Salvation

December 24, 2013

Dear friend, salvation would be a sadly incomplete affair if it did not deal with the whole part of our ruined estate. We want to be purified as well as pardoned. Justification without sanctification would not be salvation at all. It would call the leper clean, and leave him to die of his disease; it would forgive the rebellion, and allow the rebel to remain an enemy of his King. It would remove the consequence but overlook the cause, and this would leave an endless and hopeless task before us. It would stop the stream for a time, but leave an open fountain of defilement which would sooner or later break forth with increased power.

– Charles Spurgeon –

December 23, 2013

Dear friends, you may have awakenings, enlightenings, experiences, a full heart in prayers, and many signs, but if ye lack holiness, you will never see the Lord. A real desire after complete holiness is the truest mark of having been born again. The Saviour first covers the soul with His white raiment, then makes the soul glorious within – restores the lost image of God, and fills the soul with pure heavenly holiness. Unregenerate men among you cannot bear this.

– Robert Murray M’Cheyne –

December 8, 2013

It is God who sets us free. Not only free from punishment, curse, uneasiness and terror, but also free from sin itself. You know that He was manifested so that He might take away our sins. Let us receive this thought deep into our hearts – it is God who takes away our sins. The better we grasp this, the more blessed our lives will be. Not everyone receives this. Some seek only to be freed from the consequences of sin, fear, darkness, and punishment. It is for this reason that they do not come to the true rest of salvation. They do not understand that to be saved is to be freed from sin. Let us hold it firmly. Jesus saves through the taking away of sin.

– Andrew Murray –

November 27, 2013

My faith has found a resting place,
Not in device or creed;
I trust the ever living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.

– Eliza E. Hewitt –

November 21, 2013

From this it further follows, when a Christian does good works and shows love to his neighbor, that he does not thereby become a Christian or pious, but before this is done he must have been a Christian and pious. He indeed does good works, but his good works do not make him a Christian. The tree brings or yields good fruit, but the fruit does not make the tree good. So also here, no one becomes a Christian through his works, but through Christ.

– Martin Luther –

November 17, 2013

These wounds were meant to purchase me. These drops of blood were shed to obtain me. I am not my own today. I belong to another. I have been bought with a price. And I will live every moment of this day so that the Great Purchaser of my soul will receive the full reward of His suffering.

– Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf –

October 23, 2013

I’m convinced that a large percentage of people that we call worldly Christians are perhaps not Christian to begin with and that may be the trouble.

– Vance Havner –

September 27, 2013

There was a day when I died; died to self, my opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren or friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.

– George Müller –

July 2, 2013

And so it had gotten down to the place where salvation was nothing more than the assent to a scheme or a formula.

– Paris Reidhead –