"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

“ Nothing is so well-fitted to put the fear of God, which will preserve men from offending Him, into the heart, as an enlightened view of the cross of Christ. There shine spotless holiness, inflexible justice, incomprehensible wisdom, omnipotent power, holy love. None of these excellencies darken or eclipse the other, but every one of them rather gives a luster to the rest. They mingle their beams, and shine with united eternal splendor; the just Judge, the merciful Father, the wise Governor. Nowhere does justice appear so awful, mercy so amiable, or wisdom so profound.” -copied

The God of the Bible has revealed Himself as a Triune God. That is, one God in a trinity of three sacred Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There are many mysteries to us concerning this union but there is one thing we know for sure: as such, all three divine Persons in the Godhead have engaged themselves actively in the salvation of God’s elect. When you read the Bible, each divine Person seems to attribute the glory for this work to the others and the apostles as they write surely acknowledge each the same. Neither is said to be greater than the other and neither Person’s work to be less important than the other. Think how many times the apostles speak as Paul does in E PHESIANS 1:3 , “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing.” Listen to them all as they ascribe salvation to the Son and His work on the cross. Listen to the Son as He speaks of the necessity of the Spirit’s work, saying, “ Y e must...

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." - II C ORINTHIANS 3:18 [KJV]   A view of Christ's glory and a foretaste of the bliss and blessedness it communicates has a transforming effect upon the soul. We are naturally proud, covetous, and worldly, often led aside by, and grievously entangled in various lusts and passions, prone to evil, averse to good, easily elated by prosperity, soon dejected by adversity, peevish under trials, rebellious under heavy strokes, unthankful for daily mercies of food and raiment, and in other ways ever manifesting our base original. To be brought from under the power of these abounding evils, and be made "meet for the inheritance of the saints in light," we need to be "transformed by the renewing of our mind," and conformed to the image of Christ. Now this can only be by beholding His...