Reformed Christian Studies

By Nathan A. Hughes "Let us be very careful that we never exalt any minister, or sermon, or book, or friend above the Word of God." J. C. RYLE  I am sure you have read one of J.C. Ryle’s books. His most well-known title is Holiness or to give its full title Holiness: Its Nature, Hinderances, Difficulties and Roots . Perhaps you have read Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century or his commentary series on the four Gospel, which he called Expository Thoughts . Before I go into the bulk of this article let me give you some background on Ryle. John Charles Ryle was born on 10 May 1816 in Macclesfield, England. He was the eldest son of John Ryle, a private banker, and an influential Member of Parliament for Macclesfield (1833–1837). Ryle was brought up in a middle/upper-class family and his father was financially well off. Ryle was brought up to go to Church on special occasions and in a cultural Christian household, but his family was not serious about religion. From the l

Posted at  Tolle Lege : J.C. Ryle “We learn from these verses what patient and continuing love there is in Christ’s heart towards His people. It is written that ‘having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.’ Knowing perfectly well that they were about to forsake Him shamefully in a very few hours, in full view of their approaching display of weakness and infirmity, our blessed Master did not cease to have loving thoughts of His disciples. He was not weary of them: He loved them to the last. The love of Christ to sinners is the very essence and marrow of the Gospel. That He should love us at all, and care for our souls,—that He should love us before we love Him, or even know anything about Him,—that He should love us so much as to come into the world to save us, take our nature on Him, bear our sins, and die for us on the cross,—all this is wonderful indeed! Read more...

Posted at Tolle Lege: “These verses show us the peculiar plan by which the love of God has provided salvation for sinners. That plan is the atoning death of Christ on the cross.  Our Lord says to Nicodemus, ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.’  By being ‘lifted up,’ our Lord meant nothing less than His own death upon the cross. That death, He would have us know, was appointed by God to be ‘the life of the world.’ (John 6:51.) It was ordained from all eternity to be the great propitiation and satisfaction for man’s sin.  It was the payment, by an Almighty Substitute and Representative, of man’s enormous debt to God. When Christ died upon the cross, our many sins were laid upon Him. Read more... 

By J.C. Ryle - Posted at Grace Gems: The consequences of this widespread dislike to distinct biblical doctrine are very serious. Whether we like it or not, it is an epidemic which is doing great harm, and especially among young people. It creates, fosters, and keeps up an immense amount of instability in religion. It produces what I must venture to call, if I may coin the phrase, a 'jelly-fish' Christianity in the land — that is, a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or power. A jelly-fish, as everyone who has been much by the seaside knows, is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little delicate transparent umbrella. Yet the same jelly-fish, when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation. Alas! it is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of which the leading principle is, 'No dogma, no distinct beliefs, no doctrine.' We have hu