Horatius Bonar's quotes

With a weak faith and a fearful heart, many a sinner stands before the Lord. It is not the strength of our faith, but the perfection of Christ's sacrifice that saves! No feebleness of faith, nor dimness of eye, no trembling of hand can change the efficacy of Christ's blood. The strength of our faith can add nothing to it, nor can the weakness of our faith take anything from Him. Faith (weak or strong) still reads the promise, 'the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.' If at times my eye is so dim that I cannot read these words, through blinding tears or bewildering trials, faith rests itself on the certain knowledge of the fact that the promise is there, and the blood of Christ remains in all its power and suitableness upon the altar, unchanged and unaffected. God says that the believer is justified. What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

If Christ is not the Substitute, He is nothing to the sinner. If He did not die as the Sin-bearer, He has died in vain. Let us not be deceived on this point nor misled by those who, when they announce Christ as the Deliverer, think they have preached the gospel. If I throw a rope to a drowning man, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more than that? If I cast myself into the sea and risk myself to save another, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more? Did He risk His life? The very essence of Christ's deliverance is the substitution of Himself for us--His life for ours! He did not come to risk His life; He came to die! He did not redeem us by a little loss, a little sacrifice, a little labor, a little suffering; 'He redeemed us to God by His blood' (I Peter 1:18,19). He gave all He had, even His life, for us.

It is true that our standard is, and must be, perfection; for our model is the Perfect One. But the question is, "Has God in scripture anywhere led us to expect the rapidity of growth, the quick development of perfection in which some glory and because of the confessed lack of which in others they look down on these others as babes or loiterers? Is there in scripture any instance of a perfect man, excepting Him who was always and absolutely without sin?

If Christian’s were perfect, where is the warfare, and the adversary, and the sword, and the shield? Are angels exposed to this warfare when they visit Earth? Or is it not our imperfection that in great measure produces this? And are we anywhere in scripture led to believe that we are delivered from "the body of this death," from the battle of flesh and spirit, from the wrestling with principalities and powers, till death sets us free or our Lord shall come? Yet we are called with a holy calling (II Tim. 1:9) and, as so called, are bound to take the highest standard for our model of life. The slowness nor the swiftness of the progress does not alter the standard nor affect our aiming at conformity to it.