Thankfulness —John Calvin

“Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things (or in heavenly places) in Christ.” – Ephesians 1:3

“The chief sacrifice which God requires at men’s hands is that they should acknowledge His benefits and be thankful to Him for them…

For if a man asks us why we are found in this world, why God has such a care for us, why His goodness feeds and cherishes us, and finally why He, as it were, dazzles us with the great number of benefits He bestows upon us, it is in order that we should yield some acknowledgement of them to Him. For (as it is said in the psalm) we for our part cannot profit him at all, neither does He require anything else of us in exchange, but thanksgiving, according as it is said in Psalm 116, ‘What shall I render to the Lord for all the benefits which I have received from Him, except to take the cup of salvation at His hand and to call upon His name?’…

It is true that the Holy Spirit often sets forth other reasons why we should magnify God’s name, as (for example) the order of nature, the fruits which the earth yields, the aid and help which God gives us, and other such things. And these are sufficient matter for which to praise God. But St. Paul leads us higher here, and will have us to glorify God above all things. He thinks it is not enough to own that God has placed us in the world and that he nourishes us here, and he provides all things needful during the passing of this transitory life, but he also says that God has chosen us to be heirs of His kingdom and of the heavenly life.

We are then doubly bound to God, and that, much more closely then ignorant and unbelieving wretches are. For although they are sufficiently indebted already, yet the good He has done us in Jesus Christ is beyond all comparison more excellent and noble, because He has adopted us to be His children.”

—John Calvin, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians

Substitution —Donald Grey Barnhouse

"Barabbas was the only man in the world who could say that Jesus Christ took his physical place. But I can say that Jesus Christ took my spiritual place. For it was I who deserved to die. It was I who deserved that the wrath of God should be poured upon me. I deserved the eternal punishment of the lake of fire. He was delivered up for my offenses. He was handed over to judgment because of my sins. This is why we speak of the substitutionary atonement. Christ was my substitute. He was satisfying the debt of divine justice and holiness. That is why I say that Christianity can be expressed in the three phrases: I deserved Hell; Jesus took my Hell; there is nothing left for me but his Heaven."

—Donald Grey Barnhouse, Romans, Vol. 2, “God’s Remedy” (Fincastle, VA: Scripture Truth, 1954), p. 378.

The most terrible thing about us… —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"This is the most terrible thing about man. It is bad enough that he should be breaking God's law. It is bad enough that he should be transgressing, that he should be falling short of the pattern and the standard. But, my friends, that is not the most terrible thing about us by nature. The most terrible thing about us is that even when we are offered salvation, we do not take it. We resent it. We reject it.

Listen: "Who hath believed our report?" (Isa. 53:1). Here is the question and here is the "report": "My servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled" (Isa. 52:13). He will "sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider" (Isa. 52:15). Here is the message, but "Who hath believed our report?" Here is the trouble with humanity, and here in this rejection you see it at its very worst. Man is perverted; he has become depraved. He is offered a way of salvation, but he will not believe it or receive it. He still prefers to trust to his own philosophies, his own knowledge, his own efforts, his own understanding. Here is God's offered way of salvation, but "Who hath believed our report?" (Isa. 53:1)"

—Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Compelling Christianity