J.C. Ryle on the Importance of What We Think of Christ

"What do you think of Christ?  Is He great or little in your eyes? Does He come first or second in your estimation? Is He before or behind His church, His ministers, His sacraments, His ordinances?  Where is He in your heart and your mind's eye?

"After all, this is the question of questions!  Pardon, peace, rest of conscience, hope in death, heaven itself - all hinge upon our answer.  To know Christ is life eternal.  To be without Christ is to be without God.  'He that has the Son has life, and he that has not the Son of God has not life' (1 John 5:12).  The friends of purely secular education, the enthusiastic advocates of reform and progress, the worshipers of reason and intellect and mind and science, may say what they please, and do all they can to mend the world.  But they will find their labor is in vain if they do not make allowance of the Fall of man, if there is no place for Christ in their schemes.  There is a sore disease at the heart of mankind, which will baffle all their efforts and defeat all their plans, and that disease is sin.  Oh, that people would only see and recognize the corruption of human nature, and the uselessness of all efforts to improve man which are not based not the remedial system of the gospel!  Yes, the plague of sin is in the world, and no waters will ever heal that plague except those which flow from the fountain for all sin - a crucified Christ" (J.C. Ryle, Holiness).

Christ the High Priest and Savior

Every week the Church of God gathers to worship our Creator, our Friend and Master, our High Priest and Savior.  And each week it is important for the Church to be reminded of the unspeakable gift the Father has given his people through his Son, Jesus Christ.  J.C. Ryle, a pastor in England in the late 1800s spoke of this great gift in this way:

“Who can estimate the value of God's gift, when He gave to the world His only begotten Son! It is something unspeakable and incomprehensible. It passes man's understanding. Two things there are which man has no arithmetic to reckon, and no line to measure. One of these things is the extent of that man's loss who loses his own soul. The other is the extent of God's gift when he gave Christ to sinners...Sin must indeed be exceeding sinful, when the Father must give His only Son to be the sinner's Friend!” (J.C. Ryle, Foundations of Faith)

Join us this week as we look into Hebrews 2:10-18 and what it means that Christ is our High Priest and Savior.  Why do we need a High Priest?  How did Christ fulfill his role as High Priest?  What does it mean that Christ is our Savior?  How great is our sin that God himself must be sacrificed to pay the price?

Be prayerfully prepared to meet God as we study his Word and Truth this Sunday morning.  And be prepared for the Holy Spirit to move in us through the Truth of his Son, our High Priest and Savior.

Christ as Savior

A little more than four years after my wife and I were married we received the news that we would become parents for the first time.  Our initial response was a mixture of joy, anticipation, and anxiety.  Would we be good parents?  Will we know what to do while caring for our baby?  What will life be like when he comes?  Some of these questions were answered quickly for diapers had to be bought, a crib purchased, new decorations for the baby’s room had to be set in place, and a name with meaning must be chosen.  In other words, our life began to transform at the moment we knew our family would grow to three.  And that transformation continues to this day, almost seven years later.  Decisions are no longer made by what is best for “the two of us” but by what are best for “the family.”  That which is desired by the individual is placed secondary to that which is best for the family as a whole.  This is understandable and healthy, but is a change none-the-less.

When Christ saves an individual a transformation happens.  Sometimes that transformation is slow while other times it is very quick.  But it is a transformation none-the-less.  Like our experience as parents, Christ enters and transforms the life of the believer.  At times this transformation is difficult, but in the end it is always the best.  And at His second coming the transformation will be whole.

Christ humbled Himself by leaving His throne in Heaven to be born in a manger.  He is wholly righteous and came to judge the living and dead.  But He is also the Savior of the world.  He is a life-transformer.

May this Sunday before Christmas be a time that we as His disciples focus on His transformation of our lives.  We were dead, but now made alive.  We were lost, but now are found.  We were enemies of God, but now are children of God.  Praise Him for sending us our Savior.