Quotes of Note from Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling, Part 1
Enjoy the following Quotes of Note from Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling. It’s Part 1 
of a four-part mini-series.
Introduction: In Christ Alone—Bob Kellemen and Steve Viars
Biblical counseling does not offer a system or a program, but rather it shares a person—the Person—Jesus Christ.
As we unite to write this book, our purpose is to equip God’s people to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth. We want to grow together in learning how to promote personal change centered on the person of Christ through the personal ministry of the Word.
Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling heralds a grace-based and gospel-centered foundation for all of life, all ministry, and all biblical counseling.
Chapter One: The Glory of God: The Goal of Biblical Counseling—John Piper and Jack Delk
Biblical counseling is God-centered, Bible-saturated, emotionally in-touch use of language to help people become God-besotted, Christ-exalting, joyfully self-forgetting lovers of people.
The desire to be happy is the same as the desire of being hungry. It is a God-given thing, written right on our hearts. God put Himself as the all-satisfying center of all joy. The reason you are not happy, if you are not, is because you have not gotten to the center yet.
If biblical counseling is about the glory of God, and if God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him, then the role of the biblical counselor is to help increase satisfaction in Jesus Christ.
Chapter Two: The Power of the Redeemer—Ernie Baker and Jonathan Holmes
Jesus felt deeply the needs of others. So, if we are going to be Christ-like counselors, we too ought to be moved with the needs of people.
The gospel is not just a message to believe; it is a Person to follow.
One of the ways of defining biblical counseling is “broken people helping other broken people find healing through the power of the Gospel and in the power of the Spirit as they apply the living principles of Scripture (Hebrews 4:12) to life.”
God not only wants to bring us to Himself, He desires to make us into the image of His Son. What a difference from systems of therapy which seek to help people become an improved version of themselves.
Chapter Three: The Ministry of the Holy Spirit—Justin Holcomb and Mike Wilkerson
Rather than asking about the role of the Holy Spirit in counseling, we should be asking about the counselor’s role in the Holy Spirit’s counseling.
As much as we may need to remember to get out of God’s way, we must also remember to get in His way—meaning, we should prayerfully seek to understand the Spirit’s “way” in any situation and go there, following His lead.
Chapter 4: The Unity of the Trinity—Kevin Carson and Jeff Forrey
The relationship exhibited by the Triune God becomes the standard for unity, intimacy, perfect fellowship, harmony, and oneness among Christians. The believers’ love and friendship with one another should intentionally reflect the relationships within the Trinity.
When the process of counseling flows out of a Trinitarian model, the counselor and counselee share a rich, deep-rooted, tender, and united relationship with each other in Christ. All forms of detached, professional, solution-oriented, aloof therapy fail to satisfy the depth, intimacy, and energy demanded by the unity of the Trinity and unity among believers.
The counselor/counselee relationship emanates from a shared relationship in Christ.
Chapter 5: The Grand Narrative of the Bible—John Henderson
If we intend to counsel from the Scripture well, we must resolve to see and apply it within the form God wrote it—as a narrative. Remedying the “one-problem- one-verse-one solution” approach to ministry means we comprehend the Bible’s grand narrative and connect it with wisdom to our daily lives.
The redemptive movement of the Bible provides a context within which and from which we offer wise biblical counsel.
Scripture, like a pair of corrective lenses, helps us see rightly. The story of Scripture interprets and speaks into the story of your life.
Chapter 6: The Sufficiency of Scripture—Steve Viars and Rob Green
Wise counselors spend large amounts of time discussing the practical implications of the gospel indicatives. We are so prone to move into all the DOs and DON’Ts of the Christian life that we miss the rich blessings that attend meditation on what God’s sufficient Word tells us about our new identity in our Savior.
Scripture challenges us to face the hard reality that we are active worshippers who continually reveal the identity of our functional god(s) by the ways we think, speak, and behave.
Chapter 7: The Spiritual Anatomy of the Soul—Bob Kellemen and Sam Williams
The end goal of biblical counseling is our inner life increasingly reflecting the inner life of Christ. Our goal is not simply symptom relief, but Christlikeness. We are not solution-focused; we are soul-u-tion-focused.
Biblical counseling seeks to help the whole person to become a whole person in Christ.
Creation is a theater in which God has chosen to project His glory in manifold ways. God intended that one particular part of the created order—His image bearers—would play a central role in reflecting and representing Him. Central to the essence and nature of humanity, of what it means to be human, is to be created by, like, and for this God.
If our counseling is truly Christ-centered, then our counseling must be Christ-like. This includes our character as a counselor and our compassion as we counsel. But it does not stop there. It must also involve understanding people the way Jesus understands people.
The Rest of the Story
I invite you to return for Part Two where I’ll share Quotes of Note from chapters 8-14 of Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling.
If you’d like to read a free sample chapter, click here.
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Join the Conversation
Which Quote of Note impacts you the most? Why? How?
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