From EBC
We are to consider, that though Christ is greatly exalted, yet he is exalted, not as a private person for himself only, but as his people's head; he is exalted in their name, and upon their account, as the first fruits, and as representing the whole harvest. He is not exalted that he may be at a greater distance from them, but that they may be exalted with him.
— Jonathan Edwards
Unbelief is the root of evil and the essence of evil. All our sinning grows out of unbelief in the living God and what He has said to us in Scripture.
— John Piper
“The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.” And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all stories, and we can most truly say they all lived happily ever after. . . . All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
— C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle
Only at the cross can Jesus be rightly known, not simply as a great moral teacher or as the most noble person who ever lived; nor only as a miracle worker or as an answer to this or that pressing question of the world. At the cross Jesus is revealed as the suffering Son of God, whose rejection, suffering and death reveal the triumph of God. Only at Golgotha can Jesus be rightly known as God incognito who reveals himself to those who are willing to deny themselves and follow him in costly discipleship.
— James Edwards
God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
— Hebrews 12:7b–11
Wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians. And wimpy Christians won’t survive the days ahead.
— John Piper
A believing sight of God's glorious majesty should affect us all with Godly fear.
— Matthew Henry
When earth-bound men want symbols of power they conjure up mighty beasts and birds of prey. Russia elevates the bear, Britain the lion, France the tiger, the United States the spread eagle – all of them ravenous. It is only the Kingdom of Heaven that would dare to use as its symbol of might, not the Lion for which John was looking, but the helpless Lamb, and at that, a slain Lamb.
— J. P . Love
The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is not inadequate technique, insufficient organization, or antiquated music; and those who want to squander the church’s resources bandaging these scratches will do nothing to stanch the flow of blood that is spilling from its true wounds. The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, his grace is too ordinary, his judgment is too benign, his gospel is too easy, and his Christ is too common.
— David F. Wells
Adversity has slain her thousand, but prosperity her ten thousand.
— Thomas Brooks
There is no peace like the peace of those whose minds are possessed with full assurance that they have known God, and God has known them, and that this relationship guarantees God’s favor to them in life, through death and on forever.
— J. I. Packer
The central basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us.
— Tim Keller
One generation … believed the gospel and held… that there [are] certain social, economic, and political entailments. The next generation assumed the gospel, but identified with the entailments. The following generation denied the gospel: the “entailments” became everything.
– D. A. Carson
Question 30: How does Christ execute the office of a king? Answer: Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to Himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all His and our enemies.
– Keach’s Catechism, 17th Century
Almighty God, who for our redemption gave your onlybegotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
— Book of Common Prayer, Easter Vigil 295
Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall. The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché, not a stone in a story, but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of time will eclipse for each of us the wide light of day.
— John Updike
It is right to praise you, Almighty God, for the acts of love by which you have redeemed us through Jesus Christ our Lord. On this day he entered the holy city of Jerusalem in triumph, and was proclaimed as King of kings by those who spread garments and branches along his way. Let these branches be for us signs of his victory, and grant that we who bear them in his name may ever hail him as our King, and follow him in the way that leads to eternal life.
— The Book of Common Prayer
“Anyway, to answer your question, well . . . I used to believe in those things but in this job . . . well . . . I guess I’ve seen too much corruption in people to believe them anymore. We’re not just rooted to this world, we’re also a part of it. I don’t think we can ever be perfectly free or pure. We can’t rise above who we are.” After a long pause that stretched into awkwardness, Tessa asked softly, “Can someone else lift us?”
– Steven James, The Rook
There is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ. There do we meet in Jesus Christ infinite highness and infinite humility. He is higher than the kings of the earth for He is King of kings and Lord of lords. So great is He that all men, kings, and princes are as worms of the dust before Him. . . . And yet . . . none are so low or inferior, but Christ’s condescension is sufficient to take a gracious notice of them. His condescension is great enough to become our friend, to become our companion, to unite our souls to Him in spiritual union, to take our nature upon Him, to become one of us, that He may be one with us.
– Jonathan Edwards
Here might I stay and sing– No story so divine! Never was love, dear King, Never was grief like Thine. This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise I all my days could gladly spend.
– Samuel Crossman
