Nothing Puts Life Into Men Like A Dying Savior

Tony Reinke C.H. Spurgeon, Cross of Christ, Cross-centered life

Charles Spurgeon, in a sermon dated November 2, 1884:

The best preaching is, “We preach Christ crucified.”

The best living is, “We are crucified with Christ.”

The best man is a crucified man.

The more we live beholding our Lord’s unutterable griefs, and understanding how he has fully put away our sin, the more holiness shall we produce.

The more we dwell where the cries of Calvary can be heard, where we can view heaven, and earth, and hell, all moved by his wondrous passion—the more noble will our lives become.

Nothing puts life into men like a dying Savior.

Get close to Christ, and carry the remembrance of him about you from day to day, and you will do right royal deeds.

Come, let us slay sin, for Christ was slain.

Come, let us bury all our pride, for Christ was buried.

Come, let us rise to newness of life, for Christ has risen.

Let us be united with our crucified Lord in his one great object—let us live and die with him, and then every action of our lives will be very beautiful.

The Human Conscience

Tony Reinke Confessing sin, Conscience, Conviction of sin, Herman Bavinck

From Herman Bavinck in his Reformed Dogmatics, 3:173:

Before the fall, strictly speaking, there was no conscience in humans. There was no gap between what they were and what they knew they had to be. Being and self-consciousness were in harmony. But the fall produced separation. By the grace of God, humans still retain the consciousness that they ought to be different, that in all respects they must conform to God’s law. But reality witnesses otherwise; they are not who they ought to be. And this witness is the conscience. The conscience … is proof that communion with God has been broken, that there is a gap between God and us, between his law and our state. … The human conscience is the subjective proof of humanity’s fall, a witness to human guilt before the face of God.

Writing, Books, and C.S. Lewis

Tony Reinke Reading, Writing

Sounds like a good time to me.

Three extraordinarily gifted writes—Alan Jacobs, Douglas Wilson, and N.D. Wilson—met at New Saint Andrews College not long ago to talk about writing, books, and C. S. Lewis. Three videos are currently online.

This first video is of their discussion about writing, getting published, and becoming a mature writer. It’s good. Here’s the video [71-minutes long]:

Jacobs and the Wilsons took a little time to chat about C. S. Lewis [13-minutes long]:

And during the same trip (I presume), the indefatigable Alan Jacobs delivered an interesting lecture on how Jesus understood the Scriptural transition from scroll to codex. It’s titled, “Christianity and the Future of the Book” (note: Jacobs is writing a book about books). Here’s the lecture [80-minutes long]: