God Loves the Gospel

“The Puritan theologian Thomas Goodwin taught that the proclamation of the gospel was the “bringing forth and publishing” of a mystery that God had treasured from all eternity and that “the things of the gospel are depths—​​​the things of the gospel . . . are the deep things of God.” – Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God

The Difference the Gospel Makes

“We used to hate and destroy one another and refused to associate with people of another race or country. Now, because of Christ, we live together with such people and pray for our enemies.” -Justin Martyr

Only the Gospel

“We can go to the executive branch. We can go to the legislative branch. We can go to the judicial branch. We can put whatever kind of Supreme Court justices we want to put in place. But at the end of the day legislation doesn’t change hearts … only the gospel does.” – Eric Mason

“The ‘back-parts’ of God, which we call his attributes, his power, wisdom, truth, justice, which God calls his glory to Moses . . . and which we cannot see and live: these are infinitely more really and substantially . . . set forth to us, by what we know of Christ as a redeemer in the gospel; and do infinitely transcend whatever of them either was, or could have been expressed in millions of several worlds, filled all of them with several sorts of intelligent creatures, such as angels and men.” – Thomas Goodwin, Discourse on the Glory of the Gospel

Revealed in the Gospel

​”In our finitude, we are unable to comprehend an infinite God, yet the gospel enables us to see so much more of God than would otherwise have been possible. ” – Mark Jones, God Is 

Christ and the Word of Christ, Together

“There is such a connection between the evangelical truth of God and Jesus Christ, that they have both one name, to insinuate to us that as we will be partakers of Christ, so it must be of Christ, as he is revealed in the gospel, not in conceits of our own. The word is truth, and Christ is truth. They have the same name; for were there never so much mercy and love in God, if it were concealed from us, that we had nothing to plead, that we had not some title to it by some discovery of it in his will, the word and the seal of the word, the sacraments (for the sacrament is but a visible word, they make one entire thing, the word and sacraments; the one is the evidence, the other the seal), what comfort could we take in it? Now his will is in the promise, wherein there is not only a discovery of what he doth or will do, but he hath engaged himself: ‘If we believe, we shall not perish, but have life,’ John iii. 15; and ‘Come unto me,’ Matt. xi. 28, and be refreshed, saith Christ. Every one that thirsts, come and be satisfied, John vii. 37. And now we may claim the performance of what he hath spoken, and bind him by his own word. ‘He cannot deny himself,’ John vii. 37. So now we see him comfortably in the glass of the word and sacraments.” -Richard Sibbes, Glorious Freedom

 

Religion and Spirituality…

“Tragically, religion and spirituality provide a whole toolbox for avoiding Jesus today.” -Michael Horton

Three Words for Sin Removal

“Three words describing what is sought from God: blot out, wash thoroughly, cleanse: ‘blot out’ implies sin as a ‘black mark’ which God can see and which he can wipe away; ‘wash thoroughly’ is a ‘launderer’s’ verb, ingrained dirt requiring a detergent which can reach right down into the fibres (cf., Heb. 9: 14); ‘cleanse’ is mostly used in Leviticus (e.g., 13: 6) and deals with sin as a defilement which separates the sinner from the holy God.” -Alec Motyer, A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Loving the Old Testament

Trinity and Prodigal Son

“Christ is the One who gives effect to the Father’s mercy and upon the basis of whose person and completed work we sinners may be saved.” -John R. DeWitt, Amazing Love

The Prodigal Son, A Parable about Christ’s Saving Work

“The parable of the prodigal son is after all in the highest and holiest and deepest and grandest sense a parable of Christ, because, as the Apostle Paul tell us, ‘there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus‘ (Rom. 8:1).” -John R. DeWitt, Amazing Love