Justification and good works; law and gospel; whether works are the cause or the evidence of salvation; obedience flowing from grace rather than earning it.
- Righteousness by Works vs. Doctrine Herman Bavinck
We must remind ourselves that the Catholic righteousness by good works is vastly preferable to a protestant righteousness by good doctrine. At least righteousness by good …
- Law-Gospel Exegesis J. Ligon Duncan
Law-gospel is a wonderful theological category. It’s lousy exegesis. If every command that you find you put in the category of law, and every promise you put in the …
- Contentious Spirit John Frame
Scripture often condemns a “contentious” spirit (Prov. 13:10, 18:6, 26:21, Hab. 1:3, 1 Cor. 1:11, 11:16, Tit. 3:9) and commends “gentleness” (2 Cor. 10:1, Gal. 5:22, 1 …
- Dishonor to Protestant Christianity John Lorimer
We can conceive few things more dishonourable to Protestant Christianity, or more fitted to impair its progress, than to be able to say, with apparent truth, that it is …
- The Fountain of All Duties John Owen
Love is the fountain of all duties toward God and man (Matt. 22: 37), the substance of all rules that concern the saints, the bond of communion, ”the fulfilling of the …
- On James 3:1 Alec Moyter
Peter, recognizing that Christens long for a fulfilled experience, a good life, a rich blessing from God, commands any who ‘would love life and see good days’ to ‘keep …
- Good Calvinists? J.I. Packer
We rightly repudiate the common view that doctrine does not matter so long as one is upright in life; but if we let our reaction drive us into the opposite extreme of …
- Do Good to All John Calvin
The Lord enjoins us to do good to all without exception, though the greater part, if estimated by their own merit, are most unworthy of it.
But Scripture subjoins a most …
- Murray on Regeneration John Murray
If it were not the case that in regeneration we are passive, the subjects of an action of which God alone is the agent, there would be no gospel at all.
For unless God by …
- Spend and be Spent Horatius Bonar
Go, labor on; spend, and be spent, your joy to do the Father’s will; it is the way the Master went; should not the servant tread it still?
- Modern Preachers J. Gresham Machen
Modern preachers are trying to bring men into the Church without requiring them to relinquish their pride; they are trying to help men avoid the conviction of sin.
The …
- The From... Too.. Movement of the Christian Life David Powlison
The central dynamic of the Christian life has this FROM… TO… movement. ‘Repentance is not merely the start of the Christian life; it is the Christian life,’ wrote Joel …
- Obedience of Gratitude John Owen
Obedience is the best way of showing our gratitude to God for His grace.
- Imitation of Christ John Calvin
Yet [1 John] does not simply exhort us to imitate Christ; but from the union we have with him, he proves that we ought to be like him.
- Character and Doctrine John Owen
If a man teaches uprightly and walks crookedly, more will fall down in the night of his life than he built in the day of his doctrine.
- Practice What is Good John Owen
Every day I am more persuaded of this because I see men for the most part spending their strength and time more to oppose things they disagree with than to practice the …
- Knowledge and Knowledge John Bunyan
There is, therefore, knowledge and knowledge. Knowledge that resteth in the bare speculation of things; and knowledge that is accompanied with the grace of faith and …
- In Much the Best Life Faileth Martin Luther
To wash away the crimson stain, / grace, grace alone availeth; / our works, alas! are all in vain; / in much the best life faileth: / no man can glory in thy sight, / all …
- Not Perfect, Just Forgiven? Richard Gaffin
Christians are not yet perfect, but in Christ, God has forgiven them and has begun a good work in them.
- Go to the Ordinances Thomas Watson
Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say to him, You will honor and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as …
- Give Me Liberty or? John Newton
I think a heathen said, ‘The day which deprives a man of his liberty, robs him of half his virtues.’ If I was a heathen I should say so too. But the gospel teaches me …
- Radical Transformation Herman Ridderbos
The new life [in Christ] means a radical transformation, passing over from a condition of death and slavery into one of life and liberty, which on this account is not to …
- Marriage and the Creator Paul David Tripp
No marriage will be unaffected when the people in the marriage are seeking to get from the creation what they were only ever meant to get from the Creator.
- Faith and Works John Calvin
Yet [Paul] is not so careful about good works as to despise the root – that is, faith – while he is gathering the fruits. He takes account of both parts, and, as is …
- The Value of a Good Living John Newton
I would assume congratulate a man upon seeing a millstone tied about his neck, to sink him into the depths of the sea, as upon his obtaining what is called a good living, …
- Believers Motive for Law-Keeping G.K. Beale
Instead, true saints should be psychologically motivated to fulfill God’s precepts because they know that God has given them the power to do so.
- Jesus for You G.K. Beale
Jesus’s life, trials, death for sinners, and especially resurrection by the Spirit have launched the fulfillment of the eschatological already-not yet new-creational …
- Glory in Our Good Works Geerhardus Vos
God does not grant us his work of grace so that we should glory in it as our own. Therefore he so arranged it that it would manifestly be his work from beginning to end, …
- The End of Education Richard Baxter
Your study of physics and other sciences is not worth a rush, if it be not God that you seek after in them. To see and admire, to reverence and adore, to love and delight …
- Kline on Baptism Meredith Kline
For the passing of Jesus through the divine judgment in the water rite in the Jordan meant to John’s baptism what the passing of Yahweh to the curse of the knife rite of …
- Mary and Martha Kevin DeYoung
Do you see how Luke places the story of Mary and Martha after all this activity? This episode isn’t here by accident. I believe God wants us to see that if we heal the …
- Christ and Adam Herman Bavinck
Christ does not bring us back to the point on the road where Adam stood but has covered the whole journey for us to the very end.
- Triune Salvation Herman Bavinck
It is the triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—who together conceive, determine, carry out, and complete the entire work of Salvation. The benefit to the believer is in …
- Civility for Salvation? Thomas Watson
Civility is a good staff to walk among men, but it is a bad ladder to climb to heaven.
- The World Will End Tony Reinke
The world will end. So kill sin. Pray with a clear head. Forgive quickly. Love eagerly. Open your home. Engage your gifts. (1 Pet. 4:7–11)
- Turretin on Good Works Francis Turretin
Good works are required not for living according to the law, but because we live by the gospel; not as the causes on account of which life is given to us, but as effects …
- Machen on Faith J. Gresham Machen
The true reason why faith is given such an exclusive place by the New Testament, so far as the attainment of salvation is concerned, over against love and over against …
- George Ladd on the Kingdom of God George Ladd
The Kingdom of God is a miracle. It is the act of God. It is supernatural. Men cannot build the Kingdom; they cannot erect it. The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of God; …
- The Unlikable Gospel Herman Bavinck
The gospel is not naturally to the liking of human beings, not a ready match for the needs of people as they themselves pictures those needs. Outside of revelation, human …
- Bunyan on Conversion John Bunyan
Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think it; otherwise man’s heart would never have been compared to fallow ground and God’s Word to a …