(4) Actions correspond to powers and abilities, and no holy action can come from an unchanged ability. A change in the souls faculties must precede a change in life and conduct. In nature we live, an...  Read More

(3) The soul that truly desires mercy and favour always desires power against sin. Pardon and power go together, both in God's gift and in the desire of a Christian's soul. There is no Christian soul...  Read More

(2) We all expect glory in heaven. But how can we reach that unless we are made fit for it? The church is the fitting place for glory. We enter into heaven in the church here. We are hewn and squared...  Read More

We must be changed from the state in which we are, as Christ tells Nicodemus (John 3:7), and such a change as a new birth. We must be all new, just as a bell that has even one crack must be newly mou...  Read More

That we may be changed into the likeness of Christ, let us fix our meditations upon him, and we will find a change, though we do not know how it happens. As those who are in the sun for work or play ...  Read More

What things in Christ's death especially reveal themselves to us? Three things: wonderful love, that he died for us; wonderful hatred, that he would die for sin; and wonderful holiness and love of gr...  Read More

How are we changed into the likeness of Christ? When we believe in Christ, we are planted into the likeness of his death and his resurrection. This is somewhat mystical, yet it is taught in the Scrip...  Read More

It is good upon all occasions, every day, to think, 'What would my blessed Saviour say if he were here? What did he do in similar cases when he was upon earth? I must be led by the Spirit of Christ, ...  Read More

So, you have a taste of Christ's behaviour to his friends, to his enemies, to Satan. And as for hypocrites he says, 'Woe to them' (Matt. 23:13). He hated them above all the proud Pharisees. I might s...  Read More

How did he behave toward his enemies? Did he call for fire from heaven when they wronged him? He shed tears for those who would shed his blood: 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem' (Matt. 23:37), who afterward c...  Read More

He would not ‘quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed' (Matt. 12:20), so gentle and sweet a Saviour have we. He loved and responded to those who sought him out, as when the rich young man...  Read More

If it is so that we are changed into the image of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, then let us labour every day more and more to study Christ, so that by beholding him we may be transformed into his li...  Read More

In Moses’ time, he went alone onto the mount and saw God. But now it is ‘we all' (2 Cor. 3:18), that is Jews and Gentiles, wherever the gospel is preached. You see that the church is enlarged by the ...  Read More

How can we make the eye of our souls fit to behold the glory of God? We must fix the eye of the soul; fix our meditation upon the glory of God and the excellency of Christ. A moving, roving eye sees ...  Read More

Knowledge and faith are compared to seeing and beholding, for these reasons: (1) Sight is the noblest and most glorious sense. It is also the quickest, for in a moment sight apprehends its object in ...  Read More

God puts a spiritual eye by his Spirit into all true believers, by which they behold his excellent glory. This glorious gift was given so that God may have the glory, and we the comfort. There must b...  Read More

While we live on this earth our sight of God is imperfect, as in a mirror. It is nothing compared with seeing him face to face in heaven. We will know this sight better when we are there; we cannot n...  Read More

It is vain for some to think, 'Oh, we must not look to our own salvation so much; this is self-love.' That is true if we sever the consideration of the glory of God's mercy and goodness from it. We h...  Read More

Do consider what a loving God we have, who would not be so much in love with his only Son as to keep him to himself; a God that accounts himself most glorious in those attributes that are most for ou...  Read More

Adam had the image of God upon him and had communion with God. But there is greater glory now shining in the gospel, in Jesus Christ, to poor sinners. For when man stood in innocence, God did good to...  Read More

Oh beloved, what a blessed condition it is to have spiritual liberty! Do we see the blessed use and comfort of it in all conditions? In temptations, we have the Spirit of God to free us from temptati...  Read More

If we have all these blessed liberties in this world and in that to come by the Spirit, then we should labour to have the Spirit of Christ, or else we have no liberty at all; and labour every day mor...  Read More

When we find the Holy Spirit is touching our souls, oh, give him entrance to come into his own chamber, as it were, to provide a room for him when he knocks. We that live in the church, the heart of ...  Read More

A man who is on the way to heaven may be in any of three states: (1) The state of nature, when he cares about neither heaven nor hell, so he may please the sensual nature and go on without fear or wi...  Read More