J.C. Ryle Quotes » Cross

Know the Truth About Carrying the Cross

Erik — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:00:17 +0000

Christ would have all who profess and call themselves Christians reminded that they must carry the cross. They must lay their account to be despised, afflicted and tried, like their Master. He would have no person enlisted on false pretenses. He would have it distinctly understood that there is a battle to be fought, and a race to be run – a work to be done, and many hard things to be endured – if we propose to follow Him. Salvation He is ready to bestow, without money and without price. Grace by the way, and glory in the end, shall be given to every sinner who comes to Him. But He would not have us ignorant that we shall have deadly enemies – the world, the flesh, and the devil – and that many will hate us, slander us, and persecute us, if we become His disciples. He does not wish to discourage us, but He does wish us to know the truth.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 339. {Luke 9:57-62}

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Concentrating on the Cross of Christ

Erik — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:00:12 +0000

Let us see now one more proof of the unspeakable importance of the death of Christ. Let us treasure up His gracious sayings. Let us strive to walk in the steps of His holy life. Let us prize His intercession. Let us long for His second coming. But never let us forget that the crowning fact in all we know of Jesus Christ, is His death upon the cross. From that death flow all our hopes. Without that death we would have nothing solid beneath our feet. May we prize that death more and more every year we live; and in all our thoughts about Christ, rejoice in nothing so much as the great fact that He died for us!

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1985], 228. {Mark 11:1-11}

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Taking Comfort in Christ’s Cross

Erik — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:00:35 +0000

Are you a distressed believer? Is your heart pressed down with sickness, tried with disappointments, overburdened with cares? To you I say this day, “Behold the cross of Christ.” Think whose hand it is that chastens you; think whose hand is measuring to you the cup of bitterness which you are now drinking. It is the hand of Him who was crucified! It is the same hand which, in love to your soul, was nailed to the accursed tree. Surely that thought should comfort and hearten you. Surely you should say to yourself, “A crucified Savior will never lay upon me anything that is not for my good. It must be well.”

~ J.C. Ryle

Old Paths, “The Cross of Christ”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1999], 261.

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Do Not Neglect the Cross of Christ

Erik — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 07:00:12 +0000

I declare I know no greater proof of a person’s depravity than the fact that thousands of so-called Christians see nothing lovely in the cross. Well may our hearts be called stony, well may the eyes of our mind be called blind, well may our whole nature be called diseased, well may we all be called dead, when the cross of Christ is heard of, and yet neglected. Christ was crucified for sinners, and yet many Christians live as if He was never crucified at all!

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: Calvary

Filed under: Cross

The Cross of Doctrine and Practice

Erik — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:00:57 +0000

Salvation is undoubtedly all of grace. It is offered freely in the Gospel to the chief of sinners, without money and without price. “By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God–not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9) But all who accept this great salvation, must prove the reality of their faith by carrying the cross after Christ. They must not think to enter heaven without trouble, pain, suffering, and conflict on earth. They must be content to take up the cross of DOCTRINE – holding a faith which the world despises, and the cross of PRACTICE – the cross of living a life which the world ridicules as too strict, and righteous over much.

They must be willing to crucify the flesh, to mortify the deeds of the body, to fight daily with the devil, to come out from the world and to lose their lives, if needful, for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s. These are hard sayings, but they admit of no evasion. The words of our Lord are plain and unmistakable. If we will not carry the cross, we shall never wear the crown.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1985], 169. {Mark 8:34-38}

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The Great Barrier and the Cross

Erik — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:00:16 +0000

We are all by nature separate and far off from God. Sin, like a great barrier-wall, rises between us and our Maker. The sense of guilt makes us afraid of Him. The sense of His holiness keeps us at a distance from Him. Born with a heart at enmity with God, we become more and more alienated from Him, by practice, the longer we live. The very first questions in religion that must be answered, are these–”How can I draw near to God? How can I be justified? How can a sinner like me be reconciled to my Maker?” The Lord Jesus Christ has provided an answer to these mighty questions. By His sacrifice for us on the cross, He has opened a way through the great barrier, and provided pardon and peace for sinners.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, volume 2, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987], 199. {John 10:1-9}

