Reformed Christian Quotes

Christian George ~ 1st Birth (in the Garden of Eden). 1st Death (in the fall of Man). 2nd Death of Death (on the Cross). 2nd Birth through Life Giving Resurrection (Born Again through the Resurrection of our LORD JESUS CHRIST).

2nd Death = Death of Death in the Death of CHRIST is Eternal (Old Self was Crucified with CHRIST) and 2nd Birth = Life of Life through the Resurrection of LORD JESUS CHRIST is Eternal (New Creatures in CHRIST).

BOTH 1st is Temporary!
BOTH 2nd is ETERNAL.

👉 The "DEATH of DEATH" in Theology, refers to the Elect’s SUBSTITUTE our LORD JESUS CHRIST overcoming DEATH: key prophetical verses like >>HE will swallow up death forever

Chris Loewen ~ What does it mean for us to submit to one another?

That word “submission” is interesting; we don’t usually use it today—it’s somewhat archaic. We have to remember that, in Paul’s day, the Greeks and Romans had a strict hierarchy between men and women.

The household was governed by the basic dichotomy of ruler vs. the ruled; husbands ruled over their wives and the wives submitted. Husbands often “held absolute and unquestioned authority,” and we can see the rhetoric in the ancient literature that the “household code” was focused “on the patriarch controlling his wife, children and slaves.” In these relationships, submission went in one direction, from wife to husband, and never the other way around.

Apostle Paul’s call for all of us to submit to one another would have struck any of the first hearers as strange. It was countercultural.

Really?! We all, men and women, have to submit to each other? The submission goes both ways? This idea goes against the very fabric of their society. This call for mutual submission is a scandalous statement—but it is grounded in what was accomplished in CHRIST. This is so important because everything we see in this passage is tightly bound to CHRIST and HIS Love for the Church.

But what does it mean to submit? It simply means to place yourself underneath another person—it is considering the needs of other people before you consider your own. It is when you say, “No, you go first,” and are willing to take second place. Really, it isn’t any different from what the rest of SCRIPTURE has already said. Let us be clear, submission is not the same as obedience.

Submissiveness is the same as selflessness. The opposite of submissiveness is selfishness. We all know selfishness is like poison to any relationship, especially in marriage. I think it is safe to say that most, perhaps all, marriage problems stem from selfishness of some kind. This is crucial to keep in mind.

✝️ Love one another

(Ephesians 5:21 - 33)
Giving thanks always for all things unto GOD and the FATHER in the Name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST; Submitting yourselves one to another in the Fear of GOD.

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the LORD. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as CHRIST is the Head of the church: and HE is the SAVIOUR of the body.

Therefore as the CHURCH is subject unto CHRIST, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as CHRIST also Loved the church, and gave HIMSELF for it; That HE might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the WORD, That HE might present it to HIMSELF a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be Holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the LORD the church: For we are members of HIS BODY, of HIS FLESH, and of HIS BONES. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning CHRIST and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Charles Spurgeon ~ You expect that you will be married, and then your troubles will be over; some say that then they begin. I do not endorse that statement; but I am sure that they are not over, for there is another set of trials that begin then.

It is wise to marry when we can marry wisely, and then the sooner the better.

Married life is not all sugar, but grace in the heart will keep away most of the sours.

When husbands and wives are well yoked, how light their load becomes!

A well-matched couple carry a joyful life between them, as the two spies carried the cluster of Eshcol. They are a brace of birds of Paradise. They multiply their joys by sharing them, and lessen their troubles by dividing them: this is fine arithmetic.

When a couple fall out there are always faults on both sides, and generally there is a pound on one and sixteen ounces on the other.
I have no doubt that where there is much love there will be much to love, and where love is scant faults will be plentiful.

Marriage was the last relic of paradise left among men, and JESUS hasted to honour it with HIS first miracle.

👉 (Matthew 19:6)
Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore GOD hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Albert Barnes ~ All the Families of Mankind are descended from one origin or stock. However different their complexion, features, or language, yet they are derived from a common parent. The word blood is often used to denote "race, stock, kindred." This passage affirms that all the human family are descended from the same ancestor; and that, consequently, all the variety of complexion, etc., is to be traced to some other cause than that they were originally different races created. See Genesis 1; compare Malachi 2:10.

