Tim Keller: Fully Known & Truly Loved

"To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved, is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretenses, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us." [via]

Tullian Tchividjian: One-Way Love

"Everything in our world demands two-way love. Everything is conditional. If I achieve, we reason, only then will I receive everything I long for: love, approval, significance, respect, and so on. Be good. Bring home the bacon. Keep your act together….Then (and only then) will you have what you want. That’s how our world works. But grace isn’t from our world. It’s otherworldly. It’s unconditional. Grace is upside-down, to-do-list wrecking, scandalous and way-too free. It’s one-way love." [via]

F. Lehman: The Love of God

"Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above,

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky." 

Sinclair Ferguson: Christ Saves Us - Through Faith

"Your salvation rests not on what you have done but on what Christ has done. You, therefore, can be sure of it, no matter how weak the faith by which you hold on to Christ, no matter how strong the attacks and accusations of Satan may be. 

Remember that you are not saved by increased levels of holiness, however desirable it is that you should reach them. Indeed, while we often say that we are “saved by faith” or by “faith in Christ,” as Benjamin B. Warfield shrewdly comments, it is not been faith in Christ that saves us. It is Christ who saves us – through faith. Your faith is a poor and crumbling thing, as is your spiritual service. Jesus Christ alone is qualified and able to save you because of what He has done. Cling to anything else and you are relying on flotsam and jetsam floating on a perilous sea. It will bring you down under the waves... But cling to Christ Jesus and His righteousness, and nothing can sink you."

John Stott: There is Nowhere to Escape, Our Only Hope is Christ

“We cannot escape the embarrassment of standing stark naked before God. It is no use for us to try to cover up like Adam and Eve in the garden. Our attempts at self-justification are as ineffectual as their fig leaves. We have to acknowledge our nakedness, see the divine substitute wearing our filthy rags instead of us, and allow him to clothe us with his own righteousness.” From The Cross of Christ.

Ascend the Hill: Rock of Ages

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to your Cross I cling;
Naked, come to you for dress;
Helpless, look to you for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior or I die.

JC Ryle: The Root of Humililty

"Do you want to know the root and spring of humility? One word describes it. The root of humility is right knowledge. 

The person who really knows himself and his own heart, who knows God and his infinite majesty and holiness, who knows Christ and the price at which he was redeemed, that person will never be a proud person. He will count himself, like Jacob, unworthy of the least of all God’s mercies. He will say of himself, like Job, ”I am unworthy.” He will cry, like Paul, “I am the worst of sinners” He will consider others better than himself (Philippians 2:3)."

Geerhardus Vos: Eternal Love

“The best proof that He will never cease to love us lies in that He never began.”

I'll have to chew on that one for a while.

Geerhardus Vos: Christ & the Old Testament

This is good:

“[Jesus] regarded the whole Old Testament movement as a divinely directed and inspired movement, as having arrived at its goal in himself, so that he himself in his historic appearance and work being taken away, the Old Testament would lose its purpose and significance. This none other could say. He was the confirmation and consummation of the Old Testament in his own person, and this yielded the one substratum of his interpretation of himself in the world of religion.” (via)

Crazy Love

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin. 1 John 4:10

The Threefold Use of the Law

In order to understand grace and the gospel we must come to a basic understanding of what the law is.

The Reformation Study Bible provides some help in this regard:

“Scripture shows that God intends His law to function in three ways, which Calvin crystalized in classic form for the church’s benefit as the law’s threefold use. 

Its first function is to be a mirror reflecting to us both the perfect righteousness of God and our own sinfulness and shortcomings. As Augustine wrote, “the law bids us, as we try to fulfill its requirements, and become wearied in our weakness under it, to know how to ask the help of grace.” The law is meant to give knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20; 4:15; 5:13; 7:7-11), and by showing us our need of pardon and our danger of damnation to lead us in repentance and faith to Christ (Gal. 3:19-24). 

A second function, the “civil use,” is to restrain evil. Though the law cannot change the heart, it can to some extent inhibit lawlessness by its threats of judgement, especially when backed by a civil code that administers punishment for proven offenses (Deut. 13:6-11; 19:16-21; Rom. 13:3, 4). Thus it secures civil order, and serves to protect the righteous from the unjust. 

Its third function is to guide the regenerate into the good works that God has planned for them (Eph. 2:10). The law tells God’s children what will please their heavenly Father. It could be called their family code. Christ was speaking of this third use of the law when He said that those who become His disciples must be taught to do all that He had commanded (Matt. 28:20), and that obedience to His commands will prove the reality of one’s love for Him (John 14:15). The Christian is free from the law as a system of salvation (Rom. 6:14; 7:4, 6; 1 Cor. 9:20; Gal. 2:15-19, 3:25), but is “under the law of Christ” as a rule of life (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2).” via ligonier.

