# “I look at the cross of Christ” by J.C. Ryle

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2025/06/15/i-look-at-the-cross-of-christ-by-j-c-ryle/
- Published: 2025-06-15T08:00:00-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“Would I know the length and breadth of God the Father’s love towards a sinful world?

Where shall I see it most displayed?

Shall I look at His glorious sun, shining down daily on the unthankful and evil?

Shall I look at seed-time and harvest, returning in regular yearly succession?

Oh, no! I can find a stronger proof of love than anything of this sort.

I look at the cross of Christ.

I see in it not the cause of the Father’s love, but the effect.

There I see that God so loved this wicked world, that He gave His only begotten 
Son,—gave Him to suffer and die,—that “_whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have eternal life_.” (**John 3:16**)

I know that the Father loves us, because He did not withhold from us His Son, His
only Son.

I might sometimes fancy that God the Father is too high and holy to care for such
miserable, corrupt creatures as we are!

But I cannot, must not, dare not think it, when I look at the cross of Christ.”

–J.C. Ryle, [_Old Paths: Being Plain Statements of Some of the Weightier Matters of Christianity_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1848712278?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1898/1999), 237.

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