The following are a seven excerpts from my reading over the past month that I stumbled upon, tucked away, and have continued to cherish as particularly precious reminders of God’s grace. They’re things that made me pause, reread, and go “mhm” in satisfaction. In short, they’re quotes that I think are well said that I want to share with you.
1.) Edwards Cutts’ summary of Augustine’s On the Blessed Life
On the 13th November, 386 A.D., which was Augustine’s birthday, all the friends… were assembled at dinner to celebrate the event. After dinner Augustine asked them some questions on true happiness; and for two days they continued after dinner to discuss what constitutes happiness. Various solutions of the question are proposed by the interlocutors. Monica brings their conjectures to an end by suggesting that they only are happy who possess that which they desire, provided that what they desire is good. Augustine, approving and adopting this definition, adds, that the good must be a permanent good, and that only God can be this permanent good; and so leads up to the great conclusion of the discussion that happiness consists in the knowledge and possession of God, and that this ought to be the end and aim of all human endeavour.
Edward L. Cutts, Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustine, The Fathers for English Readers (London; New York: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; E. & J. B. Young & Co., 1888), 84. Emphasis mine.
Truly, happiness consists in the knowledge and possession of God. How blessed we are who have freely received the Lord Jesus Christ as our eternal inheritance. The aim of our lives is to press into all that the Father has given us in Christ. His all-sufficiency means that he is forever the gift that keeps on giving; there is never a situation in which Christ is lacking what we need. Praise be to God!
2.) Thomas Goodwin on the Love of Christ
‘God is love,’ as John says, and Christ is love covered over with flesh, yea, our flesh.
Thomas Goodwin, The Works of Thomas Goodwin, vol. 4 (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1862), 116.
Here, Goodwin emphasizes the love of God in Christ for sinners on earth. The love of God is most wonderfully proclaimed in Christ. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16 ESV). The triune God so loved ruined sinners that God the Son took on a human nature—flesh and all—to redeem us. Jesus is divine love covered over with human flesh. He invites all of us who are weary and heavy laden, burdened by our profound sin and misery, to come to him to receive forgiveness, peace, and rest for our souls.
3. Thomas Goodwin on the Mercy of Christ
yet he retains one tender part and bare place in his heart still unarmed, as it were, even to suffer with you, and to be touched if you be… He suffers with you, he is as tender in his bowels to you as ever he was; that he might be moved to pity you, he is willing to suffer, as it were, one place to be left naked, and to be flesh still, on which he may be wounded with your miseries, that so he might be your merciful high priest…
Thy misery can never exceed his mercy.
Goodwin, 112, 129.
This passage is part of a larger reflection on Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Out of the depth of this passage, Goodwin draws out the profound fact that Christ suffers with us. He is not unconcerned when our heart aches; he is not cold and distant. No, he is our very present help in trouble (Ps 46:1).
Our troubles are never too much for him either. Our miseries never exceed his mercy. He is always faithful to us.
4.) Thomas Goodwin on the Throne of Grace
Never fear that Christ’s great advancement in heaven should any whit alter his disposition; for this his very advancement engageth him the more. For although he be ‘entered into the heavens,’ yet consider withal that it is here added, to be an high priest there; and so long fear not, for his place itself will call for mercy from him unto them that treat with him about it. And although in the heavens he be ‘advanced far above all principalities and powers,’ yet still his high priesthood goes with him, and accompanies him; for ‘such an high priest became us, as was higher than the heavens,’ Heb. 7:26. And further, though he sits at God’s right hand, and on his Father’s throne, yet that throne it is a ‘throne of grace,’ as the text hath it, upon which he sits. And as the mercy-seat in the type was the farthest and highest thing in the holy of holies, so the throne of grace (which is an infinite encouragement unto us) is the highest seat in heaven. So that if Christ will have and keep the greatest place in heaven, the highest preferment that heaven itself can bestow upon him, it engageth him unto grace and mercy. The highest honour there hath this attribute of grace annexed to it in its very title, ‘A throne of grace;’ and as Solomon says, ‘A king’s throne is established by righteousness,’ it continues firm by it, so is Christ’s throne by grace. Grace was both the first founder of his throne, or his raiser to it, and also it is the establisher of it.
Goodwin, 131. Emphasis mine.
The highest throne is the Throne of Grace. It is occupied by him who is divine love covered over with human flesh. Christ has been elevated to such a lofty position for our benefit. Let us approach our Savior with confidence knowing that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our every need (Heb 4:16).
5.) G.F. Browne on Bede and King Edwin’s Counselors
The next speaker was a man of very different mould. It would be well if in all councils in this land there were men with thoughts so just and expressions so happy. He is a type of the thinking layman. “What came before life, and what comes after, all is mystery. The life of each man, that is all that each man knows.” An apt simile occurred to him, beautiful in its simplicity… “The king and his chief captains and ministers are sitting in council on a dark winter’s day; rain and snow without; within, a bright fire in their midst. Suddenly a little bird flies in, a sparrow, in at one door and then out at another. Where it came from none can say, nor whither it has gone. So is the life of man. Clear enough itself, but before it, and after the end thereof, darkness; it may be, storm. If the new doctrine will tell us anything of these mysteries, the before and the after, it is the religion that is wanted.” Others supported this view.
