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

My standing before God is in no way affected by how I live my life. I am justified by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I stand forever blessed in the Savior Whose blood secured my pardon and Whose impeccable righteousness has been imputed to me. God sees no sin in me for He sees me in His Son Who was manifested to take away my sin by His substitutionary, sacrificial death. By God’s sovereign appointment, I am "in Him," and being "in Him," I have no sin ( see I J OHN 3:5 ) . "In Him" I am always accepted. Having established that, let me also say this. While my standing before God is in no way affected by the way I live my life, yet, the way I live my life IS affected when I am taught by the Holy Spirit of my perfect standing in Christ. I have been brought to love His gospel, submit to His Lordship, seek His will and bow to His authority. While it is true that I fail miserably in doing these things perfectly, yet I ...

The word of God is full of Christ. He is the Sun of this divine system, the Fountain of its light and beauty. Every doctrine derives its substance from His person, every precept its force from His work, every promise its sweetness from His love. Is it not to be feared, that in the study of the Scriptures it is a much-forgotten truth, that they testify of Jesus? Are they not read, searched, and examined, with a mind too little intent upon adding to its wealth by an increased knowledge of His person, and character, and work? And thus it is we lower the character of the Bible. We may read it as a mere uninspired record; we may study it as a book of human literature. Its antiquity may interest us, its history may inform us, its philosophy may instruct us, its poetry may charm us; and thus, while skimming the surface of this Book of books, the glorious Christ, who is its substance, its subject, its sweetness, its worth and but for whom there had been no Bible has been deeply ...