As we really were

Jesus viewed us as we really were, not as our pride fancies us to be; he saw us to be without God, enemies to our own Creator, dead in trespasses and sins, corrupt, and set on mischief, and even in our occasional cry for good, searching for it with blinded judgment and prejudiced heart, so that we put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. He saw that in us was no good thing, but every possible evil, so that we were lost, — utterly, helplessly, hopelessly lost apart from him: yet viewing us as in that graceless and Godless plight and condition, he died for us.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “For Whom Did Christ Die?,” delivered September 6, 1874.

Whatever We Seek, Let Us Find It In His Cross

“Since we see that the whole of our salvation, and all the branches of it, are comprehended in Christ, we must be cautious not to separate him from the smallest portion of it. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the name of Jesus that it is in him; if we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing; strength, in his dominion; purity, in his conception; gentleness discovers itself in his nativity, by which he was made to resemble us in all things, that he might learn to commiserate with us. If we seek redemption, it will be found in his passion; if absolution, in his condemnation; remission of the curse, in his cross; satisfaction, in his sacrifice; purification, in his blood; reconciliation, in his descent into hell; mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; newness of life and immortality, in his resurrection; the inheritance of the celestial kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; protection, security, abundance, and enjoyment of all blessings, in his kingdom; a fearless expectation of the judgment, in the judicial authority committed to him. Finally, blessings of every kind are deposited in him; let us draw from his treasury, and from no other source, until our desires are satisfied.”

John Calvin, quoted in John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor (p.192)

Do not tell me about your good works, I am not interested.

“Do not tell me about your good works, I am not interested. Do not tell me you are a church member, I am not a bit interested. Are you glorying in the cross? Is this everything to you? Is this life to you? Are you ready to die rather than deny this glorious message? That is what a Christian is, and unless we glory in the cross we have not seen it and what it means, and if we have not seen it, we do not really believe in it. And if we do not believe in it, we are yet in our sins, and should we die like that, we will go to judgement and we will go to hell. Your eternal, everlasting destiny, depends upon this one thing. Have you seen that God has provided there the only way whereby you can be forgiven and become a child of God, and go on to inherit the glories of eternity? May God have mercy upon us all, and by his Spirit open our eyes to see the glory of the cross.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Cross (p. 83)

It takes the blood of Jesus Christ

Morality may keep you out of jail, but it takes the blood of Jesus Christ to keep you out of hell – Spurgeon

There is no preaching the gospel if…

There is no preaching the gospel if the atonement be left out. No matter how well we speak of Jesus as a pattern, we have done nothing unless we point him out as the substitute and sinbearer.

~ Spurgeon

Bring down a giant soul

‎”The smallest tract may be the stone in David’s sling. In the hands of Christ it may bring down a giant soul.”

~R.M. M’Cheyne

Willfully refusing the means of grace

For no man is damned precisely because God hath not chosen him, because he is not elected, but because he is a sinner, and doth willfully refuse the means of grace offered.

~John Calvin

The last hour of my life

Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

~Jonathan Edwards

Live nearer to Christ

Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley. He changes not! Live nearer to Christ than to any person on this earth; so that when they are taken, you may have Him to love and lean upon.

~ Robert Murray M’Cheyne

Man’s preoccupation with self

Man’s basic problem is preoccupation with self. He is innately beset with narcissism, a condition named after the Greek mythological character Narcissus, who spent his life admiring his reflection in a pool of water. In the final analysis, every sin results from preoccupation with self. We sin because we are totally selfish, totally devoted to ourselves, rather than to God and to others.
~John MacArthur