Of First Importance

Question 1. What is your only comfort in life and death?

Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

- The Heidelberg Catechism, Question # 1

“The Gospel writers underline the fact that Christ did not come to the Garden of Eden, but to a fallen, broken world to be a Saviour and Example for his disciples. Although he was the Second Man and the Last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45, 47) he came to be tempted not in a garden but a desert. He was tested when he was hungry. He was not surrounded by a tame creation, but by wild beasts (Luke 4:1-2; Mark 1:12-13). Jesus had to hack his way through the jungle which our sin had created in order to grow in his obedience to his Father in heaven.”

- Sinclair B. Ferguson, Grow in Grace (Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), 8.

“Redemption is God saving us from our whoops and restoring back to us our original wow.”

- John Ensor, Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2007), 37.

(HT: Marty Jones)

“On the Friday we call Good Jesus was the only one at the cross who could possibly die. Because he was the only living soul on Planet Earth. Jesus was alive when God’s love drove the nails our sins screamed out for into his hands and feet. Nails of love punctured flesh as blood so precious streamed down to the ground. A puddle of incomprehensible love soaking into the soil.

His innocence now gone he gasped and cried. Purity now covered in muck and shame. And when the sun fully scorched the beautiful bloom of grace Jesus could no longer suck in enough air to breathe. And finally his heart stopped beating.

In an instant all hell broke loose and darkness covered the moment as his lifeless mangled body hung for all the world to see. God’s undeniable expression.

I love you.”

- Louie Giglio, “Remembering the Silence”

“God is eager to share his take on you. Here it is.

Mess Up.
Definitely.
Deeply Loved.
Anyway.

Both are true and both things set him in motion shaping history with a story fueled by unstoppable grace. You see God was not shut down by our failure. Nor did the consequences of our rebellion dim his beautiful heart of love. No, we were the ones shut down when sin caused our souls to die. And die we did. It’s bad news, death.

Because dead people can’t see. Can’t breathe. Can’t help themselves. Dead people can’t do anything. That is why they call him Savior. When we were dead and could not touch God, Jesus came down and touched us.

It is the most phenomenal thing that has or will ever happen to you and me. Divinity rushing into humanity. God in skin marching steadily to the beat of his own love. And nothing and no one could alter his course.”

- Louie Giglio, “Remembering the Silence”

“We can think of forgiveness as something real only when we hold that sin has betrayed us into a situation where we deserve to have God inflict upon us the most serious consequences, and that it is upon such a situation that God’s grace supervenes.

When the logic of the situation demands that He should take action against the sinner, and He yet takes action for him, then and only then can we speak of grace. But there is no room for grace if there is no suggestion of dire consequences merited by sin.”

- Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (London, England: The Tyndale Press, 1955), 185.

“The story of paradise lost becoming paradise regained is the story of God’s grace bringing us from alienation from him to membership in his family. God’s grace restores us to what Adam lost for us - sonship to the God who made us, loves us, and provides for us in every detail in life.”

- Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), 6.