Grace - christiansquoting.org.uk

grace

The will of God will never take you to where the grace of God will not protect you.

Grace is what God gives us when we don't deserve and mercy is when God doesn't give us what we do deserve.

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me
it was not I that found, O Saviour true;
No, I was found of Thee

O Christian, never be proud of things that are so transient, injurious, and uncertain as the riches of this evil world! But set your heart on the true and durable riches of grace in Christ Jesus. ISAAC AMBROSE

A sculptor can leave his work and come back to it another day, and take up where he left off. But it is not so with the growth of the soul. The work of grace in us either waxes or wanes, flows or ebbs. ANDREW ANDERSON

God is gracious beyond the power of language to describe.- Francis Asbury , journal: 2 Feb 1779

Nothing whatever pertaining to godliness and real holiness can be accomplished without grace.--- Augustine

It is not that we keep His commandments first, and that then He loves; but that He loves us, and then we keep His commandments. This is that grace, which is revealed to the humble, but hidden from the proud.... Augustine (354-430)

Every day do something that won't compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Love someone who doesn't deserve it. Plant sequoias. Be joyful even though you've considered the facts. Practice resurrection. - Wendell Berry

God's people fail a hundred times
Before each day is done.
But Grace, in whispers, lifts them up ˜
One hundred times and one.
William D. Blake

Let the Christian rest content with his worldliness and with this renunciation of any higher standard than the world. He is living for the sake of the world rather than for the sake of grace. Let him be comforted and rest assured in his possession of this grace˜for grace alone does everything. Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolations of his grace! That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sins departs. Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must the asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: „ye were bought at a price, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Cost of Discipleship 1937

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like the cheapjack1s wares. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
D Bonhoeffer The Cost of Discipleship, 1937

Grace and glory differ very little; the one is the seed, the other is the flower; grace is glory militant, glory is grace triumphant.- Thomas Brooks

There but for the grace of God goes John Bradford.
John Bradford 1510-1555 English reformer seeing criminals taken to execution.

Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.--Jerry Bridges

Grace is given to trade with; it is given to lay out, not lay up. -- THOMAS BROOKS

The violence of the wind had the effect of making them afraid. For we are never rightly prepared to receive the grace of God unless the vain confidence of the flesh has been mastered. For as by faith we have open access to Him, so it is that humility and fear open the door for Him to come to us. He will have nothing to do with proud and careless men who please themselves.
Calvin On Acts 1:2

I clearly recognize that all good is in God alone, and that in me, without Divine Grace, there is nothing but deficiency... The one sole thing in myself in which I glory, is that I see in myself nothing in which I can glory. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510)

God is gracious beyond the power of language to describe. - Francis Asbury journal: 2 Feb 1779

The almightiness of his mercy doth as much transcend our highest iniquities, as it doth our shallowest apprehensions. Our sins, as well as our substance, are but as the dust of the balance, as easily to be blown away by his grace, as the other puffed into nothing by his power.- STEPHEN CHARNOCK

No one is safe by his own strength, but he is safe by the grace and mercy of God. St. Cyprian

If it be enquired how man came to sin, seeing he had no sinful inclinations in him, except God took away his grace from him that he had been wont to give him and so let him fall, I answer there was no need of taking away any that had been given him, but he sinned under that temptation because God did not give him more. He did not take away that grace from him while he was perfectly innocent which grace was his original righteousness, but he only withheld his confirming grace given now in heaven, grace as shall surmount every temptation.... JONATHAN EDWARDS, Miscellany 290

He that returns good for evil obtains the victory. --Thomas Fuller

Grace is what God gives us when we don't deserve and mercy is when God doesn't give us what we do deserve.

What is Jordan that I should wash in it? What is the preaching that I should attend on it, while I hear nothing but what I knew before? What are these beggarly elements of water, bread, and wine? Are not these the reasonings of a soul that forgets who appoints the means of grace? William Gurnall

The Christian, like a chalice without a base, cannot stand on his own nor hold what he has received any longer that God holds him in His strong hands. William Gurnall

Great comforts do, indeed, bear witness to the truth of thy grace, but not to the degree of it; the weak child is ofterner in the lap than the strong one. - WILLIAM GURNALL

All grace grows as Love to the Word of God grows.-- Philip Henry

The doctrines of grace humble a man without degrading him and exalt a man without inflating him. CHARLES HODGE

Everyone is legalistic about something. I'm legalistic about grace. - Bill Jack

Our Savior kneels down and gazes upon the darkest acts of our lives. But rather than recoil in horror, he reaches out in kindness and says, 'I can clean that if you want.' And from the basin of his grace, he scoops a palm full of mercy and washes our sin. --Max Lucado

Grace is given to heal the spiritually sick, not to decorate spiritual heroes. Martin Luther

If any man ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ rightly. Martin Luther

The first chapters of the Bible tell us of the sin of man. The guilt of that sin had rested upon every single one of us, it guilt and its terrible results..but..it also tells us of something greater still; it tells us of the grace of the offended God. J. GRESHAM MACHEN

It is a sure mark of grace to desire more. --- ROBERT MURRAY MCCHEYNE

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.
John Milton Paradise Lost

Good, the more
Communicated, more abundant grows.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 71.

