J.C. Ryle Quotes » Conversion

Ascertaining Your Own Spiritual State

Erik — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:00:38 +0000

Leave no stone unturned in order to ascertain your own spiritual state. Be not content with vague hopes and trusts. Rest not on warm feelings and temporary desires after God. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Oh, allow me to say that if you are content to live on, uncertain about salvation, you live the maddest life in the world! The fires of hell are before you—and you are uncertain whether your soul is saved. This world below must soon be left—and you are uncertain whether you have a mansion prepared to receive you in the world above. The judgment will soon be set—and you are uncertain whether you have an Advocate to plead your cause. Eternity will soon begin—and you are uncertain whether you are prepared to meet God. Oh, sit down this day, and study the subject of salvation! Give God no rest until uncertainty has disappeared, and you have got hold of a reasonable hope that you are saved.

~ J.C. Ryle

Old Paths, “Few Saved”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1999], 89, 90.

Filed under: Conversion

Possessing a Heart of Gratitude

Erik — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:00:01 +0000

Is your heart right? Then be thankful. Praise the Lord for His distinguishing mercy, in “calling you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Pet. 2:9). Think what you were by nature. Think what has been done for you by free undeserved grace. Your heart may not be all that it ought to be, nor yet all that you hope it will be. But at any rate your heart is not the old hard heart with which you were born. Surely the man whose heart is changed ought to be full of praise.

~ J.C. Ryle

Old Paths, “The Heart”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1999], 356.

Filed under: Conversion

How Can We Come Before God?

Erik — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:00:13 +0000

Take any commandment of the ten, and let us examine ourselves by it. We have broken it repeatedly. We cannot answer God. Take any of us, and look narrowly into our ways—and we are nothing but sinners. There is but one verdict. We are all guilty—we all ought to die—we all deserve hell. How then can we come before God? We must come in the name of Jesus, standing on no other ground, pleading no other plea than this, “Christ died on the cross for the ungodly—and I trust in Him.”

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: What is Your Hope?

Filed under: Conversion

Without Conversion, We Are Dead

Erik — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:00:28 +0000

Without conversion of heart we cannot serve God on earth. We have naturally neither faith, nor fear, nor love, toward God and His Son Jesus Christ. We have no delight in His Word. We take no pleasure in prayer or communion with Him. We have no enjoyment in His ordinances, His house, His people, or His day. We may have a form of Christianity, and keep up a round of ceremonies and religious performances. But without conversion we have no more heart in our religion than a brick or a stone. Can a dead corpse serve God? We know it cannot. Well, without conversion we are dead toward God.

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: Conversion

Filed under: Conversion

Now is the Time of Salvation

Erik — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:00:37 +0000

Whatever a person sows—that they shall also reap! Whatever we love in time—we shall love in eternity! Whatever we think wearisome now—we shall think wearisome then. You must be born again—or heaven itself would be a miserable abode! There is no place in heaven for the worldly-minded and profane. You must be renewed in the spirit of your minds, or you will hear that dreadful voice—Friend, how did you come here without a wedding-garment? You must become new creatures! How long will you insult your Redeemer by putting it off? Oh! pray you to the Lord Jesus Christ, while it is called today, to send His Holy Spirit on you! Go to the fountain, while the door of mercy is yet open—wash and be clean!

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: The Blood of the Lamb

Filed under: Conversion

The Definition of Coming to Christ

Erik — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 07:00:13 +0000

When a man turns to Christ empty—that he may be filled; sick—that he may be healed; hungry—that he may be satisfied; thirsty—that he may be refreshed; needy—that he may be enriched; dying—that he may have life; lost—that he may be saved; guilty—that he may be pardoned; sin-defiled—that he may be cleansed; confessing that Christ alone can supply his need—then he comes to Christ. When he uses Christ as the Jews used the city of refuge, as the starving Egyptians used Joseph, as the dying Israelites used the brazen serpent; then he comes to Christ. It is the empty soul’s venture on a full Savior; it is the drowning man’s grasp on the hand held out to help him; it is the sick man’s reception of a healing medicine. This, and nothing more than this, is coming to Christ.

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: Come!

Filed under: Christ, Conversion

The Diversity of God’s Dealings

Erik — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:00:22 +0000

The Lord is not tied to the use of any one means exclusively in conveying grace to the soul. Sometimes He is pleased to work by the word preached publicly, sometimes by the word read privately. Sometimes He awakens people by sickness and affliction, sometimes by the rebukes or counsel of friends. Sometimes He employs means of grace to turn people out of the way of sin. Sometimes He arrests their attention by some providence, without any means of grace at all. He will not have any means of grace made an idol and exalted, to the disparagement of other means. He will not have any means despised as useless, and neglected as of no value. All are good and valuable. All are in their turn employed for the same great end, the conversion of souls. All are in the hands of Him who “gives not account of His matters,” and knows best which to use, in each separate case that He heals.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1985], 150, 151. {Mark 7:31-37}

Filed under: Conversion

The Highest Degree of Knowledge

Erik — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:00:33 +0000

Heart-knowledge, we must always remember, is the one thing needful. It is something which schools and universities cannot confer. It is the gift of God. To find out the plague of our own hearts and hate sin–to become familiar with the throne of grace and the fountain of Christ’s blood–to sit daily at the feet of Jesus, and humbly learn of Him–this is the highest degree of knowledge to which mortal man can attain. Let any one thank God who knows anything of these things. One may be ignorant of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and mathematics, but they shall be saved.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, volume 2, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987], 57, 58. {John 7:40-53}

Filed under: Conversion

Do YOU Possess the Marks of the New Birth?

Erik — Fri, 13 May 2011 07:00:43 +0000

Would we know what the marks of the new birth are? We shall find them already written for our learning in the First Epistle of John. The person born of God “believes that Jesus is the Christ,” – “does not commit sin,” – “does righteousness,” – “loves the brethren,” – “overcomes the world,” – “keeps himself from the wicked one.” This is the person born of the Spirit! Where these fruits are to be seen, there is the new birth of which our Lord is speaking. They that lacks these marks, is yet dead in trespasses and sins. (1 John 5:1; 3:9; 2:29; 3:14; 5:4; 5:18).

And now let us solemnly ask ourselves whether we know anything of the mighty change of which we have been reading? Have we been born again? Can any marks of the new birth be seen in us? Can the sound of the Spirit be heard in our daily conversation? Is the image and superscription of the Spirit to be discerned in our lives? Happy is the person who can give satisfactory answers to these questions! A day will come when those who are not born again will wish that they had never been born at all.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987], 124, 125. {John 3:1-8}

Filed under: Conversion

The Ultimate Question Regarding Christ

Erik — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:00:32 +0000

Everyone who believes on the Son of God, and trusts their soul to Him, is at once pardoned, forgiven, justified, counted righteous, reckoned innocent, and freed from all liability to condemnation. Their sins, however many, are at once cleansed away by Christ’s precious blood. Their soul, however guilty, is at once clothed with Christ’s perfect righteousness. It matters not what they may have been in time past. Their sins may have been of the worst kind. Their former character may be of the blackest description. But do they believe on the Son of God? This is the one question. If they do believe, they are justified from all things in the sight of God. It matters not, that they can bring to Christ nothing to recommend them—no good works, no long-proved amendments, no unmistakable repentance and change of life. But do they this day believe in Jesus Christ? This is the grand question. If they do, they are at once accepted. They are accounted righteous for Christ’s sake.

~ J.C. Ryle

Old Paths, “Faith”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1999], 387, 388.

Filed under: Christ, Conversion