no rest apart from redemption in Christ – R. Kent Hughes

“Trust in Him (Jesus Christ) is what gives rest to our souls. True faith is belief plus trust. When you truly trust in Christ as Savior, rest comes because the burden of your sins is lifted. You rest from your works. And because you are in Christ you enter the Sabbath rest of God. You know that He is your Creator and Redeemer.

Everyone who has truly come to Christ has experienced that rest. All the impossible striving to gain salvation was then over. You rested in Christ, not in yourself. The burden of guilt was lifted. Your soul was light with rest.

And now as a believer the principle is: the more trust, the more rest. Our belief or unbelief makes all the difference…Resting is trusting. Believer, you can have perpetual rest by resting in Him…

St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless ‘til they find their rest in Thee.” He knew from experience that life apart from Christ is striving, that men and women will remain restless regardless of what they attain or obtain in this world. You will never find rest apart from redemption in Christ.
But when you come to Him in faith as your Creator and Redeemer, you find a Sabbath rest for your soul – His own rest that He has enjoyed from creation…”

— R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing (Preaching the Word)

the romance of Christianity – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“We are believers, & not the others, says Paul, because we have received this Spirit that enlightens us (1 Corinthians 2:10, 12, 14)…

Christianity is not just a message that tells you that if you believe in Christ your sins are forgiven, & then leaves you to meet the world & the flesh & the devil just as you are & in your own strength. No, it is regeneration – new birth – a ‘new man’. When you become a Christian, what happens is not so much that you add something to your life as that your life is changed.

When men & women become Christians, it is not that they put on new clothes; no, they are changed, inside & out, & the inside is particularly changed, a new creation. But remember, secondly, that Christianity is not about people deciding to change themselves. They cannot. ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?’ (Jeremiah 13:23). Let them try to do it, then they will find they cannot. We have all tried it. It is impossible.
But, thank God, there is power in this word [of the gospel] which brings forth fruit, & a part of the fruit is that it changes us. We do not decide to change ourselves but we find that we are changed.

That, to me, is the romance of Christianity. A man finds that he is ‘a new man’ and he is amazed at himself. He cannot believe it is true of him! He says, ‘Is it possible that I am the man I once was? I am the same man and yet I am not!’ The apostle Paul was always filled with that amazement at himself – ‘I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me’ (Galatians 2:20). He had been changed…

Do you know what makes men & women Christians? It is the mighty action of the almighty God, the Creator. He takes them as they are & smashes them & makes them anew. He, God, is bringing into being something that was not there; a new disposition is put into them, a new principle of life is infused into them. God enters into their lives. The life of God comes into the soul; it is a creative act, so the New Testament says that the Christian is ‘a new creature’.

Now there is nothing more wonderful than this. I think this is where the gospel hope comes in. When we have tried & tried & tried again, only to fail, always finding ourselves back at the same point, we stop, & the world stops. Philosophy cannot help us, psychology cannot help us, nothing helps us; but then the Creator says: I will help you. I will make a new person. I will put a new principle into you. I will infuse a new disposition into you. I will make you a new creation.

There is hope there, and it is the only hope. But, thank God, it is the hope that is given in this gospel. And my assertion is that you & I are not Christians unless we have been born again; unless we know that we have received the life of God; unless we become new creatures, new creations…”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Love so Amazing: Exposition of Colossians 1

“Cleave to Jesus Christ in affection and love all your days” – Christopher Love

“11. Cleave to Jesus Christ in affection and love all your days.
Why do children love their parents by instinct of nature? Because they have their life from them. Here let grace incline your hearts. You have a life from Christ; O love Christ! You have a glorified life from Christ, O glorify Christ! It is reported of the elephant that because it lacks one bone in its back if the creature falls it can never rise again but must there languish and die. A sleeping elephant fell down and could not rise, but lay there endeavoring for life to get up and could not. A traveler upon the way seeing this had compassion upon the creature and put to his strength and helped him up. The elephant, by the instinct of nature, to requite the man for his kindness, followed the man to his dying day, and historians say that when this man died the elephant lay upon his master’s grave and there died where his master died. This elephant resembles fallen Adam, and all us fallen in Adam. We so fell that the fall broke all our bones. We could never rise by our own strength. Now Jesus Christ, the good Samaritan, came by and, seeing us broken by our fall, put forth His helping hand and raised us from a state of death to a condition of life. If the elephant would requite the man for his kindness, O how should you requite your Savior, when you would have fallen into hell had not He put forth His helping hand! O cleave to Christ, and love that Christ who is the author and cause of so glorious a life!”

