R. C. Sproul (1939-2017) returned home to his Savior on Friday at the age of 78 (read Justin Taylor’s death note). Former St. St. Andrews pastor and ministry founder Ligonier was also a prolific author who had a particular talent for words.
Here are 40 of my favorite R. C. Thank God for his life and legacy.
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“There are only two ways to die, can we die in faith or can we die in our sins?”
“We are safe, not because we hold on to Jesus, but because he sustains us firmly.
“Knowing that God knows everything about me and loves me is, in fact, my greatest comfort.
“There is no higher condition than getting down on your knees knowing that God has forgiven all the sins He has committed.
“If God is not sovereign, God is not God
“When God says something, the discussion ends.
“A god who is all love, all grace, all mercy, without any sovereignty, without justice, without holiness and without anger, is an idol.
“As soon as we think God owes us mercy, we do not think of mercy. “
When there is something in God’s Word that I do not love, the problem is not with the Word of God, but with me.
“You must believe, preach, and teach what the Bible says is the truth, not what you want the Bible to say is the truth.
“God does not always act righteously. Sometimes he acts with mercy. Mercy is not justice, but it is not an injustice either. Injustice violates justice. Mercy shows kindness and grace and not violentness to justice. We can see non-justice” in God, which is mercy, but we never see injustice in God.
“Impressed people never complain that the church is boring
“I will retire when my cold, dead fingers are removed from my Bible.
“If anyone ever had a reason to complain about injustice, it was Jesus. He was the only innocent man who was punished by God. If we stagger before the wrath of God, let us stagger before the cross. This is where our astonishment must be concentrated. If we have reason for moral outrage, let it be Golgotha.
“No matter how much injustice I suffer from others, I have never suffered the slightest injustice on God’s part. “
“God answered Job’s questions not in words, but with himself
“Christian life is a life of non-compliance.
“Christ not only takes upon our sins, our debts, and our demerits, but also gives us his obedience, his goods, and his merits.
“If there is no sanctification, it means that there has never been any justification.
“If we despise the righteousness of God, we are not Christians
“The only type of God we can love through our sinful nature is an ungodly god, an idol made with our own hands.
“We are not very surprised that God has redeemed us. Somewhere inside, in the secret chambers of our hearts, we maintain the idea that God owes us His mercy. Heaven would not be the same if we had been excluded. We know we’re here. ” We are sinners, but we are certainly not as bad as we could be. There are sufficient forms of redemption for our personalities that, if God is truly righteous, will include us in salvation. What surprises us is justice, not grace.
“There is no tie with God, no divided decisions. When we fight the Almighty, we lose. He is the undefeated champion of the universe. “
“Is God’s righteousness always and forever an expression of his holy character?What God does is always consistent with who God is. “
“When we sin, we not only commit treason against God, but also commit violence among ourselves. Sin violates people. There’s nothing abstract about it. For my sin, I have wounded human beings. ; It damages your reputation by robbing people of a precious quality of life; crush your dreams and aspirations for happiness. When I dishonor God, I dishonor all who bear His image. Is it surprising, then, that God takes sin so seriously?
“The problem we face is that the word holy is alien to all languages. No dictionary is suitable for this task.
“Death reminds us that we are creatures. However, although death is so frightening, it is nothing compared to encountering a holy God. When we know him, the whole of our being as creatures shatters us and breaks the myth we believe about ourselves, the myth that we are demigods, lower-class deities who will try to live. Always.
“Only once in the Holy Scriptures does an attribute of God rise to the third degree. Only once is a characteristic of God mentioned three times in a row. The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. “
“God confided in us the ministry of the Word, not its results
“The cross was a glorious work of God’s grace, by which the Father commanded the Son to make full atonement so that sinners could be saved without the sacrifice of God’s righteousness.
“A substitute appeared in space and time, appointed by God Himself, to carry the weight and weight of our transgressions, to make atonement for our fault, and to incite the wrath of God in our name. Is this the gospel?
“If I desire the words of eternal life, there is only one place I can go: He who gave his life so that we may live.
“No one has been saved by a profession of faith. You must possess faith. “
“God doesn’t want me to play with religion. He doesn’t want me to go to church once in a while. You want me body and soul. ?
“We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. “
The foundations of his justification are the perfect works of Jesus Christ. We’re saved by the works, but they’re not ours.
“Without the doctrine of justification by faith alone, the gospel is not simply compromised, it is completely lost. “
“We fail in our duty to study the Word of God not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is boring and boring, but because it is laborious. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion Our problem is that we are lazy.
“You can’t open your eyes in this universe without seeing a theater of divine revelation. “
“You cannot love Jesus and not love His Word.