J.C. Ryle' Call to Make Christ Our All in All

"Alas, I fear there is a great piece of pride and unbelief still sticking in the hearts of many believers!  Few seem to realize how much they need a Savior.  Few seem to understand how thoroughly they are indebted to Him.  Few seem to comprehend how much they need Him every day.  Few seem to feel how simply and like a child they ought to hang their souls on Him.  Few seem to be aware how full of love He is to His poor, weak people, and how ready to help them!  And few therefore seem to know the peace and joy and strength and power to live a godly life, which is to be had in Christ.

"Change your plan, reader, if your conscience tells you are guilty; change your plan, and learn to trust Christ more.  Physicians love to see patients coming to consult them; it is their office to receive the sickly, and if possible to affect cures.  The advocate loves to be employed; it is his calling.  The husband loves his wife to trust him and lean upon him; it is his delight to cherish her and promote her comfort.  And Christ loves His people to lean on Him, to rest in Him, to call on Him, to abide in Him.

"Let us all learn and strive to do so more and more.  Let us live on Christ.  Let us live in Christ.  Let us live with Christ.  Let us live to Christ.  So doing, we shall prove that we fully realize that Christ is all.  So doing, we shall feel great peace, and attain more of that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14)" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

John Calvin on Why God Forbids Images of Him

"When once men imagined that they beheld God in images, they also worshiped him as being there.  At length their eyes and minds becoming wholly engrossed by them, they began to grow more and more brutish, gazing and wondering as if some divinity were actually before them.  It hence appears that men do not fall away to the worship of images until they have [swallowed] some idea of a grosser description: not that they actually believe them to be gods, but the the power of divinity somehow or other resides in them.  Therefore, whether it be God or a creature that is imaged, the moment you fall prostrate before it in veneration, you are so far fascinated by superstition.  For this reason, the Lord not only forbade the erection of statues to himself, but also the consecration of titles and stones which might be set up for adoration.  For as soon as a visible form is given to God, his power also is supposed to be annexed to it.  So stupid are men, that wherever they figure God, there they fix him, and by necessary consequence proceed to adore him.  It makes no difference whether they worship the idol simply, or God in the idol; it is always idolatry when divine honors are paid to an idol, be the color what it may.  And because God wills not to be worshiped superstitiously, whatever is bestowed upon idols is so much robbed from him" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin).

J.C. Ryle on Christ as Our All in All

"Is Christ all?  Then let all His converted people deal with Him as if they really believed it.  Let them lean on Him and trust Him far more than they have ever done yet.  Alas, there are many of the Lord's people who live far below their privileges!  There are many truly Christian souls who rob themselves of their own peace and forsake their own mercies.  There are many who insensibly join their own faith, or the work of the Spirit in their own hearts, to Christ, and so miss the fullness of gospel peace. There are many who make little progress in their pursuit of holiness and shine with a very dim light.  And why is all this?  Simply because in nineteen cases out of twenty men do not make Christ all in all.

"Now I call on every reader of this message who is a believer, I beseech them for his own sake, to make sure that Christ is really and thoroughly his all in all.  Beware of allowing yourself to mingle anything of your own with Christ.

"Have you faith?  It is a priceless blessing.  Happy indeed are they who are willing and ready to trust Jesus.  But take heed you do not make a Christ of your faith.  Rest not on your own faith, but on Christ.

"Is the work of the Spirit in your soul?  Thank God for it.  It is a work that shall never be overthrown.  But oh, beware lest, unawares to yourself, you make a Christ of the work of the Spirit!  Rest not on the work of the Spirit, but on Christ.

"Have you any inward feelings of religion, and experience of grace?  Thank God for it.  Thousands have no more religious feeling than a cat or dog.  But oh, beware lest you make a Christ of your feelings and sensations!  They are poor, uncertain things and sadly dependent on our bodies and outward circumstances.  Rest not a grain of weight on your feelings.  Rest only on Christ.

"Learn, I entreat you, to look more and more at the great object of faith, Jesus Christ and to keep your mind dwelling on Him.  So doing you would find faith and all the other graces grow, though the growth at the time might be imperceptible to yourself.  He that would prove a skillful archer must look not at the arrow, but at the mark" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).