Of the Reading of Difficult Books

"If a book is easy and fits nicely into all your language conventions and thought forms, then you probably will not grow much from reading it. It may be entertaining, but not enlarging to your understanding. It's the hard books that count. Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves; digging is hard, but you might find diamonds."

John Piper, from his book God's Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards

Nitro-charged, Pauline Sovereignty of God

"If there is one doctrine in the world which reveals the enmity of the human heart more than any other, it is the doctrine of God's sovereignty. When men hear the LORD's voice saying, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," they gnash their teeth and call the preacher an Antinomian, a High Calvinist, or some other hard name. They do not love God except if they can make Him a little God. They cannot bear for Him to be supreme. They would gladly take His will away from Him and set up their own will as the first cause."

- Charles Spurgeon

God's Law in the Christian's Life

"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.....Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
-- the Lord Christ, Matthew 5.17,19

"I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "You shall not covet."
-- the Apostle Paul, Romans 7.7

"Let us not forget that 'the Law is good if we use it lawfully' and that 'by the Law is the knowledge of sin' (I Timothy 1.8; Romans 3.20, 7.7). Let us bring the Law to the front and press it on men's attention....We may depend upon it, men will never come to Jesus and stay with Jesus and live for Jesus, unless they really know why they are to come and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin. Without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world."
--J.C. Ryle, from his book Holiness (1879)

"Although true believers be not under the Law, as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified, or condemned; yet it is of great use to them, as well as to others; in that, as a rule of life informing them of the will of God, and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly; discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives; so as, examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin, together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and the perfection of His obedience."
--Westminster Confession, Chapter XIX, sec.6a (1646)

"Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law."
-- the Apostle Paul, Romans 3.31

"The fact is, the Law was not given to justify us (for if this were so, Jesus Christ would have died in vain, as St.Paul says; Gal.2.21, 3.18-21) but, on the contrary, to condemn us, and to show us the hell which is opened wide to swallow us, to annihilate and totally abase our pride, in making the multitude of our sins pass before our eyes and showing us the wrath of God which is revealed from Heaven against us (Romans 1.18, 4.15; Gals.3.10,12).
--Theodore Beza, from The Christian Faith (1558)

"The Law of God is the catalyst for revealing to the saint the meaning behind the admonishment, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling."
--Corey Ankeny, "Stirring the Pot" (2002)

"Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith."
-- the Apostle Paul, Galatians 3.24