Does God expect us to have anything from ourselves? Who expects anything from a barren wilderness? That is what our hearts are like, and God knows it well enough. There is no goodness in us, no more...  Read More

When you look to have any grace or comfort, then put out of your hearts too much reliance on any outward thing. Do not think that education or steady effort can make us good, or bodily exercise, or l...  Read More

It will be objected that Christians are sometimes at a standstill, and sometimes they seem to go backward. Some, because they cannot see themselves growing, think they are not growing at all. That is...  Read More

Let us be exhorted to test the truth of grace in us, and by our care to proceed from glory to glory. Let us not deceive ourselves in our natural condition. Are we content to live the life of a sick m...  Read More

Solomon said that the righteous are like the sun that grows brighter and brighter until it comes to its full strength (Prov. 4:18). So the state of the godly grows more and more, from light to light,...  Read More

We see that the state of God's children both here and in heaven is called glory. The children of God are kings here, they will be kings in heaven. They are saints here, as they are saints in heaven. ...  Read More

To encourage us here, grace begun has the same name as grace perfected. Both are glory. Why does God call them by one name? To encourage Christians. He tells them that if it is begun, it is glory; no...  Read More

Christians should magnify the mercy of God that there is any change in such defiled and polluted souls; that he has granted any spiritual light of understanding, any love of good things; that the ben...  Read More

Let no one in whom grace has begun be discouraged. God will go on with his grace. When he has begun a good work, he will finish it to the day of the Lord (Phil. 1:6). Though grace is little at first,...  Read More

The church clothed with Christ, who is the glory of the church, tramples all earthly things underfoot. Grace is victorious and conquering, prevailing over those corruptions that prevail over ordinary...  Read More

The image of God makes a man glorious. It makes him shine. It is an excellent state to see a man in his place in the commonwealth. What a glorious sight is it to see a Joseph, a Nehemiah, a Paul, all...  Read More

Grace is glorious. As the wise man says, 'Wisdom makes a man's face to shine' (Eccles. 8:1). Is not wisdom a glorious thing: a wise, understanding man able to guide himself and others? It puts a beau...  Read More

As for those who find themselves to be ‘old men' still, who have lived, and still live, in corruption, they must not think they have any benefit by the gospel. If they do, they deceive themselves. Fo...  Read More

How can we know for certain that we see God in Christ and the glory of God in the gospel? Does this sight have a transforming power in you, to make you like the image of Christ? If it does not, it is...  Read More

Of all contemplations under heaven, there is no contemplation so sweet and powerful as to see God in Christ and Christ first abased for us, and to see ourselves abased in Christ, and crucified in Chr...  Read More

The reasons for this change are from Christ. By knowing Christ, we know the cursed state to be absent from him and see the glorious benefits by Christ’s redemption and glorification. These are set be...  Read More

There are two conformities of exceeding comfort to us, and we must meditate on both. (1) Christ's conformity to us. He was transfigured into our likeness. In love to us he became man. He took man's n...  Read More

Also, the image of God in the second Adam is more durable. All excellencies and grace are more firmly set on Christ than they ever were upon Adam. They are set upon him with such a character and stam...  Read More

The pattern to which we are changed is the image of Christ. It is a true rule that the first in every kind is the measure—the idea and pattern—of all the rest. Now Christ is the first, for he is the ...  Read More

(5) Finally, whenever God calls and dignifies, he also qualifies. Princes cannot qualify those they raise, but God, whom he advances to glory, he fits and qualifies for glory. Where he bestows his me...  Read More

(4) Actions correspond to powers and abilities, and no holy action can come from an unchanged ability. A change in the souls faculties must precede a change in life and conduct. In nature we live, an...  Read More

(3) The soul that truly desires mercy and favour always desires power against sin. Pardon and power go together, both in God's gift and in the desire of a Christian's soul. There is no Christian soul...  Read More

(2) We all expect glory in heaven. But how can we reach that unless we are made fit for it? The church is the fitting place for glory. We enter into heaven in the church here. We are hewn and squared...  Read More

We must be changed from the state in which we are, as Christ tells Nicodemus (John 3:7), and such a change as a new birth. We must be all new, just as a bell that has even one crack must be newly mou...  Read More