Is Christ your High-priest, and is his priesthood so indispensably necessary to our salvation? Then, freely acknowledge your utter impotency to reconcile yourselvesto God by anything you can do or suffer, and let Christ have the whole glory of your recovery ascribed to him. It is highly reasonable that he who laid down the whole price should have the whole praise.
—John Flavel
Since Jesus died our heaviness is dead; our murmuring is buried in his tomb. Since Jesus endured the wrath of God, which was due to us, that wrath has passed away for ever, and it is now the privilege, nay, the duty of every Christian to rejoice in the Lord. Let all the people praise him, and let the redeemed of the Lord be foremost in the joy.
—Charles Spurgeon
It is our bliss to be nothing and to find our all in You.Charles Spurgeon, Beside Still Waters 44
Very helpful words from J. Gresham Machen and Kevin DeYoung.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
—Romans 5:1-11 ESV
If your face is now covered with sorrow, the time will come when you will bless God for that sorrow. The day will come when you will see great gain from your losses, your crosses, your troubles, and your afflictions.
From all your afflictions his glory shall spring,
And the deeper your sorrows the louder you’ll sing.
—Charles Spurgeon, Beside Still Waters pg. 28
Remember this, even in his humiliation Jesus was Lord of all things, including the unseen world and its armies. The more clearly you perceive this, the more you will admire that all-conquering love that took him to death on the cross.Charles Spurgeon, Beside Still Waters pg. 35
We walk here by faith, not by sight. You believe in God, but you have not beheld his glory as the blessed dead have done. You believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, but it is in one “whom having not seen you love.” You believe in the Holy Spirit, and you have been conscious of his presence by faith, but there is a something better yet; a clearer sight is yet to be had, which we cannot enjoy while we tarry here. At present we take everything on the testimony of God’s word and the witness of his Spirit: but we have not yet seen the celestial city, nor heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps, nor eaten at the banquets of the glorified. We enjoy a foretaste of all these, and anticipate them by faith, but actual enjoyments are not for this world. What a man seeth why doth he yet hope for? As this is the realm of hope we cannot expect to see, but we are going to the place where we shall not so much believe as behold, where we shall not so much credit as enjoy. We are nearing the country where we shall
“See, and hear, and know, All we desired or wished below.”
And faith shall be exchanged for the clearest sight.
—Charles Spurgeon
“It is a high privilege to rest in God when danger or pain strikes….Put yourself (this is your privilege) in the keeping of those dear hands that were pierced for you. Surrender to the love of that heart which was pierced to purchase your redemption….Oh, to be in God’s hand. What a place—in the hands of God!…If we are in God’s hands, we are where all things rest; we are home and we are happy. We have left the creature’s nothingness and entered into the Creator’s all-sufficiency. Beloved friend, get there. Hurry to get there, and from this moment live in God’s hands.
—Charles Spurgeon, Beside Still Waters page 24
