Gospel Prism

Most of these quotes come from a great website called Of First Importance. This is what this blog is about: “The gospel of Jesus Christ is “of first importance” (1 Cor 15:3), but we easily forget. Each day this blog will provide one quote to help you live in the good of the gospel.”

1. HUMILITY: We must be humbled by this grace because grace humbles us. (Eph 2:8-9; 2 Tim 1:9; James 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5)

There is no Christian in his wits who will dare to adventure the everlasting safety of his soul upon the leaking vessels of his own holiness or services. (Thomas Brooks, A Cabinet of Choice Jewels)

2. WORSHIP: We must worship our gracious God because grace should lead us to such worship. (Rom 5:2; Heb 2:9)

God has greatly loved us, when we were nothing but sin, when we did nothing but sin. Whence then sprang this love? Surely from nothing belonging to us. It sprang entirely from His own nature, which is Love. ‘God is Love.’ He loved us because it was His will to love us. We may search and reason until all our powers fail, and we shall find no motive or cause outside of God Himself. Let us then adore our God, and the freeness and the riches of His love! Who is a God like unto Him, who so greatly loved us, vile, hateful sinners! What an instance of God-like grace! (Henry Law, Meditations on Ephesians)

3. ASSURANCE: We must be assured of our salvation because grace assures us of salvation. (Acts 15:11; Romans 5:8; Gal 1:15)

Dwell much upon this partnership with the Son of God, unto which you have been called: for all your hope lies there.
You can never be poor while Jesus is rich, since you are in one firm with Him. Want can never assail you, since you are joint-proprietor with Him who is Possessor of Heaven and earth.

You can never fail; for though one of the partners in the firm is as poor as a church mouse, and in himself an utter bankrupt, who could not pay even a small amount of his heavy debts, yet the other partner is inconceivably, inexhaustibly rich.

In such partnership you are raised above the depression of the times, the changes of the future, and the shock of the end of all things. The Lord has called you into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, and by that act and deed He has put you into the place of infallible safeguard. (Charles Spurgeon, All of Grace)

Would I gather arguments for hoping that I shall never be cast away? Where shall I go to find them? Shall I look at my own graces and gifts? Shall I take comfort in my own faith and love, and penitence and zeal, and prayer? Shall I turn to my own heart, and say, ‘This same heart will never be false and cold’?

Oh, no! God forbid! I will look at Calvary and the crucifixion. This is my grand argument: this is my mainstay. I cannot think that He who went through such sufferings to redeem my soul, will let that soul perish after all, when it has once cast itself on Him. Oh, no! What Jesus paid for Jesus will surely keep. He paid dearly for it: He will not let it easily be lost. He died for me when I was yet a dark sinner: He will never forsake me after I have believed.

Ah, reader, when Satan tempts you to doubt whether Christ’s people will be kept from falling, you should tell Satan that you cannot despair when you look at the cross. (J. C. Ryle, Old Paths)

4. COMFORT AND STRENGTH: We need to seek this grace for comfort and strength in times of trouble because only grace gives us the greatest strength of all. (Psalm 86:8; Acts 6:8; 2 Cor 12:9; 2 Thess 2:16; 2 Tim 2:1; Heb 4:16; 1 Pet 5:10)

You may greatly comfort yourself that you have an unchangeable friend in Christ Jesus. From the unchangeableness of your Savior, you may be assured of your continuance in a state of grace. As to yourself, you are so changeable, that, if left to yourself, you would soon fall utterly away. But Christ is the same, and therefore, when he has begun a good work in you he will finish it. As he has been the author, he will be the finisher of your faith.

He will never cease to intercede for you. When once you have entered on the happiness of heaven, it never shall be taken from you, because Christ, your Savior and friend, who bestows it on you, and in whom you have it, is unchangeable. He will be the same forever and ever, and therefore so will be your happiness in heaven.

As Christ is an unchangeable Savior, so he is your unchangeable portion. That may be your rejoicing, that however your earthly enjoyments may be removed, Christ can never fail. Your dear friends may be taken away and you suffer many losses. And at last you must part with all those things. Yet you have a portion, a precious treasure, more worth, ten thousand times, than all these things. That portion cannot fail you, for you have it in him, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Jonathan Edwards, Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever)

5. SELFLESS LOVE: We must genuinely love others with selfless love because grace leads to such love. (Acts 4:33-34, 2 Cor 9:8; 1 Pet 4:10)

Service coupled with cheerfulness is heart-service, and therefore true. Take away joyful willingness from the Christian, and you have removed the test of his sincerity….The man who is cheerful in his service of God, proves that obedience is his element; he can sing, “Make me to walk in thy commands, ‘Tis a delightful road.”…Reader, let us put this question- do you serve the Lord with gladness? Let us show to the people of the world, who think our religion to be slavery, that it is to us a delight and a joy! Let our gladness proclaim that we serve a good Master. (Charles Spurgeon)

6. SANCTIFICATION: We must long to be more like Christ because grace leads to sanctification and therefore, genuine good works. (Acts 20:32; 2 Pet 3:18)

I find no balm for a sore conscience, and a troubled heart, like the sight of Jesus dying for me on the accursed tree.

