What A Lovely One Is Christ!

Samuel Rutherford wrote:

O if I could invite and persuade thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousands of Adam's sons, to flock about my Lord Jesus, and to come and take their fill of [His] love! O pity for evermore that there should be such an one as Christ Jesus, so boundless, so bottomless, and so incomparable in infinite excellency and sweetness, and so few take Him! Oh! Oh! You poor, dry and dead souls, why will you not come hither with your empty souls to this huge, and fair, and deep and sweet well of life, and fill your empty vessels? O that Christ should be so large in sweetness and worth, and we so narrow, so pinched, so ebb, and so void of all happiness! And yet men will not take Him! They lose their love miserably who will not bestow it upon this lovely One.

From a letter to Lady Kilconquhar

Longing To See The Bridegroom's Joyful Face!

Samuel Rutherford wrote:

It is the crooked love of some harlots, that they love bracelets earrings and rings better than the lover that sendeth them; God will not be so loved; for that were to behave as harlots and not as the chaste spouse, to abate from our love when these things are pulled away. Our love to Him should begin on earth as it shall be in heaven; for the bride taketh not by a thousand degrees so much delight in her wedding garment, as she doth in her bridegroom; so we in the life to come, howbeit clothed with glory as with a robe, shall not be so much affected with the glory that goeth about us, as with the bridegroom's joyful face and presence.

Samuel Rutherford, The Letters Of Samuel Rutherford (Glasgow, 1765), 334.

Savouring The Hope Of Eternal Union With Christ

Raymond Ortland Jr. writes:

More than our popular churches and institutions and movements, God wants us ourselves. He wants our hearts, our loyalty, our love for himself alone. He wants to find in us the same sense of intimate belonging to him that is appropriate to sexual union on the human level. More than our showing the world how 'relevant' the church can be, God wants us to show him how much we treasure him above all else . . . above all, we show him our love by savouring the hope of eternal union with him in the new Jerusalem above as our only true fulfillment.

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Whoredom: God's Unfaithful Wife In Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 176.

Christ: Our Ultimate And Eternal Romance!

Raymond Ortland Jr. writes:

Marriage is not just another mutation of human social evolution, like democracy. It is a divine creation, intended to reveal the ultimate romance guiding all of time and eternity . . . And this is why every faithful and loving marriage is precious to God; it shines with the light of Christ's love for his people, and of their devotion to him, in the darkness of this present evil age . . . Pastorally, the biblical story lifts up before us a vision of God as our Lover . . . the gospel sounds the voice of our Husband who has proven his love for us and who calls for our undivided love in return. The gospel reveals that, as we look out into the universe, ultimate reality is not cold, dark, blank space; ultimate reality is romance. There is a God above with love in his eyes for us and infinite joy to offer us, and he has set himself upon winning our hearts for himself alone. The gospel tells the story of God's pursuing, faithful, wounded, angry, overruling, transforming, triumphant love. And it calls us to answer him with a love which cleanses our lives of all spiritual whoredom.

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Whoredom: God's Unfaithful Wife In Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 173.

One Great Impulse Throbbing In Your Soul

Raymond Ortland Jr. writes:

The suffering church militant of this present evil age is to cultivate one great impulse throbbing in her soul, viz. an aching longing for the Bridegroom to come to her, to take her in his arms, with nothing within herself to wrest her away, and to be held there for ever. Until such time as he is pleased to come, she is to centre her life around 'the love of Jesus Christ, the King, Bridegroom, and Husband of his church, to her his Queen, Bride, and Spouse, and of hers to him, with

'those spiritually glorious interviews, holy courtings, most superlative, but most sincere, commendings and cordial entertainings of each other, those mutual praisings and valuings of fellowship, those missings, lamentings and bemoanings of the want thereof, those holy impatiencies to be without it, swelling to positive and peremptory determinations not to be satisfied nor comforted in any thing else, those diligent, painful and restless seekings after it, till it be found and enjoyed, on the one hand; and those sweet and easy yieldings to importunity, and gracious grantings of it, on the other; with those high delightings, solacings, complacencies and acquiescings in, and heartsome embracings of one another's fellowship . . . these vehement joint-longings to have the marriage consummated and the fellowship immediate, full and never any more to be interrupted.' (Margaret Durham, in J. Durham (1840), Clavis Cantici (1969), repr. Aberdeen.)

