go deep

this is the gospel!

Thus faith links us to Christ and receives all that he has to give us. Through faith in Jesus our sin is imputed to him so that he pays for these sins on the cross and through that same faith his righteousness (his merits and holy works) becomes ours. This is what we mean when we speak of being justified by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone. This is the gospel! God freely gives in Christ what he demands of us under the law. And if we are not clear about this, we have no foundation for living the Christian life, no assurance of our salvation, and we have nothing left to confess to the unbelieving world around us. - Kim Riddlebarger

what is true spirituality?

"...true spirituality is an on-going, moment by moment trusting in Christ and his word. It is a thankful trust sustained by the realization that the shed blood of Christ provides for us completely; for our sanctification now as much as for our salvation which is still to come in its fullness. It is also an applied trust, a living by faith as though we were already dead and a stepping out into the external world as though we were already raised from the dead; and it is a transforming trust, a trust that testifies to the real forgiveness of sins and manifests the fruit of the indwelling Spirit."

- Mark Ryan, commenting on the "beating heart" of Francis Schaeffer's theology

true perfection is imperfect

Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

- He recovers himself, and shows us that he rests only in Christ.
- This is the true perfection of those that are born again, to confess that they are imperfect.

(from the 1599 Geneva Bible)

love that never quits

"I am the Lord, I change not."
— Malachi 3:6

He is unchanged in His love. He has loved His people with "an everlasting love"; He loves them now as much as ever He did, and when all earthly things shall have melted in the last conflagration, His love will still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the assurance that He changes not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its axle is eternal love. - C.H. Spurgeon