Of First Importance

“Our whole life as Christians is a process of sailing confidently into the open seas, dying down in exhaustion, and having our sails filled again with God’s precious promises…

No less than when we first believed, we must always attribute to the gospel the power that fills our sails with gratitude, and to the law the proper course that such gratitude takes. At the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, the gospel ‘is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes’ (Rom. 1:16).”

- Michael Horton, God of Promise pg 193-194

“All our obedience, every resolve to do good, and every work of faith is ‘by his power’ and so that the Lord Jesus would be glorified because of the grace he gives. Yes, we must pursue obedience, but that obedience must always be cruciform, formed by Christ’s cross. We must seek to obey because of the cross, find the grace to obey because of the cross, and live free from condemnation whether we succeed or fail in the light of the cross. The cross must be our only story, as Paul boldly proclaimed: ‘For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (1 Cor. 2:2).”

- Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson in Counsel from the Cross (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2009), 171-172.

“The difference between the law and gospel does not at all consist in this, that the one requires perfect doing, the other only sincere doing, but in this, that the one requires doing, the other not doing but believing for life and salvation.  Their terms are different, not only in degree, but in their whole nature.”

Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification (Welwyn, 1981), 76.

(HT: Ray Ortlund)

“In Jesus Christ . . . meet infinite highness and infinite condescension; infinite justice and infinite grace; infinite glory and lowest humility; infinite majesty and transcendent meekness; deepest reverence for God and equality with God; worthiness of good and the greatest patience under the suffering of evil; a great spirit of obedience and supreme dominion over heaven and earth; absolute sovereignty and perfect resignation; self sufficiency and an entire trust and reliance on God.”

- John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God (Sisters, Or.; Multnomah Publishers, 2000), 30.

“If Satan take you by the throat, and by violence draw you before God’s judgment-seat, then call to your husband, Christ, and say, ‘Lord, I suffer violence, make answer for me, and help me.’

And by his help you shall be enabled to plead for yourself, after this manner: O God the Father! I am thy Son Christ’s; thou gavest me unto him. In case any must be condemned for my transgressions, it must needs be Christ, and not I; for albeit I have committed them, yet he hath undertaken and bound himself to answer for them, and that by the consent and good-will of God his Father: and indeed he hath fully satisfied for them.”

—Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Ross-shire, UK: Christian Focus, 2009), 174

“Jesus is the divine curse-remover and creation-renewer. Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross broke the curse of sin and death brought on by Adam’s cosmic rebellion. His bodily resurrection from the dead three days later dealt death its final blow, guaranteeing the eventual renewal of all things ‘in Christ.’

The dimensions of Christ’s finished work are both individual and cosmic. They range from personal pardon for sin and individual forgiveness to the final resurrection of our bodies and the restoration of the whole world. Now that’s good news—gospel—isn’t it? If we place our trust in the finished work of Christ, sin’s curse will lose its grip on us individually and we will one day be given a renewed creation.

The gospel isn’t only about reestablishing a two-way relationship between God and us; it also restores a three-way relationship among God, his people, and the created order. Through Christ’s work, our relationship with God is restored while creation itself is renewed. This is what theologians mean when they talk about redemption. They’re describing this profound, far-reaching work by God.”

—Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2009)

“The gospel teaches that what could not be found in us and was to be sought in another, could be found nowhere else than in Christ, the God-man… who taking upon Himself the office of surety most fully satisfied the justice of God by His perfect obedience and thus brought to us an everlasting righteousness by which alone we can be justified before God.”

- Francis Turretin, Justification (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, year not available), 29.

(HT: John Fonville)