Life is the mightiest of all possessions. From death to life is the mightiest of all changes. And no change short of this will ever avail to fit a person’s soul for heaven. It is not a little mending and alteration – a little cleansing and purifying – a little painting and patching – a little whitewashing and varnishing – a little turning over a new leaf and putting on a new outside that is needed. It is the bringing in of something altogether new – the planting within us of a new nature, a new being – a new principle – a new mind. This alone, and nothing less than this, will ever meet the necessities of person’s soul. We need not merely a new skin, but a new heart.

True Christianity is a fight!

True Christianity! Let us mind that word “true.” There is a vast quantity of religion current in the world which is not true, genuine Christianity. There are thousands of men and women who go to churches and chapels every Sunday and call themselves Christians. They make a “profession” of faith in Christ. Their names are in the baptismal register. They are reckoned Christians while they live. They are married with a Christian marriage service. They mean to be buried as Christians when they die.

But you never see any “fight” about their religion! Of spiritual strifeand exertion and conflict and self-denial and watching and warring–they know literally nothing at all. Such Christianity may satisfy man, and those who say anything against it may be thought very hard and uncharitable; but it certainly is not the Christianity of the Bible. It is not the religion which the Lord Jesus founded, and His apostles preached. It is not the religion which produces real holiness. True Christianity is “a fight!”

The principal fight of the Christian is with . . .
the world,
the flesh, and
the devil.
These are his never-dying foes! These are the three chief enemies against whom he must wage war. With a corrupt heart, a busy deviland an ensnaring world–he must either “fight” or be lost!

To be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil–is to be at enmity with God and in the broad way that leads to destruction! We have no choice or option. We must either fight–or be lost!

It is a fight of universal necessity. No rank or class or age can plead exemption, or escape the battle–all alike must carry arms and go to war.
All have by nature a heart full of pride, unbelief, sloth, worldliness and sin!
All are living in a world beset with snares, traps and pitfalls for the soul.
All have near them a busy, restless, malicious devil.
All, from the queen in her palace down to the pauper in the workhouse–all must fight, if they would be saved.

We may take comfort about our souls, if we know anything of an inward fight and conflict. It is the invariable companion of genuine Christian holiness.

The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians, is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services once or twice every week. But of the great spiritual warfare–its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests–of all this they appear to know nothing at all.

(J.C. Ryle, “The Fight!“)

Is there any cross in your Christianity?

There is a common worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have–a cheap Christianity . . .
which offends nobody,
which requires no sacrifice,
which costs nothing–and is worth nothing!

But if you really are in earnest about your soul,
if your religion is something more than a mere fashionable Sunday cloak,
if you are determined to live by the Bible,
if you are resolved to be a New Testament Christian–
then you will soon find that you must carry a cross. You must endure hard things; you must suffer in behalf of your soul, as Moses did–or you cannot be saved.

The offense of the cross is not ceased!

God’s true people are still a despised little flock.

True evangelical religion still brings with it reproach and scorn.

A real servant of God will still be thought an enthusiast and a fool by many.

If there is no cross–there will be no crown!

Moses left the ease and comfort of Pharaoh’s court–and openly took part with the despised children of Israel. In fact, if ever a man seemed to be choosing pain, trials, poverty, distress, anxiety, perhaps even death, with his eyes open–Moses was that man!

Let us think how astonishing was this choice.

Flesh and blood naturally shrink from pain. We draw back by a kind of instinct from suffering, and avoid it if we can. If two courses of action are set before us, which both seem right–we take that which is the least disagreeable to flesh and blood.

But look here! Here is a man of like passions with ourselves, and he actually chooses affliction! Moses saw the cup of suffering that was before him if he left Pharaoh’s court–and he chose it, preferred it, and took it up!

Faith told Moses that affliction and suffering are not real evils. They are . . .
the school of God, in which He trains the children of grace for glory;
the medicines, which are needful to purify our corrupt hearts;
the furnace, which must burn away our dross;
the knife, which must cut the ties which bind us to the world.

