The striking thing in the Scriptural representations of the priestly work of Christ, is that Christ appears in them as both priest and sacrifice.Systematic Theology (365)
The Calvinist limits the extent in that he says that it does not apply to all persons . . . while the Arminian limits the power of, for he says that in itself it does not actually save anybody.The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination , 153.
In the first Adam we offended God, because Adam did not obey the divine commandment. But in the second Adam we have been reconciled to God and made obedient even to death. For we were debtors to no one except to him whose commandment we had transgressed. Therefore, in the last times the Lord has restored us into fellowship through his incarnation. He has become the Mediator between God and man, propitiating the Father against whom we had sinned, by his death. He has cancelled our disobedience by his obedience.Adversus omnes haereses 5.16.3-5.17.1
the Reformers also rejected the Anselmian alternative 'satisfaction or punishment', and pointed out that the one does not exclude the other, but that the satisfaction rendered through the sacrifice of Christ was the satisfaction through punishment. In other words, they stressed the fact that the sufferings of Christ were penal and vicarious.The History of Christian Doctrines (183)
Consider for a moment how precious it is that the Christian can say, "I have been crucified with Christ." This is a personal atonement, personal substitution. We revel in the awesome love of our Savior who loved us as individuals and gave Himself up for us. For me! Me, the hate-filled sinner who spurned Him and His love! How much less glorious is the idea, "Christ loved a generic group and died so as to give them the opportunity to possibly join the group and hence receive certain benefits.The Potter's Freedom (248)
God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation. Institutes Lib. III. c. 21,5(Opera, Vol. II. pp. 682, GS3)
there are those who say that the language of election is figurative. In Christ, everyone has been chosen, whether they know it or not. This view, or variations of it, has been popular in modern times, when it has became associated with Karl Barth and his followers, but there are at least two problems with it. The first one is that the Bible never says anything like this. From the beginning to the end, it is clear that God has chosen some people and not others... The second one is that it denies human freedom, even as it claims to be asserting the worth of every human being. What if I do not want to go to heaven?God Has Spoken 895
Prayer is always essential, but thought is essential, too, because prayer can be just an escape mechanism, almost at times a cry in the dark by people who are desperate and defeated. Prayer must be intelligent, and it is only to those who realize that their bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost that the answer will be given and the power will come.Spiritual Depression (173)
If we fear God, we dare not ignore what He commands. If His fear is exalted in our hearts, it will enable us to obey Him in duties accompanied with deep self-denial.Triumphing over Sinful Fear, 20
We can no longer afford to be pious functional deists as Christians who regard God as no longer active in history to judge & bless nations in terms of obedience to the gospel & who, whilst speaking of biblical inspiration deny its material authority & application in the world.
You will say, "Who are now under the covenant of works?" There is a vulgar prejudice abroad which supposes that the first covenant was repealed and disannulled upon the fall and that God now deals with us upon new terms, as if the covenant of grace wholly shut out the former contract, wherein they think Adam only was concerned. But this is a gross mistake because it was made not only with Adam but with all his seed. And every natural man, whilst natural, whilst merely a son of Adam, is obliged to the tenor of it. The form of the law runs universally: "Cursed is every one that"…(Gal. 3:10), which rule allows no exception but that of free grace and interest in Christ.
To preach the law, in order to Christ; to labor to make men that lie in their spiritual lethargies to know and feel their disease, that they may see the need of and embrace the blessed Physician— is not this rational? I think all men naturally stand under a covenant of works, and to make men know what that state is, I think, is very requisite if ever we would make them feel the necessity and know the worth of a covenant of grace; yet I know not how it comes about. Of late years this kind of preaching is laid by. When I consider the people, then I can see their reasons why they love it not; but when I think of the ministry, I know not why ministers should so gratify the corruptions of people. So the law were rightly preached, I never knew it offend any godly and judicious Christian. Real Christian
What is conversion? It's the change of a man's treasure, of a man's chief good. Till thou change thy chief good, it's in vain to complain of the disorders of thy heart; therefore, every unregenerate man may hence see the absolute necessity of conversion.
The conversion of the soul is supposed to be as considerable a work, if not a greater, than the creation, for in the creation God had no adversary. The light did not say, "I will not be created"; the earth did not say, "I will not be formed." But in the new creation, sinners labor to prevent (as much as in them lies) the conception of grace, take down antidotes against salvation, and study how to defeat the Spirit of God and make its works abortive. God, when He comes, finds the house not only empty of grace but filled with lusts and the strong man up in arms; not a milk-white paper, but He finds the devil to have been scribbling and the world to have been scribbling. Angels may knock at the door of a sinner's heart, but God only can open it. The body is not so much at the command of the soul as the soul is at the command of God. "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15). The Lord opened the heart of Lydia. Man's heart is God's lock, and not man's wisdom; but the Spirit of the Lord is the key that must unlock it. On Jacob\'s Ladder
A contented man cannot be a poor man, especially if a godly man. For why? The Father, that Ancient of Days, fills his memory; the Son, the wisdom of the Father, fills his understanding; the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, fills his will. And so he must needs have all that thus has the Haver of All.
Get a humble spirit if you would have a contented one. Pride causes men to be unthankful for their mercies and impatient under their crosses, but afflictions are easily borne and benefits are ever gratefully acknowledged by the mind that is truly humble under a sense of its defects.
We conceive it is so excellent a grace, this grace of contentment, that it is indeed a compound of these five graces: faith, humility, patience, hope, and mortification. In a manner, contentment is the result of all these exercising themselves in one; and except these be in a most vigorous exercise, absolute contentment is not easily to be attained.
We may say, if a Christian made the world but his servant, a little would content him; but if once he make the world his master and lord of his affections, then his desires will be infinite and cannot at all be satisfied.
Contentment consists not in adding more fuel but in taking away some fire—not in multiplying of wealth but in subtracting men's desires. Worldly riches, like nuts, tear many clothes in getting them; spoil many teeth in cracking them; but fill no belly with eating them, obstructing only the stomach with toughness and filling the guts with windiness. Yea, our souls may sooner surfeit than be satisfied with earthly things. He that at first thought ten thousand pounds too much for any one man will afterward think ten millions too little for himself.
Contentment is a soul business: first, it is inward; secondly, quiet; thirdly, it is a quiet frame of spirit. It is a grace that spreads itself through the whole soul.
The way for a Christian to be contented is not by raising his estate higher, but by bringing his spirit lower; not by making his barns wider, but his heart narrower. One man, a whole lordship or manor will not content him; another is satisfied with a few acres of land. What is the difference? The one studies to satisfy curiosity, the other necessity. The one thinks what he may have; the other thinks what he may spare.
Conscience is like a looking glass. If it be foul and dusty, you can see nothing in it; but wipe away the dust, and you may see your face in it clearly. There is a time coming when God will wipe off the dust from the glass of a man's conscience, and he shall see his sins clearly represented.
Conscience is God's echo, and sometimes it is so shrill and clamorous that the sinner cannot endure the noise, but silences conscience; and at last by often sinning, conscience begins to be sleepy and seared.
But the sincere Christian that allows himself in no sin delights to commune with his own soul and when he is debating things with his own conscience esteems himself in good company. He had rather God's deputy, conscience, should admonish him to contrition than that God Himself should do it to his confusion.