Author Archives: Matt Jury
Drifting Christianity
We must never let the Christian life drift from a relationship with Jesus Christ into merely keeping religious rules — however important those rules may be.
Basic Christianity
A great deal that passes for the deeper life is nothing more or less than basic Christianity. There is nothing deeper about it, and it is where we should have been from the start. We should have been happy, joyous, victorious Christians walking in the Holy Spirit and not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.
The Dwelling Place of the Holy Spirit
We must not get the impression that the Christian life is one continuous conflict, one unbroken struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. A thousand times no. The heart that learns to die with Christ soon knows the blessed experience of rising with Him, and all the world’s persecutions cannot still the high note of holy joy that springs up in the soul that has become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
The Details of the Christian Life
The wise Christian will bring his Christianity into all the details of his life. Observe also that such a Christian will not ‘pick and choose’ among the aspects and elements of godliness; but ‘whatsoever things’ his conscience and his Bible tell him to be accordant with the divine will, these all and always he will do, — ‘esteeming all God’s commandments concerning all things to be right, and hating every false way.’
Robert Johnstone, The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, p. 375
Click the link on the biblio info above to download Johnstone’s commentary on Philippians for free.
Christ, We Do All Adore Thee
Beholding the Glory of Christ
We cannot behold the glory of Christ by conjuring up pictures of him in the mind and by trying to form the shape of a person in heaven in our imaginations. The way to behold the glory of Christ is by the steady exercise of faith on the revelation of this glory of Christ given to us in Scripture. It is our duty, therefore, constantly to meditate on the glory of Christ. This will fill us with joy which will, in turn, move us to meditate on his glory more and more.
John Owen, The Glory of Christ (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1994) 67. emphasis mine
Christ Alone
Christ has already borne the curses for our disobedience and earned for us the blessings of obedience. As a result we are now to look to Christ alone — not Christ plus our performance — for God’s blessings in our lives.
Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness, p. 19
Life Is Worship 