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

why did our Lord weep? — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"We are modern people, are we not, men and women of great understanding? So I am going to ask you the question that Philip put to the Ethiopian eunuch. I am going to test your understanding. The poor eunuch was dealing with Isaiah 53, which all expositors agree is an extremely difficult passage to expound. So we have every sympathy with him. But here is a very simple problem. I am asking you to expound a verse of two words, the shortest verse in the whole Bible: "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). Do you understand it?

"Oh, yes," you say, "it's quite simple."

All right, what does it mean?

"Well," you say, "this happened at the grave of a man called Lazarus, a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ, who had been dead for four days. And it was there, standing by that grave, that Jesus wept. Next to him were Lazarus's two sisters-Martha and Mary-and other people were also weeping and bewailing their loss. So the reason Jesus wept was because He had lost a great friend. It is very natural that when one loses a close friend one is filled with sorrow; and He was but a man, after all, and He wept as others weep."

 Yes, that is one suggested explanation.

"Not only that," says somebody else, "He wept also because of His sympathy with the sisters. They had lost their darling brother, and it was only natural that He should be sympathetic toward them."

I believe those explanations are all wrong. I can prove that to you quite simply from John 11. The first reason I would give is that when our Lord was first told about the illness of His friend Lazarus, instead of at once setting off to heal him, He delayed going-deliberately. Check the account for yourselves. He even gave the reason for not going. When the message of Lazarus's illness reached Him, He said, "This sickness is . . . for the glory of God" (v. 4). So He deliberately did not go to save the man's life. And John says, "When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. Then after that said he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again. His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee" (vv. 6-8), and so on. So there is the first answer.

But there is a greater answer, of course, which is this: when our Lord did go to the grave, He knew perfectly well that He was going to raise this man Lazarus. This is what we read: "Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him" (vv. 14-15). He went in order to raise Lazarus from the dead. So if He knew He was going to raise him from the dead, why waste time weeping because he was dead? Why waste tears in sympathy with the sisters when He knew that in the next moment He would restore Lazarus to them? That is not why Jesus wept!

So why did our Lord weep? It is the reason why he was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." It was not natural human sympathy or concern about the loss of His friend. It was this terrible thing called death, this thing that comes in and robs a man of his friend and sisters of their brother, this thing that breaks people's hearts and spoils life-this horrible thing! What causes death? Is it the course of nature? No, it is sin, it is evil, it is hell, it is the devil; it is this thing that is fighting His Father. He saw it there, and it made Him weep. Not only that, He realized that before He could deal with it He had to die Himself.

So never interpret "Jesus wept" sentimentally. I say again that it was this horror of sin, this horror of evil, this terrible problem of the human race that made Him cry. It is there in the shortest verse in the Bible: "Jesus wept." And that was not the only time. I read in John 12, the very next chapter, that when He was dealing with the whole question of His death, He said, "Now is my soul troubled" (v. 27). Indeed, I should have pointed out to you that over this very question of the resurrection of Lazarus we read, "When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled" (John 11:33). Why? Because He knew He was going to raise him? No. Again it was because of this terrible, evil problem of sin, the thing that gets us down and makes us fools and the slaves of sin and causes death. It is this thing that has raised itself up against God and brought about the ruination of God's universe. He saw it, and knowing that He had to die, He said again, "Now is my soul troubled."

Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Compelling Christianity (Studies in the Book of Acts)

patience comes as a deliberate act of humility — Timothy Keller

"A lot of people say, “Oh, I wish I could,” as if … What do you mean, “I wish I could”? “I wish I had patience,” as if patience is like a germ you catch or you don’t. Actually, as far as I understand, the Bible says patience comes from a couple of deliberate actions. First of all, patience comes as a deliberate act of humility. It’s a deliberate act of humility. Patience is always an act of humility. For example, in James 4, we read this.

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. […] Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ ” (James 4:13-15) It says you have your plans and you know how things ought to work, but you don’t know. You say, “This is going to happen. That’s going to happen.” But you don’t know. You ought to say, “Well, if it’s the Lord’s will.” (James 4:15)

What does that mean? When things go wrong, we think of our anger. We think of our despair. We think of our worry and our fear as feelings we can’t help. But this is saying those feelings arise out of an assumption of your own omniscience. There’s an assumed omniscience. When you’re really saying, “Oh, this is awful …” “What? Why?” “Because X, Y, Z is not happening. That will be a disaster if X, Y, Z doesn’t happen.”
Oh, you know, huh? You know X, Y, Z has to happen for life to mean … How do you know? It says you don’t know. You’re upset, but you don’t know. Please lay down the melancholy burden of assumed omniscience. It’s such a relief. Even the wisest people do not see all ends. When you are just freaking out because, “This has to happen,” that means you think you know. You’re not omniscient. The freaking out is coming from your certainty that you know. You don’t know. Be humble. It’s a deliberate act of humility. That’s one way to be patient."

—Timothy Keller (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.