The first sort by thir own suggestion fell,
Self-tempted, self-deprav'd: Man falls deceiv'd,
By the other first: Man therefore shall find grace,
The other none.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. Book III, 129 - 32

My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour. John Newton

Newton's tombstone reads, "John Newton,Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.

Our righteousness is in Him, and our hope depends, not upon the exercise of grace in us, but upon the fullness of grace and love in Him, and upon His obedience unto death. -- John Newton 1725-1807

Too often, dear Saviour, have I
Preferred some poor trifle to thee;
How is it thou dost not deny
The blessing and birth-right to me?
No better than Esau I am,
Though pardon and heav'n be mine;
To me belongs nothing but shame,
The praise and the glory be thine.
John Newton , Olney Hymn 8, ESAU
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, hut now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The LORD has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But GOD, who called me here below,
Will be for ever mine.
John Newton , Olney Hymn 41, Faith's review and expectation..

The house built on the sand may oftentimes be built higher, have more fair parapets and battlements, windows and ornaments, than that which is built upon the rock; yet all gifts and privileges equal not one grace. JOHN OWEN

The doctrine of grace may be turned into wantonness; the principle cannot.-John Owen--On Communion with God, Works, v.2 p.31

Evangelical truth will not be honourably witnessed unto but by evangelical grace.- JOHN OWEN

A river continually fed by a living fountain may as soon end its streams before it come to the ocean, as a stop be put to the course and progress of grace before it issue in glory. JOHN OWEN

It is a throne of grace that God in Christ is represented to us upon; but yet is is a throne still whereon majesty and glory do reside, and God is always to be considered by us as on a throne. JOHN OWEN

None but the Lord himself can afford us any help from the awful workings of unbelief, doubtings, carnal fears, murmurings. Thank God one day we will be done forever with "unbelief. Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)

Growth in grace is like the growth of a cow's tail Ä the more it truly grows, the closer to the ground it is brought. Arthur W. Pink letter: 23 Jan 1935

Grace tried is better than grace, and more than grace; it is glory in its infancy. S. Rutherford

Be not afraid for little grace. Christ soweth His living seed, and He will not lose His seed. If He have the guiding of my flock and state, it shall not miscarry. Our spilled works, losses, deadness, coldness, wretchedness, are the ground upon which the Good Husbandman laboureth.- Samulel Rutherford, Letters, XX. To lady KENMURE, ABERDEEN

He is come down as rain upon the mown grass; He has revived my withered root, and He is as the dew of herbs. I am most secure in this prison. Salvation is for walls in it, and what think ye of these walls? He maketh the dry plant to bud as the lily, and to blossom as Lebanon. The great Husbandman's blessing cometh down upon the plants of righteousness: who may say this, my dear brother, if I, His poor exiled stranger and prisoner, may not say it? Though all the world should be silent, I cannot hold my peace. No preaching, no book, no learing could have given me that which it behaved me to come and get in this town.- Samulel Rutherford, Letters, XXII. To MR HUGH MACKAIL, ABERDEEN

By grace we are what we are in justification, and work what we work in sanctification. - RICHARD SIBBES

Once I knew what it was to rest upon the rock of God's promises, and it was indeed a precious resting place, but now I rest in His grace. He is teaching me that the bosom of His love is a far sweeter resting-place than even the rock of His promises.Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911) in a letter

Ah! the bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. I can hear their trampings now as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of salvation. They come by their thousands, by their myriads; e'er since the day when Christ first entered into His glory, they come, and yet never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners, and some have come at the very last of their days, but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them trusting to the same support; it will bear me over as it has borne them.-- C.H. Spurgeon

Saul of Tarsus was not on his knees in prayer, but hastening to shed innocent blood. Yet the Lord brought him down and made him seek salvation. Our Lord knows how to reach inaccessible persons. They may shut us out, but they cannot shut Him out! This should much encourage us in pleading for souls. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_ Volume 24 [1878]

Grace will teach a Christian contentedly to take those potions that are wholesome, though they are not toothsome. - GEORGE SWINNOCK

Jesus did not say 'You are the honey of the world'. He said 'You are the salt of the earth'. Salt bites, and the unadulterated message of the judgement and grace of God has always been a biting thing.--Helmut Thielicke

He poureth not the oil of His grace but into broken vessels. - John Trapp on Matt.5:6

So long as we imagine it is we who have to look for God, we must often lose heart. But it is the other way about - He is looking for us. SIMON TUGWELL

Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in. Mark Twain, in Albert B. Payne, Mark Twain: A biography, vol. 3. (1912)

None so empty of grace as he that thinks he is full. - THOMAS WATSON

You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.John Wooden