Tag Archives: God The Son Incarnate

“Having this gift we have God the Father’s boundless love” by J.C. Ryle

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“If ye being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.” (Luke 11:13)

There are few promises in the Bible so broad and unqualified as those contained in this wonderful passage. The last in particular deserves especial notice.

The Holy Spirit is beyond doubt the greatest gift which God can bestow upon man.

Having this gift, we have all things, life, light, hope and heaven.

Having this gift we have God the Father’s boundless love, God the Son’s atoning blood, and full communion with all three Persons of the blessed Trinity.

Having this gift, we have grace and peace in the world that now is, glory and honor in the world to come.

And yet this mighty gift is held out by our Lord Jesus Christ as a gift to be obtained by prayer!

“Your heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.”

There are few passages in the Bible which so completely strip the unconverted man of his common excuses as this passage.

He says he is “weak and helpless.” But does he ask to be made strong?

—He says he is “wicked and corrupt.” But does he seek to be made better?

—He says he “can do nothing of himself.” But does he knock at the door of mercy, and pray for the grace of the Holy Spirit?

—These are questions to which many, it may be feared, can make no answer. They are what they are, because they have no real desire to be changed.

They have not, because they ask not. They will not come to Christ, that they may have life; and therefore they remain dead in trespasses and sins.

And now, as we leave the passage, let us ask ourselves whether we know anything of real prayer?

Do we pray at all?

—Do we pray in the name of Jesus, and as needy sinners?

—Do we know what it is to “ask,” and “seek,” and “knock,” and wrestle in prayer, like men who feel that it is a matter of life or death, and that they must have an answer?

—Or are we content with saying over some old form of words, while our thoughts are wandering, and our hearts far away?

Truly we have learned a great lesson when we have learned that “saying prayers” is not praying!

If we do pray, let it be a settled rule with us, never to leave off the habit of praying, and never to shorten our prayers. A man’s state before God may always be measured by his prayers.

Whenever we begin to feel careless about our private prayers, we may depend upon it, there is something very wrong in the condition of our souls.

There are breakers ahead. We are in imminent danger of a shipwreck.”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 2 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1858/2012), 2: 9-10. Ryle is commenting on Luke 11:5-13.

“Our need of Christ’s blood and righteousness” by J.C. Ryle

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“Let us not forget, in leaving this passage, to apply the high standard of duty which it contains, to our own hearts, and to prove our own selves.

Do we love God with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and mind?

Do we love our neighbor as ourselves?

Where is the person that could say with perfect truth, “I do?”

Where is the man that ought not to lay his hand on his mouth, when he hears these questions?

Verily we are all guilty in this matter!

The best of us, however holy we may be, come far short of perfection.

Passages like this should teach us our need of Christ’s blood and righteousness.

To Him we must go, if we would ever stand with boldness at the bar of God.

From Him we must seek grace.”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1858/2012), 1: 284. Ryle is commenting on Luke 10:29-37.

“The enormous advantages enjoyed by believers” by J.C. Ryle

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“Let us observe, finally, the peculiar privileges of those who hear the Gospel of Christ.

We read that our Lord said to His disciples, ‘Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.’ (Luke 10:23-24)

The full significance of these words will probably never be understood by Christians until the last day.

We have probably a most faint idea of the enormous advantages enjoyed by believers who have lived since Christ came into the world, compared to those of believers who died before Christ was born.

The difference between the knowledge of an Old Testament saint and a saint in the apostles’ days is far greater than we conceive.

It is the difference of twilight and noon-day, of winter and summer, of the mind of a child and the mind of a full-grown man.

No doubt the Old Testament saints looked to a coming Saviour by faith, and believed in a resurrection and a life to come.

But the coming and death of Christ unlocked a hundred Scriptures which before were closed, and cleared up scores of doubtful points which before had never been solved.

In short, ‘the way into the holiest was not made manifest, while the first tabernacle was standing.’ (Heb. 9:8) The humblest Christian believer understands things which David and Isaiah could never explain.

Let us leave the passage with a deep sense of our own debt to God and of our great responsibility for the full light of the Gospel.

Let us see that we make a good use of our many privileges. Having a full Gospel, let us beware that we do not neglect it.

