J.C. Ryle on the True Christian's Comfort

"Christ is . . . all in [the true Christian's] comfort in time present.  A saved soul has many sorrows.  He has a body like other men, weak and frail.  He has a heart like other men, and often a more sensitive one, too.  He has trials and losses to bear like others, and often more.  He has his share of bereavements, deaths, disappointments, crosses.  He has the world to oppose a place in life to fill blamelessly, unconverted relatives to bear with patiently, persecutions to endure and a death to die.

"And who is sufficient for these things?  What shall enable a believer to bear all this?  Nothing but the consolation there is in Christ (Phil. 2:1)" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

J.C. Ryle on Holiness (Part 2)

J.C. Ryle on Holiness (Part 1)

"Would you be holy?  Then Christ is the manna you must daily eat, like Israel in the wilderness of old.  Would you be holy?  Then Christ must be the rock from which you must daily drink the living water.  Would you be holy?  Then you must be ever looking unto Jesus, looking at His cross, and learning fresh motives for a closer walk with God, looking at His example, and taking Him for your pattern.  Looking at Him, you would be come like Him.  Looking at Him, your face would shine without your knowing it.  Look less at yourself and more at Christ, and you will find besetting sins dropping off and leaving you, and your eyes enlightened more and more every day (Heb. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).

"The true secret of coming up out of the wilderness is to come up leaning on the Beloved (Song 8:5). The true way to be strong is to realize our weakness, and to feel that Christ must be all.  The true way to grow in grace is to make use of Christ as a fountain for every minute's necessities.  We ought to employ Him as the prophet's wife employed the oil - not only to pay our debts, but to live on also.  We should strive to be able to say, 'The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me' (2 Kings 4:7; Gal. 2:20).

"I pity those who try to be holy without Christ!  Your labor is all in vain.  You are putting money in a bag with holes.  You are pouring water into a sieve.  You are rolling a huge round stone uphill.  You are building up a wall with untempered mortar.  Believe me, you are beginning at the wrong end.  You must come to Christ first, and He shall give you His sanctifying Spirit.  You must learn to say with Paul, 'I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me' (Phil. 4:13)" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

J.C. Ryle on Holiness (Part 1)

"Christ is not only all in the justification of a true Christian, but He is also all in his sanctification.  I would not have anyone misunderstand me.  I do not mean for a moment to undervalue the work of the Spirit.  But this I say, that no man is ever holy until he comes to Christ and is united to Him.  Until then his works are dead works, and he has no holiness at all.  First you must be joined to Christ, and then you shall be holy.  'Without Him, separate form Him, you can do nothing' (John 15:5).

"And no man can grow in holiness except he abides in Christ.  Christ is the great root from which every believer must draw his strength to go forward.  The Spirit is His special gift, His purchased gift for His people.  A believer must not only 'receive Christ Jesus the Lord' but 'walk in Him, and be rooted and built up in Him' (Col. 2:6, 7)" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

John Calvin on the Foolishness of Idols

"'Their idols are silver and gold, the works of men's hands' (Pss 115:4; 135:15).  From the materials of which they are made, [the psalmist] infers that they are not gods, taking for granted that every human device concerning God is a dull fiction.  He mentions silver and gold rather than clay or stone, that neither splendor nor cost may procure reverence to idols.  He then draws a general conclusion, that nothing is more unlikely than that gods should be formed of any kind of inanimate matter.  Man is forced to confess that he is but the creature of a day, and yet would have the metal which he has deified to be regarded as God.  Whence had idols their origin, but from the will of man?  There was ground, therefore, for the sarcasm of the heathen poet (Horace, Satirae I.8), 'I was once the trunk of a fig-tree, a useless log, when the tradesman, uncertain whether he should make me a stool, etc., chose rather that I should be a god.'  In other words, an earth-born creature, who breathes out his life almost every moment, is able by his own device to confer the name and honor of deity on a lifeless trunk.  But as that Epicurean poet, in indulging his wit, had no regard for religion, without attending to his jeers or those of his fellows, let the rebuke of the prophet sting, no, cut us to the heart, when he speaks of the extreme infatuation of those who take a piece of wood to kindle a fire to warm themselves, bake bread, roast or boil flesh, and out of the residue make a God, before which they prostrate themselves as [pleaders or beggars] (Isa 44:16).  Hence, the same prophet, in another place not only charges idolaters as guilty in the eye of the Law, but upbraids them for not learning from the foundations of the earth, nothing being more [inappropriate] than to reduce the immense and incomprehensible Deity to the stature of a few feet" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin).

J.C. Ryle on a Sinner's Justification Before God

"Christ is all in a sinner's justification before God.  Through Him alone we can have peace with a holy God.  By Him alone we can have admission into the presence of the Most High, and stand there without fear.  'We have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.'  In Him alone can God be just, and justify the ungodly (Eph. 3:12; Rom. 3:26).

"With which can any mortal man come before God?  What can we bring as a plea for acquittal before that glorious Being, in whose eyes the very heavens are not clean?