– Christopher Love, The Works of Christopher Love: Volume 1

The connection between the resurrection, the gospel & the final perseverance of the saints – Charles H. Spurgeon

“Once again, the connection of the resurrection and the gospel is this, it proves the safely of the saints, for if when Christ rose his people rose also, they rose to a life like that of their Lord, and therefore they can never die. It is written, “Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death hath no more dominion over him,” and it is so with the believer: if you have been dead with Christ and are risen with Christ, death has no more dominion over you; you shall never go back to the beggarly elements of sin, you shall never become what you were before your regeneration. You shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you out of Jesus’ hand. He has put within you a living and incorruptible seed which lives and abides forever. He says himself, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of living water springing up unto everlasting life.” Wherefore hold ye fast to this, and let the resurrection of your Lord be the pledge of your own final perseverance. Brethren, I cannot stop to show you how this resurrection touches the gospel at every point, but Paul is always full of it.”

Charles H. Spurgeon, The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus

http://www.biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/1653.htm

A Personal Necessity: someone who loves us radically, unconditionally, vulnerably – Tim Keller

“Some years ago a theologian named William Vanstone wrote a book, now out of print, that included an interesting chapter called “The Phenomenology of Love.” All human beings, he says – even people who from childhood were deprived of love – know the difference between false & true love, fake & authentic love.

Here’s the difference, Vanstone says. In false love your aim is to use the other person to fulfill your happiness. Your love is conditional: You give it only as long as the person is affirming you & meeting your needs. And it’s nonvulnerable: You hold back so that you can cut your losses if necessary. But in true love, your aim is to spend yourself & use yourself for the happiness of the other, because your greatest joy is that person’s joy. Therefore your affection is unconditional: You give it regardless of whether your loved one is meeting your needs. And it’s radically vulnerable: You spend everything, hold nothing back, give it all away. Then Vanstone says, surprisingly, that our real problem is that nobody is actually fully capable of giving true love. We want it desperately, but we can’t give it. He doesn’t say we can’t give any kind of real love at all, but he’s saying that nobody is fully capable of true love. All of our love is somewhat fake. How so? Because we need to be loved like we need air & water. We can’t live without love. That means there’s a certain mercenary quality to our relationships. We look for people whose love would really affirm us. We invest our love only where we know we’ll get a good return. Of course when we do that, our love is conditional and nonvulnerable, because we’re not loving the person simply for himself or herself; we’re loving the person partly for the love we’re getting.

Obviously there are healthy people and unhealthy people; some are more able to love than others. But at the core Vanstone is right: Nobody can give anyone else the kind or amount of love they’re starved for. In the end we’re all alike, groping for true love & incapable of fully giving it. What we need is someone to love us who doesn’t need us at all. Someone who loves us radically, unconditionally, vulnerably. Someone who loves us just for our sake. If we received that kind of love, that would so assure us of our value, it would so fill us up, that maybe we could start to give love like that too. Who can give love with no need? Jesus. Remember the dance of the Trinity – the Father, the Son, & the Spirit have been knowing & loving one another perfectly for all eternity. Within Himself, God has forever had all the love, all the fulfillment, & all the joy that He could possibly want. He has all the love within Himself that the whole human race lacks. And the only way we’re going to get any more is from Him…

Why did God create us & later redeem us at great cost even though He doesn’t need us? He did it because He loves us. His love is perfect love, radically vulnerable love. And when you begin to get it, when you begin to experience it, the fakery & manipulativeness of your own love starts to wash away, & you’ve got the patience & security to reach out & start giving a truer love to other people…”

– Timothy Keller, King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus

http://www.amazon.com/Kings-Cross-Story-World-Jesus/dp/0525952101