G. F. Browne, Bede, The Venerable Bede, The Fathers for English Readers (London; New York: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; E. & J. B. Young & Co., 1897), 29–30.
G.F. Browne masterfully retells Bede’s account of King Edwin (586-633 A.D.) and his counselors’ discussion about Christianity. I agree with Browne, the simile is beautiful. Here’s my summary: life is short, it is like a sparrow’s brief appearance as it flies through a vacuous, drafty building on a stormy night. In the flicker of the firelight it’s in one window and out another. Where did it come from and where did it go? Nobody knows.
Edwin saw that, like the dim firelight upon the sparrow, paganism shed no light upon what came before or after one’s fleeting life. However, truth in Christ was like the clear light of day. Having acknowledged his sin and utter inability to save himself, Edwin repented of his paganism and put his faith in Christ. He was one of the first converts among the Anglo-Saxon nobility in Britain.
Though we aren’t pagans, the same is true for us. Apart from Christ we are lost in the blinding darkness of our sin. Through Christ and in him alone we have light, life, and access to the Father (Jn 14:6). May we remember this when we are tempted to deal with our sin and misery on our own. Our only remedy is found in the cross and empty tomb of our Savior Jesus Christ.
6.) C.F.W. Walther on the New Covenant
A new covenant, then, is what God is going to make. Note this well. This covenant is not to be a legal covenant like the one that He established with Israel on Mount Sinai. The Messiah will not say, “You must be people of such and such character; your manner of living must be like this or that; you must do such and such works.” The Messiah will introduce no such doctrine. He writes His Law directly into the heart, so that a person living under Him is a law unto himself. He is not coerced by a force from without but is urged from within. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” These words state the reason for the preceding statement. They are a summary of the Gospel of Christ: forgiveness of sin by the free grace of God, for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, anyone who imagines that Christ is a new Lawgiver and has brought us new laws cancels the entire Christian religion. For that would get rid of what makes the Christian religion different from every other religion in the world. All other religions say, “You must become just so and so, and do such and such works, if you wish to go to heaven.” But the Christian religions says: “You are a lost and condemned sinner. You cannot be your own savior. But do not despair on that account. There is One who has acquired salvation for you. Christ has opened the gates of heaven to you and says to you, ‘Come, everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’” That is also why Christ says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to all the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
C. F. W. Walther, Law & Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible, transl. by Christian C. Tiews (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2010), 82. Emphasis mine.
Walther packs a punch here by succinctly explaining the Law and the Gospel. He contrasts the Old Covenant, most closely associated with the Law, with the New, which gloriously expounds the Gospel. The Old Covenant made demands for perfect righteousness that us, ruined sinners, could never satisfy. The Law, which is chiefly deposited in the Old Covenant, slays us with its precepts and reveals the horrifying depths of our sinfulness. It tells us that we are lost and condemned sinners and that we cannot save ourselves. The New Covenant proclaims the good news that there is one who has acquired salvation on our behalf. His name is Jesus Christ and he invites us to come and receive forgiveness, rest, and his own spotless righteousness. We receive all these by faith, which is to say by grace.
Walther emphasizes that it is only those who know that they are sick that will come. Many suppose that they are well when in fact they have a terminal diagnosis. These people Walther calls secure sinners. In their pride, they do not reach out to the Great Physician and foolishly choose to die from their sin-sickness. The Law must be proclaimed to these people with all the lightning and thunder of Mt. Sinai so that they may see the profundity of their sin and turn from it.
To those who have recognized their sickness, Christ opens the gates of heaven and says, “Come.” May we recognize our sin daily, forsake our vain hopes of self-righteousness, and cling to Christ who alone justifies us.
7.) Walther on the Christian Life
“Psalm 130:4: “But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared.” So the psalmist is saying to God: “First, You must grant us remission of sins; after that we will begin to fear You by walking in a new, sanctified life.” The term “fear” in this text does not signify merely awe in God’s presence but the whole work of sanctification. Psalm 119:32: “I will run in the way of Your commandments when You enlarge my heart!” First come the consolations, justification, the granting of pardon to the sinner, and the remission of sins. After that the psalmist expects to “run in the way of God’s Commandments.” What he is saying is this: “Because You, O God, receive me into Your grace, therefore—because of this gracious act of Yours—I start to love Your Commandments. As long as my sins are still unforgiven, I cannot love You and Your Commandments. No, I hate You. But as soon as I have been pardoned, I obtain a new heart and gladly quit the world, for I find with You something better than what the world can give me.”
Walther, 102-103.
In this last quote for this post, Walther masterfully explains the motivation for our Christian life. Here’s my attempt to summarize his main concept: As Christians we are to put away sin because we have already been made dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. We have put off the old man and put on the new (Col 3:9-10). The work of salvation is accomplished in Christ Jesus; he says, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). By setting our minds upon Christ and his completed work of redemption, we are transformed from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor 3:18). In Christ, our old sins have lost their grip on us and, as such, they begin to lose their luster. Better still, we discover a more profound satisfaction in Christ that surpasses all that the world can offer. We find that, as C.S. Lewis has well said, the vacation by the seaside is far better than hanging out in the slums and playing in the mud.
In Conclusion
I hope these selections for Well Said have been as encouraging to you as they have been to me.
May God strengthen you in Christ,
grace and peace,
Liam
Nomad Industries 
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