"Shall we say that we have done our duty to God?  Shall we say that we have done our duty to our neighbor?  Shall we bring forward our prayers, our regularity, our morality, our amendments, our churchgoing?  Shall we ask to be accepted because of any of these?

"Which of these things will stand the searching inspection of God's eye?  Which of them will actually justify us?  Which of them will carry us clear through judgment and land us safe in glory?

"None, none, none!  Take any commandment of the ten, and let us examine ourselves by it.  We have broken it repeatedly.  We cannot answer God one of thousand.  Take any of us, and look narrowly into our ways, and we are nothing but sinners.  There is but one verdict; we are all guilty, all deserve hell, all ought to die.  With which can we come before God?

"We must come in the name of Jesus, standing on no other ground, passing no other plea than this: "Christ died on the cross for the ungodly, and I trust in Him.  Christ died for me, and I believe on Him.'  The garment of our Elder Brother, the righteousness of Christ, this is the only robe which can cover us, and enable us to stand in the light of heaven without shame.

"The name of Jesus is the only name by which we shall obtain an entrance through the gate of eternal glory.  If we come to that gate in our own names, we are lost, we shall not be admitted, we shall knock in vain.  If we come in the name of Jesus, it is a passport and shibboleth, and we shall enter and live.

"The mark of the blood of Christ is the only mark that can save us from destruction.  When the angels are separating the children of Adam in the last day, if we are not found marked with that atoning blood, we had better never have been born.

"Oh, let us never forget that Christ must be all to that soul who would be justified!  We must be content to go to heaven as beggars, saved by free grace, simply as believers in Jesus, or we shall never be saved at all" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

John Calvin on Idols and God's Incomprehensible Essence

"It is true that the Lord occasionally manifested this presence by certain signs, so that he was said be been face to face; but all the signs he ever employed were in apt accordance with the scheme of doctrine, and, at the same time, gave plain intimation of this incomprehensible essence.  For the cloud, and smoke, and flame, though they were symbols of heavenly glory (Deut 4:11), curbed men's minds as with a bridle, that they might not attempt to penetrate farther.  Therefore, even Moses (to whom, of all men, God manifested himself most familiarly) was not permitted though he prayed for it, to behold that face, but received for answer, the the [brightness] was too great for man (Exod 33:20).

"The Holy Spirit appeared under the form of a dove, but as it instantly vanished, who does not see that in this symbol of a moment, the faithful were admonished to regard the Spirit as invisible, to be contented with his power and grace, and not call for any external figure?  God sometimes appeared in the form of a man, but this was in anticipation of the future revelation in Christ, and therefore did not give the Jews the least pretest for setting up a symbol of Deity under the human form.

"The mercy-seat, also (Exod 25:17, 18, 21), where, under the Law, God exhibited the presence of his power, was so framed, as to intimate that God is best seen when the mind rises in admiration above itself: the cherubim with outstretched wings shaded, and the veil covered it, while the remoteness of the place was in itself a sufficient concealment.  It is therefore mere infatuation to attempt to defend images of God and the saints by the example of the cherubim.  For what, pray, did these figures mean, if not that images are unfit to represent the mysteries of God, since they were so formed as to cover the mercy-seat with their wings, thereby concealing the view of God, not only from the eye, but from every human sense, and curbing presumption?  To this we may add, that the prophets depict the seraphim, who are exhibited to us in vision, as having their faces veiled; thus intimating, that the [brightness] of the divine glory is so great, that even the angels cannot gaze upon it directly, while the minute beams which sparkle in the face of angels are shrouded from our view.  Moreover, all men of sound judgment acknowledge that the cherubim in question belonged to the old tutelage of the law.  It is absurd, therefore, to bring them forward as an example of our age.  For that period of [childish silliness], if I may so express it, to which such rudiments were adapted, has passed away.

"And surely it is disgraceful, that heathen writers should be more skillful interpreters of Scripture than the papists.  Juvenal (Satire, 14) holds up the Jews to derision for worshiping the thin clouds and firmament.  This he does perversely and [disrespectfully]; still, in denying that any visible shape of Deity existed among them, he speaks more accurately than the papists, who [foolishly talk] about there having been some visible image.  In the fact that the people every now and then rushed forth with boiling haste in pursuit of idols, just like water gushing forth with violence from a copious spring, let us learn how prone our nature is to idolatry, that we may not, by throwing the whole blame of a common vice upon the Jews, be led away by vain and sinful enticements to sleep the sleep of death" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin).

J.C. Ryle on Christ as All in the Religion of All True Christians

"I wish to guard myself against being misunderstood.  I hold the absolute necessity of the election of God the Father, and the sanctification of God the Spirit, in order to effect the salvation of everyone that is saved.  I hold that there is a perfect harmony and unison in the action of the three People of the Trinity, in bringing any man to glory, and that all three cooperate and work a joint work in his deliverance from sin and hell.  Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.  The Father is merciful, the Son is merciful, the Holy Spirit is merciful.  The same Three who said at the beginning, 'Let us create,' said also, 'Let us redeem and save.'  I hold that everyone who reaches heaven will ascribe all the glory of this salvation to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three People in one God.

