Pithy gems from Martin Lloyd-Jones. The Christian is not a good man.
He is a vile wretch who has been saved by the grace of God. The tragedy of sin is that it
affects man in his highest faculties. Sin causes us to become fools
and behave in an irrational manner. Modern man, far from being ruled
by reason, is ruled by lust and passion. The more holy a person is, the
simpler will that person's life be. I'd rather hobble into heaven
than run into hell. God is nowhere more hidden than
in most churches. Pride is probably the deadliest
and the most subtle of all sins, and it can assume many forms. The ultimate test of our spirituality
is the measure of our amazement at the grace of God. Grace is favor shown to people
who do not deserve any favor at all. We deserve nothing but
hell. If you think you deserve heaven,
then you are not a Christian. The cross not only shows the
love of God more gloriously than anything else, it also shows
His righteousness, His justice, His holiness, and all the glory
of His eternal attributes. They are all to be seen shining
together there. Some tend to think that Christianity
is a matter of being nice. But niceness is purely biological. One dog is nicer than another
dog. We must never parade ourselves. Do you think that you deserve
God's forgiveness? If you do, then you are not a
Christian. When a man truly sees himself,
he knows that nobody can say anything about him that is too
bad. The trouble with man is not intellectual,
but moral. If you claim to love Christ and
yet are living an unholy life, there is only one thing to say
about you. You are an impudent liar. The man who refuses to face the
fact of his own death is a fool. To divorce forgiveness of sins
from the actual living of the Christian life is nothing but
rank heresy. Christians are generally at their
best when they are in the furnace of affliction. If you are not holy, you are
not a Christian. There are no shortcuts in the
Christian life, no simple remedies. Nothing we do in the Christian
life is harder than prayer. Intellectual pride is the last
citadel of self. We have come to realize that
a man can be educated and cultured and still be a beast. The biggest hoax in the world
for the last 150 years has been the theory of evolution. The natural man is always looking
at himself and admiring himself. I would rather make bricks without
straw than try to live the sermon on the mount in my own strength. No difficulty in believing the
gospel is intellectual, it is always moral. The whole trouble in life is
ultimately a concern about self. A man is not a Christian unless
he can say with Paul, I am what I am by the grace of God. Many who go to the psychiatrist
are like the woman in the Gospels, they are nothing bettered, but
rather grow worse. There is little difference between
a ladies' fashion parade and a dog show. By definition, a Christian should
be an enigma to every person who is not a Christian.