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Whoredom: God's Unfaithful Wife In Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 168-169.

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ; Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

This song by Jordan Kauflin is good. May we truly know and feel all we have is Christ and Christ is our life. We need God to supernaturally make this happen in our lives:

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way.
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave.

I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will.
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still.

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross.

And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me.

Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose.
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You.

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI), by Jordan Kauflin

Christ Is All When Your Husband Is Killed In Battle

This cut scene from the movie We Were Soldiers is sobering. The husband of the woman singing the solo (though she doesn't know it yet) is killed in that Sunday battle, and he will never return home. This same dreadful loss happens to many of the young women sitting in that little church. In the face of pain like that, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and rightousness. When all around my soul gives way, Christ then is all my hope and stay:

The Word Does It All!

Concerning his contribution to the Reformation, Martin Luther wrote:

For the Word created heaven and earth and all things (Ps 33:6); the Word must do this thing, and not we poor sinners.... I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept (cf. Mark 4:26-29), or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. Had I desired to foment trouble, I could have brought great bloodshed upon Germany, indeed, I could have started such a game that even the emperor would not be safe. But what would it have been? Mere fool's play. I did nothing; I let the Word do its work. What do you suppose is Satan's thought when one tries to do the thing by kicking up a row? He sits back in hell and thinks: Oh, what a fine game the poor fools are up to now! But when we spread the Word alone and let it alone do the work, that distresses him. For it is almighty and takes captive the hearts, and when the hearts are captured the work will fall by itself.

From: John W. Doberstein, ed. and transl., Sermons I, vol. 51, in Luther's Works, Helmut T. Lehmann, gen. ed. (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1959), 77-78.

Communion With God Through Christ - Worth More Than All The Wonders Of The Starry Heavens!

J. Gresham Machen wrote:

The responsibility of the church in the new age is the same as its responsibility in every age. It is to testify that this world is lost in sin; that the span of human life - nay, all the length of human history - is an infinitesimal island in the awful depths of eternity; that there is a mysterious holy living God, Creator of all, Upholder of all, infinitely beyond all; that he has revealed himself in his Word and offered us communion with himself through Jesus Christ the Lord; that there is no other salvation, for individuals or for nations, save this, but that this salvation is full and free, and that whosoever possesses it has for himself and for all others to whom he may be the instrument of bringing it a treasure compared with which all the kingdoms of the earth - nay, all the wonders of the starry heavens - are as the dust of the street.

J. Gresham Machen, "The Responsibility of the Church in Our New Age," The Presbyterian Guardian 36:1 (January, 1967), 13.

Because Of Jesus, Nothing Remains For Us But To Sing!

Concerning the cup of the wrath of God that Jesus drank to the dregs for us, F.W. Krummacher wrote:

All that mankind have heaped up to themselves against the day of God’s holy and righteous wrath - their forgetfulness of God, their selfish conduct, their disobedience, pride, worldly-mindedness, their filthy lusts, hypocrisy, falsehood, hardheartedness, and deceit - all are united and mingled in this cup, and ferment together into a horrible potion.

"Shall I not drink this cup?" asks the Saviour. "Yes," we reply, "empty it, beloved Immanuel! We will kiss thy feet, and offer up ourselves to Thee upon Thy holy altar!" He has emptied it, and not a drop remains for His people. The satisfaction He rendered was complete, the reconciliation effected, and now nothing remains for us but to sing Hallelujah!

F.W. Krummacher, The Suffering Savior (Carlisle, Pa: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004), 139.