It is well to remember that reading books about the Bible is a very different thing to searching the Word for oneself.

The Christian life is never static. One must either grow in grace, or there will be backsliding and deterioration.

Grace is the very opposite of merit... Grace is not only undeserved favor, but it is favor, shown to the one who has deserved the very opposite.

Sin had no sooner come into the world than God came in grace seeking the sinner, and so from the first question, 'Adam, where art thou?' on to the incarnation, God has been speaking to man.

God is looking for broken men who have judged themselves in the light of the cross of Christ. When He wants anything done, He takes up men who have come to the end of themselves, whose confidence is not in themselves, but in God.

We are not preaching the Gospel of a dead Christ, but of a living Christ who sits exalted at the Father's right hand, and is living to save all who put their trust in Him. That is why those of us who really know the Gospel never have any crucifixes around our churches or in our homes. The crucifix represents a dead Christ hanging languid on a cross of shame. But we are not pointing men to a dead Christ; we are preaching a living Christ. He lives exalted at God's right hand, and He "saves to the uttermost all who come to God by Him."

No one who really wants to count for God can afford to play at Christianity.