The First and Last Precept

“A saying of Chrysostom’s has always pleased me very much, that the foundation of our philosophy is humility. But that of Augustine pleases me even more: ‘. . . so if you ask me concerning the precepts of the Christian religion, first, second and third, and always I would answer ‘Humility.’”

            - John Calvin, Institutes, 2.2.11.

HT:Ray Ortlund,  Rick Ianniello

Death Extinguished By A Sea of Blessings

Christ has paid far more than we owed — as much more as a boundless ocean compared with a drop of water. Doubt not therefore, O man, when you see such a wealth of benefits; nor inquire how that spark of death and sin can be extinguished, when such a sea of blessings is let in upon it. 

— St. John Chrysostom, quoted by George Smeaton in The Apostles' Doctrine of the Atonement

HT Of First Importance

Links Worth a Look

Some links worth a look:

Our Unhealthy Obsessions With Pastors

John Chrysostom &  Justification by Faith

What Did Jesus Mean When He Said "Judge Not"

Weakness is an Advantage

Confession of Sin aa Idle, Lustful Babbling

A Primer on the Southern Baptist Convention, Part 1 and Part 2

Better Than Jonah

The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.   (Luke 11:32 ESV)

For Jonah was a servant,
but I am the Master,
and he came forth from the great fish,
but I rose from death.
He proclaimed destruction,
but I have come preaching the good tidings of the kingdom.
The Ninevites indeed believed without a sign,
but I have exhibited many signs.
They heard nothing more than those words,
but I have made it impossible to deny the truth.
The Ninevites came to be ministered to,
but I, the very Master and Lord of all,
have come not threatening, not demanding an account,
but bringing pardon.
They were barbarians,
but these – the faithful -
have conversed with unnumbered prophets.
And of Jonah nothing had been prophesied in advance,
but of Me everything was foretold,
and all the facts have agreed with their words.
And Jonah indeed, when he was to go forth,
instead ran away that he might not be ridiculed.
But I, knowing that I am both to be crucified and mocked,
have come nonetheless.
While Jonah did not endure so much as to be reproached for those who were saved,
I underwent even death, and that the most shameful death,
and after this I sent others again.
And Jonah was a strange sort of person
and an alien to the Ninevites, and unknown;
but I a kinsman after the flesh and of the same forefathers.

- from a sermon by John Chrysostom

Hat Tip: Trevin Wax