From EBC
Question 64: What is the invisible Church? Answer: The invisible Church is the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ the head.
Question 65: What special benefits do the members of the invisible Church enjoy by Christ? Answer: The members of the invisible Church, by Christ, enjoy union and communion with him in grace and glory.
– Westminster Larger Catechism
[Jesus says in John 13:35 that] if an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that he or she is not a Christian. Here [in John 17:21] Jesus is stating something else that is much more cutting, much more profound: We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus’s claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians.
– Francis Schaeffer
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
God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is our proper; and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Better than fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of any, or all earthly friends. These are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean.
– Jonathan Edwards
The best men [such as David] are not always in a good frame; we are apt to over-grieve for what we over-loved. . . . But while we learn from his example [regarding Absalom] to watch and pray against sinful indulgence, or neglect of our children, may we not, in David, perceive a shadow of the Saviour’s love, who wept over, prayed for, and even suffered death for mankind, though vile rebels and enemies?
– Matthew Henry
From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
Without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head.
– Heidelberg Catechism, Question 1
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
– Galatians 3:13
To reconcile offending man,
Make Justice drop her angry rod;
What creature could have formed the plan,
Or who fulfill it but a God?
No drop remains of all the curse,
For wretches who deserved the whole;
No arrows dipped in wrath to pierce
The guilty, but returning soul.
Peace by such means so dearly bought,
What rebel could have hoped to see?
Peace by his injured Sovereign wrought,
His Sovereign fastened to a tree.
– William Cowper
There is no real joy in the text; for it is not the prodigal but the murderer who returns. And the father’s kiss is not a prelude to celebration, but a cue for foreboding.
— Dale Ralph Davis
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
If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.
— C. H. Spurgeon
The Lord puts a special honour upon baptism, and it would be ill for us to neglect that which he so evidently esteems. Do not make any mistake, and imagine that immersion in water can wash away sin; but do remember that if the Lord puts this outward profession side by side with the washing away of sins it is not a trifling matter.
— C. H. Spurgeon
The degree of our peace of mind is tied to our prayer life (Phil. 4:6-7). This is not because prayer is psychologically soothing, but because we address a prayer-answering God, a personal God, a responding God, a sovereign God whom we can trust with the outcomes of life's confusions. And we learn, with time, that if God in this or that instance does not choose to take away the suffering, or utterly remove the evil, he does send grace and power. The result is praise; and that, of course, is itself enjoyable, in exactly the same way that lovers enjoy giving each other compliments.”
—D. A. Carson
To reconcile offending man,
Make Justice drop her angry rod;
What creature could have formed the plan,
Or who fulfill it but a God?
No drop remains of all the curse,
For wretches who deserved the whole;
No arrows dipped in wrath to pierce
The guilty, but returning soul.
Peace by such means so dearly bought,
What rebel could have hoped to see?
Peace by his injured Sovereign wrought,
His Sovereign fastened to a tree.
– William Cowper
Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief. Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love. And repose in his almighty arms. . . . Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in Him.
– Robert Murray M’Cheyne
The account about King David “provides one of the Scripture’s most vivid reminders that all human beings, no matter how elevated their status in the eyes of those around them, no matter what special calling they may have received from the Lord, are still fallen creatures and capable of the most unimaginable iniquities. It is for this reason that the Bible encourages us to place our trust in the Lord rather than in other people (Pss 118:8; 146:3).”
— Robert Vannoy
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
When Christ entered into Jerusalem the people spread their garments in the way. When He enters into our hearts, we pull off our own righteousness, and not only lay it under Christ’s feet, but even trample upon it ourselves.
— Augustus Toplady
You can shine your shoes and wear a suit. You can comb your hair and look quite cute. You can hide your face behind a smile.
One thing you can't hide
Is when you're crippled inside.
— John Lennon
