The Far Green Country

“There are many who, like Thomas, are longing for some sensible assurance of the love of Christ, beyond the general declarations of the Bible. They want some inward token that they are born again, some sensible assurance of their acceptance, before they believe and commit their souls wholly to Jesus. They desire to be Christians, [...]

“From Jesus’ statements I make an inference and form a corollary: the whole Old Tsetament bears witness to Christ; and, the Old Testament does not bear witness only to Christ. Why this corollary? Because I agree with making an extensive inference from Luke 24:27 and 44 but hold than an intensive inference is illegitimate. What [...]

“Hence, for my money, here is the premier presupposition that should undergird all our biblical interpretation: God has given his word as a revelation of himself; if then I use his word rightly, I will long to see him, and he will be the focus of my study. And so we must read Old Testament [...]

“In a certain sense, the first three sacrifices [in Leviticus] are God-directed; they are propitiatory. The last two - the sin and the guilt offering - are sinner-directed. They’re expiatory; they cleanse away the accumulated guilt from the sinner, and it points us to the fact - as John says - the blood of Jesus [...]

“They do not attack us by open violence; but, in proportion as the name of God is more dear to me than my own life, the diabolical conspiracy which I see in operation to extinguish all fear and worship of God, to root out the remembrance of Christ, or to abandon it to the jeers [...]

“The core problem is that we are inviting men and women to come under the power of the gospel without having first come under it ourselves. Frankly, I know of very few confessing Christians who have ever shed tears over their sins. Or if once they wept over their sins, they are careful never to [...]

“So in your confession to God you fight to name your sin - and to give your sin its right name. Then you hand it over to Christ by faith and taste the happiness of guilt forgiven (Ps. 32:1) and find the deliverance from hypocrisy which comes through honest confession (Ps. 32:2-5).
What you now know [...]

“Since saving power comes from Christ alone, it has seemed increasingly important to me of late to emphasize to those under conviction of sin that they retire and pray privately in coming to Christ. My reasons for this are twofold: First, prayer in private makes it more difficult for people to use the counselor as [...]

“In another instance a woman was plunged into depression for over two years, apparently with no hope of relief. More than once she had a complete nervous collapse. She had attempted suicide. The psychiatrist and his tools - tranquilizers and shock treatments - had not helped. But the gospel did.
At first she refused to pray [...]

“It is important to recognize that the search for priests has been greatly intensified in modern society by the breakdown of the family and of the churches. Modern education and psychology have also played a very important role. They have put the human ego under the microscope, thus making modern people intensely aware of themselves. [...]