The design of the apostle in this affirmation was probably to convince the Greeks that he regarded them all as brethren; that, although he was a Jew, yet he was not enslaved to any narrow notions or prejudices in reference to other people. It follows from the truth here stated that no one nation, and no individual, can claim any pre-eminence over others in virtue of birth or blood.

All are in this respect equal; and the whole human family, however they may differ in complexion, customs, and laws, are to be regarded and treated as brethren. It follows, also, that no one part of the race has a right to enslave or oppress any other part, on account of difference of complexion. No one has a right because: He/She finds his/her fellow guilty of a skin or not colored like his own; and having power. T' enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause to doom and devote him/her as his/her lawful prey.

(Acts 17:26)
And GOD made from one Man every Nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.

John Calvin ~ This form of expression, HE will not slumber nor sleep, would be improper in other languages, according to the idiom of which it should rather be, HE will not sleep, yea, HE will not slumber: but when the Hebrews invert this order, they argue from the greater to the less. The sense then is, that as GOD never slumbers even in the smallest degree, we need not be afraid of any ham befalling us while HE is asleep.

The design of the Prophet is now obvious. To persuade true believers that GOD has a special care of each of them in particular, he brings forward the promise which GOD made to the whole people, and declares GOD to be the GUARDIAN of HIS Church, that from this general principle, as from a fountain, each might convey streams to himself. Accordingly immediately after, (Psalms 121:5,) addressing himself to each in particular, he repeats, JEHOVAH is thy KEEPER, that no person might hesitate to apply to himself that which belonged to the whole community of Israel. Besides, GOD is called a DEFENSE at the Right Hand, to teach us that it is not necessary for us to go far in seeking HIM, but that HE is at HAND, or rather stands at our side to defend us.

A notion was prevalent among the heathen, that their gods sometimes slept, and were not then conscious of the wants of their worshippers. Elijah thus addressed in irony the followers of Baal, (1 Kings 18:27)
“Cry aloud; for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be waked.”

Very different was the character of the GUARDIAN of Israel. HE relaxed not HIS watchful care over HIS People by indulging in light slumbers during the day, nor even by sleeping in the night, when the tired frame of man seeks and demands repose.

👉 (Psalm 121:4)
Behold, HE who Keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

John Calvin ~ Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished. Moses summarily repeats that in Six Days the fabric of the Heaven and the Earth was completed. The general division of the world is made into these two parts, as has been stated at the commencement of the first chapter.

But he now adds, all the Host of them, by which he signifies that the world was furnished with all its garniture. This epilogue, moreover, with sufficient clearness entirely refutes the error of those who imagine that the world was formed in a moment; for it declares that all end was only at length put to the work on the Sixth day.

Instead of host we might not improperly render the term abundance; for Moses declares that this World was in every sense completed, as if the whole house were well supplied and filled with its furniture. The Heavens without the sun, and moon, and stars, would be an empty and dismantled palace: if the Earth were destitute of animals, trees, and plants, that barren waste would have the appearance of a poor and deserted House.

GOD, therefore, did not cease from the Work of the Creation of the world till HE had Completed it in every part, so that nothing should be wanting to its suitable abundance.

✝️ GOD Created everything in Six Days.

(Genesis 1:31 & 2:1)
And GOD saw Every thing that HE had Made, and, behold, it was very Good. And the evening and the morning were the Sixth Day. Thus the Heavens and the Earth were Finished, and all the Host of them.

John Calvin ~ Every Event in the world depends on GOD'S secret Providence. We ought not to admit any distinction between GOD'S Permission and HIS Wish. For we see the HOLY SPIRIT — the best MASTER of Language — here clearly expresses two things; first, what GOD does; and next, what HE does by HIS OWN Will. But Permission, according to those vain speculators, differs from Will; as if GOD unwillingly Granted what HE did not wish to happen!

Now, there is nothing more ridiculous than to ascribe this weakness to GOD. Hence the efficacy of action is added; GOD does what HE Wishes, says Nebuchadnezzar. He does not speak in a carnal but in a spiritual sense, or instinct, as we have said; since the Prophet must be attended to just as if he had been sent from Heaven. Now, therefore, we understand how this world is administered by GOD'S Secret Providence, and that nothing Happens but what HE has Commanded and Decreed; while HE ought with Justice to be esteemed the AUTHOR of all things.

