A just salvation — C. H. Spurgeon

“I love to think of the vindication of divine justice upon the cross; I am never weary of it. Some cannot bear the thought; but to me it seems inevitable that sin must be punished, or else the foundations of society would be removed. If sin becomes a trifle, virtue will be a toy. Society cannot stand if laws are left without penal sanction, or if that sanction is to be a mere empty threat. Men in their own governments every now and then cry out for greater severity. When a certain offense abounds, and ordinary means fail, they demand exemplary punishment; and it is but natural that they should do so; for deep in the conscience of every man there is the conviction that sin must be punished to secure the general good. Justice must reign, even benevolence demands it. If there could have been salvation without an atonement it would have been a calamity; righteous men, and even benevolent men, might deprecate the setting aside of law in order to save the guilty from the natural result of their crimes.

For my own part I value a just salvation: an unjust salvation would never have satisfied the apprehensions and demands of my conscience. No, let God be just, if the heavens fall; let God carry out the sentence of his law, or the universe will suspect that it was not righteous; and when such a suspicion rules the general mind, all respect for God will be gone. The Lord carries out the decree of his justice even to the bitter end, abating not a jot of its requirements. Brethren, there was an infinite efficacy in the death of such a one as our Lord Jesus Christ to vindicate the law. Though he is man, yet is he also God; and in his passion and death he offered to the justice of God a vindication not at all inferior to the punishment of hell. God is just indeed when Jesus dies upon the cross rather than that God’s law should be dishonored. When our august Lord himself bore the wrath that was due for human sin, it was made evident to all that law is not to be trifled with. We glory in the cross, for there the debt was paid, our sums on Jesus laid.”

C. H. Spurgeon, The cross our glory

Justified by faith — J. Gresham Machen

“The beginning of the Christian life is not an act of man but a wonderful act of the Spirit of God.

But it is accompanied by a conscious act of man; it is accompanied by the act of faith. Faith is not a meritorious work; the New Testament never says that a man is saved on account of his faith, but always that he is saved through his faith. Faith is the means which the Holy Spirit uses to apply to the individual soul the benefits of Christ’s death.

And faith is a very simple thing; it simply means the receiving of a gift; it simply means that abandoning the vain effort of earning our way into God’s presence we accept the gift of salvation which Christ offers so full and free. Such is the doctrine – let us not be afraid of the word – such is the doctrine of justification by faith.

That has been a liberating doctrine; to it is due most of the freedom that we possess today, and if it is abandoned freedom will soon depart. If we are interested in what God thinks of us, we shall not be deterred by what men think; the very desire for justification before God makes us independent of the judgments of men. And if the very desire for justification is liberating, how much more the attainment of it! The man who has been justified by God, the man who has accepted as a free gift this condition of rightness with God, is not a man who hopes that possibly, with due effort, if he does not fail, he may win through to become a child of God. But he is a man who has already become a child of God. If our being children of God depended in the slightest measure upon ourselves, we could never be sure that we had attained the highest estate. But it does not depend upon ourselves; it depends only upon God. It is not a reward that we have earned but a gift that we received.

A hard battle indeed lies before us. This faith of ours, if we be true Christians, is a faith that works; and it is a faith that fights – against sin. But we begin the battle not with God as our reward, but with God as our ally. There is the high liberty of the Christian man. Let us not throw our liberty away; let us not descend into the bondage of dependence upon ourselves, let us not descend into the hard bondage of agnostic Modernism. But having received the gospel – this great Magna Charta of Christian liberty – let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free.”

— J. Gresham Machen, God transcendent, sermon Justified by faith

Away from Jesus or with Him — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“We desire either to get rid of Christ or else to be with Him & give ourselves entirely to Him. There is in reality no other possibility (Mark 5:17-18)…

A man is not a Christian until he realizes how weak he is & how strong the enemy is. The Christian does not rely upon himself & his own strength. It is his knowledge of his own weakness that drives him to Christ continually, & his knowledge of the strength of the enemy also. That is why I stand here Sunday after Sunday inviting you to come to Christ & to give yourselves to Him. The contest with the devil is unequal. Greater men than ourselves have already been conquered. You go down day by day & hour by hour. What hope have you of conquering ‘principalities & powers… the rulers of the darkness of this world… spiritual wickedness in high places?’ (Ephesians 6:12) It cannot be done. Realize that you are defeated. Confess your failures. Acknowledge your sin. Yes, the power of the enemy & our own weakness are always good reasons for being with Christ…

You may fall, but you will never be ‘utterly cast down’ (Psalm 37:24). There will be trials & tribulations, but He will bring you through all ‘more than conqueror.’ Believe on Him tonight & give yourself to His keeping. For His Name’s sake. Amen.”

— Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Away from Jesus or with Him

excerpts from “No Little People, No Little Sermons” by Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

“We are told that as Jesus passed by He saw a man blind from birth (John 9:1). You’ll notice that the disciples did not see a man they saw a question (John 9:2). One of the key distinctives we see in this text is that the disciples saw a question whereas Jesus saw a man. There are no little people…

You’ll notice that the disciples saw a question whereas Jesus saw a man and that was when the man was blind, but now when the man is no longer blind and he sees, his the neighbors now see him as a question and they will not be alone (John 9:8-11). It is not that they had totally failed to notice him, they noticed him as a blind man, and by definition in the New Testament times a blind man was a beggar. And they saw him and they understood, they thought they understood exactly what this meant. They had him pegged, they had him identified, they knew who he was, they ignored him, they felt themselves superior to him, they may have felt at some point pity upon him. But notice what does not happen in this text – no one ever celebrates the fact that this blind man sees. His neighbors do not, his parents do not, the Pharisees surely do not, and it appears that he notices it…

May we see that there are no little people… There must be no little sermons… There are no little texts, all Scripture is inspired by God. Paul makes it clear that there are no little texts, and because there are no little texts, because every single word of God is fully inspired, it is God speaking to us, it is God’s word…

If we get this, if we understand this, if we believe this, if stake our lives on this, if we establish our ministry on this, then we will never see a little person, we will never declare a little God, will never proclaim a little gospel, will never know a little truth, will never work up a little message, will never be driven by just a little conviction, will never be fueled by just a little passion, will never preach just a little sermon…”

— Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., No Little People, No Little Sermons – John 9

http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/03/04/no-little-people-no-little-sermons-john-9-2/