"But, at the same time, I see clear proof in Scripture, that it is the mind of the blessed Trinity that Christ should be prominently and distinctly exalted, in the matter of saving souls.  Christ is set forth as the Word, through whom God's love to sinners is made known.  Christ's incarnation and atoning death on the cross are the great cornerstone on which the whole plan of salvation rests.  Christ is the way and door, by which alone approaches to God are to be made.  Christ is the root into which all elect sinners must be grafted.  Christ is the only meeting-place between God and man, between heaven and earth, between the Holy Trinity and the poor sinful child of Adam.  It is Christ whom God the Father has sealed and appointed to convey life to a dead world (John 6:27).  It is Christ to whom the Father has given a people to be brought to glory.  It is Christ of whom the Spirit testifies, and to whom He always leads a soul for pardon and peace.  In short, it has 'pleased the Father that in Christ all fullness should dwell' (Col. 1:19).  What the sun is in the skies of heaven, that Christ is in true Christianity" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

J.C. Ryle on Christ in the Law and Wilderness Miracles

"It was Christ who was the substance of the ceremonial law which God gave to Israel by the hand of Moses.  The morning and evening sacrifice, the continual shedding of blood, the altar, the mercy-seat, the high priest, the passover, the day of atonement, the scapegoat - all these were so many pictures, types and emblems of Christ and His work.  God had compassion upon the weakness of His people.  He taught them Christ, line upon line, and, as we teach little children, by similitudes.  It was in this sense especially that 'the law was a schoolmate to read' the Jews 'unto Christ' (Gal. 3:24).

"It was Christ to whom God directed the attention of Israel by all the daily miracles which were done before their eyes in the wilderness.  The pillar of cloud and fire which guided them, the manna from heaven which every morning fed them, the water from the smitten rock - all and each were figures of Christ.  The bronze serpent, on the memorable occasion when the plague of fiery serpents was sent upon them, was an emblem of Christ (1 Cor. 10:4; John 3:14)" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

John Calvin on God's Opposition to Idols, Part II

"In the Law, accordingly, after God had claimed the glory of divinity for himself alone, when he comes to show what kind of worship he approves and rejects, he immediately adds, 'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth' (Exod. 20:4).  By these words he curbs any licentious attempt we might make to represent him by a visible shape, and briefly enumerates all the forms by which superstition had begun, even long before, to turn his truth into a lie.  For we know the the sun was worshiped by the Persians.  As many stars as the foolish nations saw in the sky, so many gods they imagined them to be.  Then to the Egyptians, every animal was a figure of God.  The Greeks, again, plumed themselves on their superior wisdom in worshiping God under the human form (Maximus Tyrius [of Tyre], Platonic Serm. 38).  But God makes no comparison between images, as if one were more, and another less befitting; he rejects, without exception, all shapes and pictures, and other symbols by which the superstitious imagine they can bring him near to them" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin).

J.C. Ryle on Christ through Abraham and Jacob

"It was Christ to whom Abraham looked when he dwelt in tents in the land of promise.  He believed that in his seed, in one born of his family, all the nations of the earth should be blessed.  By faith he saw Christ's day, and was glad (John 8:56).

"It was Christ of whom Jacob spoke to his sons, as he lay dying.  He marked out the tribe out of which He would be born, and foretold that 'gathering together' unto Him which is yet to be accomplished.  'The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be' (Gen. 49:10)" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

John Calvin on God's Opposition to Idols, Part I

"As Scripture, in accommodation to the rude and gross intellect of man, usually speaks in popular terms, so whenever its object is to discriminate between the true God and false deities, it opposes him in particular idols; not that it approves of what is taught more elegantly and subtly by philosophers, but that it may the better expose the folly, no, madness of the world in its inquiries after God, so long as everyone clings to his own speculations.  This exclusive definition, which we uniformly meet with in Scripture, annihilates every deity which men frame for themselves of their own accord - God himself being the only fit witness to himself.  Meanwhile, seeing that this brutish stupidity has overspread the globe, men longing after visible forms of God, and so forming deities of wood and stone, silver and gold, or of any other dead and corruptible matter, we must hold it as a first principle, that as often as any form is assigned to God, his glory is corrupted by an impious lie" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin).

J.C. Ryle on Christ in Every Old Testament Sacrifice

"It was Christ crucified who was set forth in every Old Testament sacrifice.  Every animal slain and offered on an altar was a practical confession that a Savior was looked for who would die for sinners - a Savior who should take away man's sin, by suffering, as his Substitute and Sin-bearer, in his stead (1 Peter 3:18).  It is absurd to suppose that an unmeaning slaughter of innocent beasts, without a distant object in view, could please the eternal God!

"It was Christ to whom Abel looked when he offered a better sacrifice than Cain.  Not only was the heart of Abel better than that of his brother, but he showed his knowledge of vicarious sacrifice and his faith in an atonement.  He offered the firstlings of his flock, with the blood thereof, and in so doing declared his belief that without shedding of blood there is no remission (Heb. 11:4)" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).