The one from whom we need to be saved is the one who has saved us.”
— R.C. Sproul
115. “When you enter the voting booth, don’t leave your Christianity in the parking lot.”
— R.C. Sproul
116. “God’s grace is not infinite. God is infinite, and God is gracious. We experience the grace of an infinite God, but grace is not infinite. God sets limits to His patience and forbearance. He warns us over and over again that someday the ax will fall and His judgment will be poured out.”
— R.C. Sproul
117. “Any conception of a god that is less than sovereign is an idol and no god at all.”
— R.C. Sproul
118. “The resurrection was God the Father’s way of authenticating all of the truths that were declared by Jesus.”
— R.C. Sproul
119. “The very heart of worship, as the Bible makes clear, is the business of expressing, from the depths of our spirits, the highest possible honor we can offer before God.”
— R.C. Sproul
120. “It’s not the wickedness of the pagan that breaks my heart. It’s the compromise of the Christian that grieves my soul.”
— R.C. Sproul
121. “Even if the budget is never balanced, even if the stock market crashes, even if food prices skyrocket, even if my child never recovers from her illness, even if I lose my job, and even if we lose our home – yet will I rejoice in the God of my salvation.”
— R.C. Sproul
122. “Humanism was not invented by man, but by a snake who suggested that the quest for autonomy might be a good idea.”
— R.C. Sproul
123. “Nothing could be more irrational than the idea that something comes from nothing.”
— R.C. Sproul
124. “If ever there were a time there was nothing, there would be nothing now.”
— R.C. Sproul
125. “The neutral view of free will is impossible. It involves choice without desire.”
— R.C. Sproul
126. “Unbelief is judged by Jesus not as an intellectual error but as a hostile act of prejudice against God himself.”
— R.C. Sproul
127. “God’s grace is so powerful that it has the capacity to overcome our natural resistance to it.”
— R.C. Sproul
128. “Regeneration is a work of the omnipotent power of God, power that nothing can overcome or resist.”
— R.C. Sproul
129. “The day of one’s birth is a good day for the believer, but the day of death is the greatest day that a Christian can ever experience in this world because that is the day he goes home, the day he walks across the threshold, the day he enters the Father’s house.”
— R.C. Sproul
130. “To be a Christian is to be a theologian – a student of God and his will. The church is where believers should be nurtured in the practice of correct theology. The contemporary disdain for theological content and emphasis on self-image and emotions were not shared by the apostolic church.”
— R.C. Sproul
131. “Don’t ever ask God for justice-you might get it.”
— R.C. Sproul
132. “The Bible’s truth does not depend in any way on whether or not a person believes the truth.”
— R.C. Sproul
133. “It is one thing to fall victim to the flood or to fall prey to cancer; it is another thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
— R.C. Sproul
134. “People only have true understanding when they look at everything from God’s perspective. Authentic wisdom begins when we understand that God is to be the object of our devotion, our adoration, and our reverence.”
— R.C. Sproul
135. “The life of faith is not just about believing that God exists; it is about believing God or trusting God.”
— R.C. Sproul
136. “God’s graciousness is not totally removed from any individual during this lifetime. In hell, it is.”
— R.C. Sproul
137. “We are all servants. The only question is whom we will serve.”
— R.C. Sproul
138. “I think the greatest weakness in the church today is that almost no one believes that God invests His power in the Bible. Everyone is looking for power in a program, in a methodology, in a technique, in anything and everything but that in which God has placed it – His Word. He alone has the power to change lives for eternity, and that power is focused on the Scriptures.”
— R.C. Sproul
139. “Satan could make an “A” in my Systematic Theology course. He knows the information and knows that the information is true.”
— R.C. Sproul
140. “If God did not act first, no one would be saved.”
— R.C. Sproul
141. “It is imperative that the Christian, at the beginning of his pursuit to understand what true worship is, gets it clear that the object of our worship is to be God and God alone.”
— R.C. Sproul
142. “The God of popular religion is not holy.”
— R.C. Sproul
143. “We talk about predestination because the Bible talks about predestination. If we desire to build our theology on the Bible, we run head on into this concept. We soon discover that John Calvin did not invent it.”
— R.C. Sproul
144. “God is not blind; neither is He capricious. For Him there are no accidents. With God there are no cases of chance events.”
— R.C. Sproul
145. “Your task, O preacher, is to make sure that you are faithful to the text, that you are faithful to the proclamation of that gospel, that you are faithful to set forth the whole counsel of God, and then step back and let it happen.”
— R.C. Sproul
146. “Our joy is to come from the assurance that we have redemption in Christ. The greatest joy that a person can have is to know that his name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that he is saved and will live forever with Christ.”
— R.C. Sproul
147. “What about putting Christ back into Christmas? It is simply not necessary. Christ has never left Christmas.”
— R.C. Sproul
148. “Sometimes we emulate the Pharisees more than we imitate Christ.”
— R.C. Sproul
149. “Men and women who refuse to acknowledge God’s existence do so, in the final analysis, because it is contrary to their manner of living. They do not want to bow to the moral claims of a holy God on their lives.”
— R.C. Sproul
150. “You are required to believe, to preach, and to teach what the Bible says is true, not what you want the Bible to say is true.”
— R.C. Sproul