There I see that a full payment has been made for all my enormous debts. The curse of that law which I have broken has come down on One who there suffered in my stead. The demands of that law are all satisfied. Payment has been made for me, even to the uttermost farthing. It will not be required twice over.

Ah! I might sometimes imagine I was too bad to be forgiven. My own heart sometimes whispers that I am too wicked to be saved. But I know in my better moments this is all my foolish unbelief. I read an answer to my doubts in the blood shed on Calvary. I feel sure that there is a way to heaven for the very vilest of men, when I look at the cross. (J. C. Ryle, Old Paths)

The atoning death of Christ, and that alone, has presented sinners as righteous in God’s sight; the Lord Jesus has paid the full penalty of their sins, and clothed them with His perfect righteousness before the judgment seat of God.

But Christ has done for Christians even far more than that. He has given to them not only a new and right relation to God, but a new life in God’s presence for evermore. He has saved them from the power as well as from the guilt of sin.

The New Testament does not end with the death of Christ; it does not end with the triumphant words of Jesus on the Cross, “It is finished.” The death was followed by the resurrection, and the resurrection like the death was for our sakes.

Jesus rose from the dead into a new life of glory and power, and into that life He brings those for whom He died. The Christian, on the basis of Christ’s redeeming work, not only has died unto sin, but also lives unto God. (J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism)

7. POWER OVER SIN: We must realize that grace overcomes sin because grace gives us the power to defeat sin. (Rom 5:21; 6:1, 14; Eph 1:7; 2:5)

The first thing we can say is that being united to Christ by faith makes his pardon and righteousness ours, so there is no condemnation. The second thing we can say is that being united to Christ by faith makes his power and authority over sin ours, so the law of sin and death can be defeated. In Christ we get pardon from sin and power over sin. (John Piper)

8. CALL: We must look to grace for a call to genuine ministry because grace reminds us that God calls us first. (Eph 3:8; 4:7; Phil 1:7)

This calling is an act of the grace of God in Christ by which he calls men dead in sin and lost in Adam through the preaching of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, to union with Christ and to salvation obtained in him. (Francis Turretin)

9. HOLINESS: We must remember God’s holy character and nature because grace teaches us God is holy. (Heb 10:29)

The holiness we have in Christ is purely objective, outside of ourselves. It is the perfect holiness of Christ imputed to us because of our union with Him, and it affects our standing before God. God is pleased with us because He is pleased with Christ. Progressive sanctification is subjective or experiential and is the work of the Holy Spirit within us imparting to us the life and power of Christ, enabling us to respond in obedience to Him. Both aspects of sanctification, however, are gifts of God’s grace. We do not deserve our holy standing before God, and we do not deserve the Spirit’s sanctifying work in our lives. Both come to us by His grace because of their merit of Jesus Christ. (Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, 106)

10. TRUTH: We must be focused on the truth because grace always leads us to the truth. (Heb 13:9; 1 Pet 1:10; Jude 1:4)

In the stupendous matter of our salvation Christ shall be the Alpha and the Omega. With Him the gospel plan originated- by Him it was revealed- by Him it was executed- and in His undivided glory and endless praise it shall forever terminate. From every tongue in glory, and through the high arches of heaven, the anthem shall peal, ‘Worthy is the Lamb!’

Believer in Christ! Does not your soul pant to join in that song? and does not your spirit exult in the truth that salvation, from first to last, is of God? Oh, how precious is this truth in the consciousness of our many failures and defects!
Our salvation is all in Christ- our righteousness is all in Christ- our merit is all in Christ- our completeness is all in Christ- in Christ our Covenant Head, our Surety and Mediator; and no flaw in our obedience, no defect in our love, no failure in our service, should so cast us down as to shut our eye to our acceptance in the Beloved.

Imperfections we would not overlook, sin we would not allow, disobedience we would not indulge, temptation we would not encourage; nevertheless, we would ever remember, for our encouragement that, in default of perfection in the most perfect of our own doings, we are fully and eternally complete in Jesus. (Octavious Winslow, The Sympathy of Christ)