Only when we’re thoroughly convinced that the Christian life is entirely of grace are we able to serve God out of a grateful and loving heart.
Solo en la medida en que podemos ver la santidad de Dios, Su absoluta pureza y Su aborrecimiento moral para con el pecado, podemos comprender lo tremendo que es pecar contra un Dios santo.
The daily experience of Christ’s love is linked to our obedience to Him. It is not that His love is conditioned on our obedience. That would be legalism. But our experience of His love is dependent upon our obedience.
In order to trust God, we must always view our adverse circumstances through the eyes of faith, not of sense.
Devotion to God is the only acceptable motive for actions that are pleasing to God.
If there is a single event in all of the universe that can occur outside of God’s sovereign control, then we cannot trust Him.
Holiness and usefulness are linked together.
The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is a very freeing and joyous experience.
The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering human heart must cling.
Grace is not a matter of God’s making up the difference, but of God’s providing all the “cost” of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.
The point of this good-day-bad-day comparison is this: Regardless of our performance, we are always dependent on God’s grace, His undeserved favor to those who deserve His wrath. Some days we may be more acutely conscious of our sinfulness and hence more aware of our need of His grace, but there is never a day when we can stand before Him on our own two feet of performance, when we are worthy enough to deserve His blessing.
For an action to be truly obedient to God, it must be done from a motivation of genuine love and gratitude to Him.
Holiness is the perfection of all His other attributes: His power is holy power; His mercy is holy mercy; His wisdom is holy wisdom. It is His holiness more than any other attribute that makes Him worthy of our praise.
Nothing is so small or trivial as to escape the attention of God’s sovereign control; nothing is so great as to be beyond His power to control it.
God never pursues His glory at the expense of the good of His people, nor does He ever seek our good t the expense of His glory. He has designed His eternal purpose so that His glory and our good are inextricably bound together. What comfort and encouragement this should be to us.
There is a familiar play on the word “justification” that it means “just as if I’d never sinned.” But there is another way of saying this that is even better – justification means “just as if I’d always obeyed.” That’s the way we stand before God: clothed in the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that’s the way we can live with the discomfort of the justified life.
Our goal in the pursuit of godliness should be to grow more in our conscious awareness that every moment of our lives is lived in the presence of God; that we are responsible to Him and dependent on Him. This goal would include a growing desire to please Him and glorify Him in the most ordinary activities of life. Of.
We do not know why God allowed the enemies of His people to prevail at one time and restrained them at another. It is enough to know that God can and does restrain the harmful acts of others toward us when that is His sovereign will. Furthermore, God, in His infinite wisdom and love, intends that good ultimately comes from those harmful acts. The.
We honor God by choosing to trust Him when we don’t understand what He is doing or why He has allowed some adverse circumstance to occur.
Run, John, run. The law commands But gives neither feet nor hands. Better news the gospel brings; It bids me fly and gives me wings.
Just as the airplane must have both wings to fly, so we must exercise both discipline and dependence in the pursuit of holiness. Just as it is impossible for an airplane to fly with only one wing, so it is impossible for us to successfully pursue holiness with only dependence or discipline. We absolutely must have both.