Brennan Manning: Tout est Grâce (All is Grace)

“This book is by the one who thought he’d be farther along by now, but he’s not. It is by the inmate who promised the parole board he’d be good, but he wasn’t. It is by the dim-eyed who showed the path to others but kept losing his way. It is by the wet-brained who believed if a little wine is good for the stomach, then a lot is great. It is by the liar, tramp, and thief; otherwise known as the priest, speaker, and author. It is by the disciple whose cheese slid off his cracker so many times he said ‘to hell with cheese ‘n’ crackers.’ It is by the young at heart but old of bone who is led these days in a way he’d rather not go.

But,

This book is also for the gentle ones who’ve lived among wolves. It is for those who’ve broken free of collar to romp in fields of love and marriage and divorce. It is for those who mourn, who’ve been mourning most of their lives, yet they hang on to shall be comforted. It is for those who’ve dreamed of entertaining angels but found instead a few friends of great price. It is for the younger and elder prodigals who’ve come to their senses again, and again, and again, and again. It is for those who strain at pious piffle because they’ve been swallowed by Mercy itself. This book is for myself and those who have been around the block enough times that we dare to whisper the ragamuffin’s rumor – all is grace.

…Over the tar of my life, I have usually been headed toward something along the lines of ‘professional commitments.’ Or at least I thought they were. But those trips are over now. I am living in a different emotional direction. I am steering toward home, hardly a poster child for anything… anything, that is, but grace. These pages are my final words on the matter. Grace is everything. I am Brennan the witness.

Tout est Grâce,

Brennan”

Brennan Manning, All Is Grace, pages 26-27, 33. via JohnDink

Justin Buzzard: Grace Prevents Sin

"I want to make one big point here: Grace prevents sin.

The more you preach grace, the freeing news that God unconditionally accepts sinners because of the performance of Jesus, the more you’ll see incredible things happen in your church. Yes grace is always preached in conjunction with God’s law, but as you place the accent on grace and make it the central message and cultural ingredient of your church, you’ll discover that good news (grace) actually prevents sin better than commands, rules, and imperatives.

We need the law. The law is good, a “delight” the Psalmists call it. But only the radical, Outer-Space-ish, I’ve-never-heard-this-before, this-sounds-too-good-to-be-true, unabashed biblical message of grace can transform people from the inside out. A real dent in fighting sin is made when people’s core motivations are changed. Grace does that.

Grace prevents sin.

I’ve never seen the law of God make someone cry. Presently, in my church, I’m watching loads of people weep tears of repentance for sin and gratitude for being undeservedly loved as they hear the good news of grace. Tears don’t lie.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, exposes a sinner like grace–the news that you’re simultaneously so bad and so loved that Someone Else had to and was glad to live, die, and rise again for you. Grace devastates your pride. When we learn that Someone Else suffered for us, performed for us, covered for us, that changes everything.

Mad about all the sinning you see inside yourself and others? Preach grace louder, longer, and more often. Grace. More and more grace. That’s what we need." (via)

Carson, Keller & Piper: Gender Roles & the Gospel

This is a fantastic discussion on how our views regarding the biblical description of gender roles can impact our view of the gospel. 

Tim Keller: What is Sin?

"Sin is building your identity on anything but God."

R. C. Sproul: Contrast with the Majesty of God

“Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God”

Greg Forster: Fully Known & Unconditionally Loved

“Before God even made you, he already knew every single thing you were ever going to do, say, think, feel, wish, or imagine over the whole course of your life… That God knows us so completely and intimately is, of course, what makes it so amazing that he loves us so much – given how horrible the things going on in us are.”

Sinclair Ferguson: Union With Christ

Thomas Goodwin: The 1st and the 2nd Adam

"Before the face of God there stand only two men, Adam and Jesus Christ, and all others hang before God by their girdle strings."

Tullian Tchividjian: The Gospel As Our Motivation for Obedience

Fleeing From Your Bad & Your Good Works

When David Dickson (1583-1662) was sickly and near death, a friend asked him what he had learned throughout this difficult season. Here is what he said:

"I have taken all my good deeds, and all my bad deeds, and have cast them together in a heap before the Lord, and have fled from both to Jesus Christ, and in Him I have sweet peace."

Sovereign Grace

"Tis not that I did choose thee, 
For Lord that could not be; 
This heart would still refuse thee, 
Hadst thou not chosen me." 

 -Josiah Condor