Tag Archives: Cross

Do You Think God Is an Angry Being?

Posted on by under J. C. Ryle

Beware of the common idea that God the Father is only an angry Being, whom sinful man can only regard with fear, and from whom he must flee to Christ for safety. Cast it aside as a baseless and unscriptural notion. Contend earnestly for all the attributes of God, — for His holiness and His justice, as well as for His love. But never allow for one moment that there is any want of love towards sinners in any Person in the Blessed Trinity. Oh! no! Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father loves, and the Son loves, and the Holy Ghost loves. The cross is the effect of the Father’s love, and not the cause. Redemption is the result of the compassion of all three Persons in the Trinity. To place the Father and the Son in opposition one to another, is weak and crude theology. Christ died, not because God the Father hated, but because He loved the world.

J. C. Ryle, Do You Believe?

The Reasonableness of Faith

Posted on by under John R. W. Stott

If it was reasonable for Job to trust the God whose wisdom and power have been revealed in creation, how much more reasonable is it for us to trust the God whose love and justice have been revealed in the cross? The reasonableness of trust lies in the known trustworthiness of its object. And no one is more trustworthy than the God of the Cross. The Cross assures us that there is no possibility of a miscarriage of justice or of the defeat of love either now or on the last day. “He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8.32).

John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 320.

The Cross Does Not Solve the Problem of Suffering

Posted on by under John R. W. Stott

We have to learn to climb the hill called Calvary, and from that vantage point survey all life’s tragedy. The cross does not solve the problem of suffering, but it applies the essential perspective from which to look at it. Since God has demonstrated His holy love and loving justice in a historical event (the cross), no other historical event (whether personal or global) can override or disprove it. This must really be why the scroll (the book of history and destiny) is now in the hands of the slain Lamb, and why only He is worthy to break it seals, reveal its contents and control the flow of nature.

John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 320.