It is wonderful that God would not only give us light, but that light should be his own glory. Creation is a part of God's glory, but it is only a moonlight glory compared with that of redemption. God, in the gift of Jesus Christ, displayed the whole of his nature. Creation is not a canvas large enough for the whole image of God to be stamped on it. The image of God is to be fully seen in Jesus Christ--and nowhere else--for there you behold attributes that creation cannot display. Creation can manifest love, power, wisdom, and much else, but creation cannot manifest justice--justice lying side by side with mercy, like the lion and and the lamb. Only in Christ can you see this wondrous sight--God hating sin with perfect hatred, yet loving sinners with much more than the tenderness of a mother toward her child. Spurgeon Study Bible, Isaiah 60:1,
When God looks at his people, he does not see them--he sees his Son. He looks through that heavenly medium and sees them in his Son. The Lord has covered them with the robe of righteousness. The children of God who weep because of their sins can be joyful in the Lord. We are righteous in the righteousness of Christ that God has imputed to us by faith in his Son. Spurgeon Study Bible, Isaiah 61:1
The essence and soul of prayer is a stirring up of one's self to take hold of God. If in prayer we do not take hold of God, we have prayed but feebly, if at all. The soul of devotion lies in realizing the divine presence, in dealing with God as a real person, in firm confidence in his faithfulness--that is, to "take hold" of him. People do not take hold of a shadow. Spurgeon Study Bible, Isaiah 64:7
People will never rejoice in God's new work of creation while they are rejoicing in their own works and trusting in themselves and boasting their own merits. It is a sign of grace when a person is sick of self and is in harmony with God. Spurgeon Study Bible, Isaiah 65:17-19
If every day brings its trouble, every day also brings its mercy. No one can say that so truly as the person who has known what it is to prove God's great faithfulness in the midst of great affliction. Spurgeon Study Bible, Lamentations 3:23
God's time is always the best time. To deliver us just now might be to deprive us of the benefit of the trouble. We must bear it until it produces the "peaceful fruit of righteousness." (Hebrews 12:11) Spurgeon Study Bible, Lamentations 3:26
Sin must be punished. Any theology that offers the pardon of sin without punishment ignores a major part of God's character. The testimony of the gospel is not that punishment has been mitigated or foregone. The consolation is far more sure and effectual. Christ has, for his people, borne all the punishment they deserved. Now here is a precious promise: "He will not lengthen your exile." We may be in captivity now, but it is the last we will ever have. We may have troubles, but we will never have punishment. We may know affliction, but we will never know wrath. We may go to the grave, but we will never go to hell. We will descend into the regions of the dead but never into the regions of the damned. Spurgeon Study Bible, Lamentations 4:22
Let us study the Bible with diligence. Go to that fountain of truth, and never be satisfied with a secondhand version of it. Search the inspired book and desire to know everything it teaches. Spurgeon Study Bible, Ezekiel 3:17
Two words will teach us the deepest practical wisdom--sin and grace. No one ever measured either of them except one, and he, when he measured them, was in a bloody sweat and poured out his soul unto death. Only our suffering lover, the Lord Jesus Christ, knows the two to their perfection. May we be helped to enter a little further into the double secret while we commune together. Spurgeon Study Bible, Ezekiel 16:62-63
Unbelief works toward sin and never toward sanctification. Spurgeon Study Bible, Galatians 3:2
Believers are not dependent on circumstances. Their joy comes not from what they have but from what they are, not from where they are but from whose they are, not from what they enjoy but from what was suffered for them by their Lord. Spurgeon Study Bible, Galatians 5:22
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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