It is a weighty saying, ‘To whomsoever much is given, of them will much be required.’ (Luke 12:48)”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1858/2012), 1: 280. Ryle is commenting on Luke 10:21-24.

“Our help is laid on One that is mighty” by J.C. Ryle

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“We should observe, in the fourth place, the majesty and dignity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We read that He said, “All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father; and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.” (Luke 10:22)

These are the words of one who was very God of very God, and no mere man. We read of no patriarch, or prophet, or apostle, or saint, of any age, who ever used words like these.

They reveal to our wondering eyes a little of the mighty majesty of our Lord’s nature and person. They show Him to us, as the Head over all things, and King of kings: “all things are delivered to me of my Father.”

They show Him as one distinct from the Father, and yet entirely one with Him, and knowing Him in an unspeakable manner. “No man knoweth who the Son is but the Father: and who the Father is but the Son.”

They show Him, not least, as the Mighty Revealer of the Father to the sons of men, as the God who pardons iniquity, and loves sinners for His Son’s sake: “No man knoweth who the Father is but he to whom the Son will reveal Him.”

Let us repose our souls confidently on our Lord Jesus Christ. He is one who is “mighty to save.”

Many and weighty as our sins are, Christ can bear them all.

Difficult as is the work of our salvation, Christ is able to accomplish it.

If Christ was not God as well as man we might indeed despair.

But with such a Saviour as this we may begin boldly, and press on hopefully, and await death and judgment without fear.

Our help is laid on One that is mighty. (Psalm 89:19)

Christ over all, God blessed forever, will not fail any one that trusts in Him.”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1858/2012), 1: 279-280. Ryle is commenting on Luke 10:21-24.

“Only Jesus” by Stephen Wellum

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“Given who Jesus is, we must also be led to worship, adoration, faith in Him alone, and a glad and willing submission to His Lordship in every area of our lives. In Jesus Christ, God the Son incarnate, we see the Lord of Glory, who has taken on flesh in order to become our all-sufficient Redeemer.

By sharing our common human nature, the Son of God is now able to do a work that we could never do. In His incarnation and cross work, we see the resolution of God to take upon Himself our guilt and sin in order to reverse the horrible effects of the fall and to satisfy His own righteous requirements, to make this world right, and to inaugurate a new covenant in His blood.

In Jesus Christ, we see the perfectly obedient Son taking the initiative to keep His covenant promises by taking upon himself our human nature, veiling His glory, and winning for us our eternal salvation.

Our Savior and Redeemer is utterly unique. This is why there is no salvation outside of him. He is in a category all by himself in who He is and in what He does.

In fact, because our plight is so desperate, due to sin, the only person who can save us is God’s own dear Son. It is only as the Son incarnate that our Lord can represent us; it is only as the Son incarnate that He can put away our sin, stand in our place, and turn away God’s wrath by bearing our sin.

Only Jesus can satisfy God’s own righteous requirements, because He is one with the Lord as God the Son; only Jesus can do this for us because He is truly a man and can represent us.”

—Stephen J. Wellum, God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 442-443.

“The Lord of glory” by Stephen Wellum

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“The all-glorious Creator—Covenant Lord assumed a full and sinless human nature, such that the eternal Son became a man in order to restore humanity to its vice-regent glory and to inaugurate the new creation, over which the new humanity will rule in righteousness in the age to come.

In this way and by these glorious means, our Lord Jesus Christ becomes our great prophet, priest, and king, the head of the new creation, the Lord of glory, who is worthy of all our worship, adoration, and praise.

In fact, it is only as God the Son incarnate that Jesus can achieve His great work for us. To deny either Christ’s deity or His humanity is to deny the Jesus of the Bible and to rob us of our Redeemer.”

–Stephen Wellum, God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 240.

“There is no substitute for reading the Bible” by Stephen Wellum

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“There is no substitute for reading the Bible on its own terms to identify the real Christ. The worldview and theology that develops from the structure and storyline of the Scriptures cannot be ignored or altered without losing the ability to see Jesus for who He really is.”

–Stephen Wellum, God the Son Incarnate (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 191-192.