“All the power that the Holy Spirit exerts in the sanctification of believers is by the Word. When this all-powerful Word enters and takes possession of the conscience of a sinner, it awakens, convinces, threatens and disquiets it. When it troubles the conscience, the whole universe cannot quiet it; and when it speaks peace to it, no creature can disturb its repose”.
-John Colquhoun, from his “Saving Faith”, p. 43
“The cross of Christ is the center of the Christian system. From it we are instructed in the character of our judge, the malignity of sin, our present condition, and the prospects which await us beyond the grave”.
-J.H. Thornwell, from his works, vol.2 p. 257
“We are only preserved from presumption while a real sense of our own insufficiency is retained – The consciousness of indwelling sin should cause every child of God to bend the suppliant knee with the utmost frequency, humility and fervor.”
-Ibid, P.101
“Growth in grace is a deepening realization of where our strength, our wisdom, the supply for every need is to be found. Growing in grace is not an increasing self-sufficiency but an increasing dependency upon God. Those who are spiritually strongest are they who know most of their own weakness”.
-A.W. Pink, from his “Eternal Security”, P.36
“Without thanksgiving, nothing can please God. He accepts all service only as it is an expression of grateful thanks for His mercy. Therefore, thanksgiving sanctifies the rest of life and the rest of our service to God”.
-John Owen, from his works, vol. 2,P.285
“Christ and a dungeon, Christ and a cross, is infinitely sweeter than a crown and a scepter without Him”.
-John Owen, From his works, vol. 2 P.139
“I call “piety” that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of His benefits induces. For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by His Fatherly care, that He is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond Him-they will never yield Him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in Him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to Him.”
-John Calvin, from his Institutes, P.41
“He is no true believer unto whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow and trouble”.
John Owen, From his works vol. 7, P.333
“Self-righteousness cleaves to us, as naturally and as closely as our skins, nor can any power, but that of an Almighty Hand, flay us of it”….until you are endued with a faith in Christ’s righteousness, your body is no better than ‘the living coffin of a dead soul'”.
Augustus Toplady, Works, P.357
“In the Covenant of Works, works were required as the condition of life; In the Covenant of Grace,works are required only as the signs of life”.
-Thomas Watson, from his Body of Divinity
“It is evident that God must either sacrifice His law, His elect, or His Son.”
-A.A. Hodge, from his The Confession of Faith, p.186
“Since the Life of Holiness is fueled and fired by justification by faith alone, sanctification must constantly return to justification. Otherwise, the Christian cannot possibly escape arriving at a new self-righteousness. We cannot reach a point in sanctification where our fellowship with God does not rest completely on forgiveness of sins – not even in Heaven.
John Robbins, Ibid
“Faith is focused on what is in Heaven, on what we have in Christ at God’s right hand (Col.3:1-4). Therefore, we must decisively say that sanctification, being on Earth, being in the believer, is no part of the righteousness that is by faith alone. The righteousness that is of faith alone is the righteousness of the living and dying Christ. It is that life of perfect holiness that Christ now presents at the bar of justice on our behalf. The only righteousness we have before God is the righteousness that is now actually before God. Our righteousness, therefore, is where we need it most – in God’s presence, before God’s law, at the Father’s right hand…As John Bunyan declared, the sublime secret of the Bible is “that a righteouness that resides with a person in Heaven should justify me a sinner on Earth”.
-John Robbins, Trinity Review #133, The Relationship Between Justification and Sanctification”
REFORMED TREASURES 