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The Reality of Suffering on the Cross

Erik — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:00:21 +0000

What was a crucifixion? Let us try to realize it, and understand its misery. The person crucified was laid on his back on a piece of timber, with a cross-piece nailed to it near one end – or on the trunk of a tree with branching arms, which answered the same purpose. His hands were spread out on the cross-piece, and nails driven through each of them, fastening them to the wood. His feet in like manner were nailed to the upright part of the cross. And then, the body having been securely fastened, the cross was raised up, and fixed firmly in the ground. And there hung the unhappy sufferer until pain and exhaustion brought him to his end – not dying suddenly, for no vital part of him was injured – but enduring the most excruciating agony from his hands and feet, and unable to move.

Such was the death of the cross. Such was the death that Jesus died for us! For six long hours He hung there before a gazing crowd, naked, and bleeding from head to foot – His head pierced with thorns – His back lacerated with scourging – His hands and feet torn with nails – and mocked and reviled by His cruel enemies to the very last.

Let us meditate frequently on these things. Let us often read over the story of Christ’s cross and passion. Let us remember, not least, that all these horrible sufferings were born without a murmur. No word of impatience crossed our Lord’s lips. In His death, no less than in His life, He was perfect. To the very last, Satan found nothing in Him. (John 14:30.)

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 390, 391. {Matthew 27:27-44}

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Glory Only in the Cross of Christ

Erik — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:00:50 +0000

Let us look well to our own hearts. We live in a day when false doctrines about Christ’s death abound on every side. Let us see that Christ crucified is really the foundation of our own hopes, and that Christ’s atoning death for sin is indeed the whole life of our souls. Let us beware of adding to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, as the Roman Catholic does. Its value was infinite. It admits of no addition.

Let us beware of taking away from Christ’s sacrifice, as the Socinian [denial of Christ's divinity] does. To suppose that the Son of God only died to leave us an example of self-denial, is to contradict a hundred plain texts of Scripture. Let us walk in the old paths. Let us say with Paul, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Gal 6:14)

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 2 , [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998], 281. {Luke 18:28-34}

Filed under: Cross, False Doctrine

The Important Doctrine of Christ Crucified

Erik — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:27:11 +0000

Many thanks to Joshua Wallnofer for creating this brand new video of Ryle’s well known tract Christ Crucified. As with all of Joshua’s videos, he takes the time to add the text of Ryle’s writing and then reads it along with a well done photo slide, making for a enjoyable read while sipping on your morning cup of coffee.

“There is no doctrine in Christianity so important as the doctrine of Christ crucified. There is none which the devil tries so hard to destroy. There is none which it is so needful for our own peace to understand. By ‘Christ crucified,’ I mean the doctrine that Christ suffered death on the cross to make atonement for our sins, that by His death He made a full, perfect, and complete satisfaction to God for the ungodly, and that through the merits of that death all who believe in Him are forgiven all their sins, however many and great, entirely, and forever.”

~ J.C. Ryle

Filed under: Cross, Videos

The Results of a Cross-less Church

Erik — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:00:15 +0000

Whenever a Church keeps back Christ crucified, or puts anything whatsoever in that foremost place which Christ crucified should always have, from that moment a Church ceases to be useful. Without Christ crucified in her pulpits, a Church is little better than a dead carcass, a well without water, a barren fig-tree, a sleeping watchman, a silent trumpet, a dumb witness, an ambassador without terms of peace, a messenger without tidings, a lighthouse without fire, a stumbling-block to weak believers, a comfort to unbelievers, a hot-bed for formalism, a joy to the devil, and an offence to God.

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: Christ Crucified

Filed under: Cross, Videos