✝️ (Daniel 4:34 & 35)
And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the MOST HIGH, and I praised and honoured HIM that Lives for ever, WHOSE Dominion is anEverlasting Dominion, and HIS Kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and HE does according to HIS Will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay HIS Hand, or say unto HIM, What have YOU Done?

John Calvin ~ Moses has it ELOHIM, a noun of the plural number. Whence the inference is drawn, that the THREE PERSONS of the GODHEAD are here noted; but since, as a proof of so great a matter, it appears to me to have little solidity, will not insist upon the word; but rather caution readers to beware of violent glosses of this, kind.

They (Heretical Sabellians or ONENESS Theologians) think that they have testimony against the Arians (Heretics), to prove the DEITY of the SON and of the SPIRIT, but in the meantime they involve themselves in the error of Sabellius, because Moses afterwards subjoins that the ELOHIM had Spoken, and that the SPIRIT of the ELOHIM Rested upon the waters. If we suppose THREE PERSONS to be here denoted, there will be no Distinction between them. For it will follow, both that the SON is Begotten by HIMSELF, and that the SPIRIT is not of the FATHER, but of HIMSELF.

For me it is sufficient that the plural number expresses those Powers which GOD exercised in Creating the world.

Moreover I acknowledge that the SCRIPTURE, although it recites many powers of the GODHEAD, yet always recalls us to the FATHER, and HIS WORD, and SPIRIT, as we shall shortly see. But those absurdities, to which I have alluded, forbid us with subtlety to distort what Moses simply declares concerning GOD HIMSELF, by applying it to the Separate PERSONS of the GODHEAD.

This, however, I regard as beyond controversy, that from the peculiar circumstance of the passage itself, a title is here ascribed to GOD, expressive of that Powers which was previously in some way included in HIS ETERNAL ESSENCE.

✝️ SCRIPTURE ALONE

👉 (Genesis 1:1)
In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth.

👉 (1 John 5:7)
For there are THREE that bear record in heaven, the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST: and these THREE are ONE.

John Calvin ~ When GOD in the beginning Created the heaven and the earth, the earth was empty and waste. He (Moses) moreover teaches by the word “Created,” that what before did not exist was now Made; for he has not used the term יצר, (yatsar,) which signifies to frame or forms but ברא, (bara,) which signifies to Create.

Therefore his meaning is, that the world was Made out of nothing. Hence the folly of those is refuted who imagine that unformed matter existed from eternity; and who gather nothing else from the narration of Moses than that the world was furnished with new ornaments, and received a form of which it was before destitute. This indeed was formerly a common fable among heathens, who had received only an obscure report of the Creation, and who, according to custom, adulterated the TRUTH of GOD with strange figments; but for Christian men to labor (as Agostinus Steuchus/Eugubinus does) in maintaining this gross error is absurd and intolerable.

Let this, then be maintained in the first place, that the world is not eternal but was Created by GOD.

👉 (Genesis 1:1)
In the Beginning GOD Created the heaven and the earth.

John Gill (Puritan) ~ Creation is making New thing, and bringing something out of nothing: and it deserves notice, that this word is only used of GOD; and Creation must be the Work of GOD, for none but an ALMIGHTY Power could produce something out of nothing.

✝️(Genesis 1:1)
In the beginning, GOD Created the Heavens and the Earth.

Reformed Christian Quotes ~ Repentance, or metanoia in the original Greek, is defined as a transformative process involving a fundamental change of mind.
In a Theological context, this shift centrally involves a revision of one's understanding of GOD, specifically as illuminated by the HOLY SCRIPTURES. This newly adopted understanding, grounded in GOD'S Revealed TRUTH, serves to distinguish the "Elect" (often symbolized as wheat) from the "Reprobates" (symbolized as tares) within the visible Church. This distinction is based on the belief that genuine metanoia is a defining characteristic of true Believers.

✝️ Repentance ~ (Change of Mind)

👉(2 Timothy 2:24 - 26)
The LORD'S bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, skillful in teaching, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps GOD may grant them Repentance leading to the Knowledge of the TRUTH, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

👉(Luke 13:5)
I tell you, no; but unless you Repent you will all likewise perish.”