(J.C. Ryle, “Faith’s Choice!” 1879)

“I hate pride and arrogance!” Proverbs 8:13

It is a dreadful fact, whether we like to allow it or not–that PRIDE is one of the common sins which beset human nature. We are all born Pharisees. We all naturally think far better of ourselves than we ought. We all naturally imagine that we deserve something better than we have.

Pride is an old sin. It began in the garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve thought they had not got everything that their merits deserved.

Pride is a subtle sin. It rules and reigns in many a heart without being detected, and can even wear the garb of humility.

Pride is a most soul-ruining sin. It prevents repentance, keeps men back from Christ, checks brotherly love, and nips spiritual desires in the bud.

Let us watch against pride, and be on our guard.

Of all garments, none is so graceful, none wears so well, and none is so rare–as true humility. “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, God opposes the proud–but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5

Thanks Grace Gems! (J. C. Ryle)

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you“ John 15:7

To abide in Christ, means to keep up a habit of constant close communion with Him–to be always . . .
leaning on Him,
resting on Him,
pouring out our hearts to Him, and
using Him as our Fountain of life and strength–as our chief Companion and best Friend!

To have Christ’s words abiding in us, is to keep His sayings and precepts continually before our memories and minds, and to make them the guide of our actions and the rule of our daily conduct and behavior.

Thanks Grace Gems! (J. C. Ryle)

It is a blessed and comfortable thought, that all this almighty power of our Lord Jesus Christ is engaged on behalf of His believing people. He has undertaken to save every one of them to the uttermost, and He is “mighty to save.” The trials of His people are often many and great. The devil never ceases to make war against them. The rulers of this world frequently persecute them. The very heads of the Church, who ought to be tender shepherds, are often bitterly opposed to the truth as it is in Jesus. Yet, notwithstanding all this, Christ’s people shall never be entirely forsaken. Though severely harassed, they shall not be destroyed. Though cast down, they shall not be cast away. At the darkest time let true Christians rest in the thought, that greater is He who is for them than all those who are against them.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 1, [Carlisle, PA:Banner of Truth, 1986], 264. {Luke 8:22-25}

~ J.C. Ryle

Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, “Christ is All”, [Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan Publishing, 2001], 382.

I feel it a duty to bear my solemn testimony against the spirit of the day we live in, to warn men against its infection. It is not Atheism I fear so much, in the present times, as Pantheism. It is not the system which says nothing is true, so much as the system which says everything is true. It is not the system which says there is no Savior, so much as the system which says there are many saviors, and many ways to peace! It is the system which is so liberal, that it dares not say anything is false. It is the system which is so charitable, that it will allow everything to be true. It is the system which seems ready to honor others as well as our Lord Jesus Christ, to class them all together, and to think well of all.

It is the system which is so careful about the feelings of others, that we are never to say they are wrong. It is the system which is so liberal that it calls a man a bigot, if he dares to say, “I know my views are right.” This is the system, this is the tone of feeling which I fear in this day, and this is the system which I desire emphatically to testify against and denounce. From the liberality which says everybody is right, from the charity which forbids us to say anybody is wrong, from the peace which is bought at the expense of truth – may the good Lord deliver us!

~ J.C. Ryle

Knots Untied, “Only One Way of Salvation” [Cambridge, England: James Clarke & Co., 1977], 30, 31.

If any reader of this paper is a Christian of this kind, I warn him also plainly, that his religion is an offence to God. You are changing God’s plan of salvation into a plan of your own devising. You are in effect deposing Christ from His throne, by giving the glory due to Him to another.

~ J.C. Ryle

Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, “Christ Is All”, [Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan Publishing, 2001], 386.

via J.C. Ryle Quotes

~ J.C. Ryle

Knots Untied, “The Church” [Cambridge, England: James Clarke & Co., 1977], 177.