3 Quotes by Sinclair Ferguson

Commandments are the railroad tracks on which the life empowered by the love of God poured into the heart by the Holy Spirit runs. Love empowers the engine; law guides the direction. They are mutually interdependent. The notion that love can operate apart from law is a figment of the imagination. It is not only bad theology; it is poor psychology. It has to borrow from law to give eyes to love.

Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the final rehearsed words, “Treat me as one of your hired servants” are smothered by his father’s embrace! He will not have his son home only on condition that he “does penance” in order to work his way back into his father’s grace. He does not need to “repent enough” to be accepted.Sinclair B. Ferguson. The Whole Christ (Kindle Locations 1913-1916). Crossway.

Lorenzo [de’ Medici] sent him [Savonarola] personal gifts and financial help for the monastery, which merely stimulated Savonarola to respond from the pulpit that a faithful dog does not stop barking in his“master’s defense simply because someone throws a bone to him. From the same pulpit, indifferent to threats of banishment, he urged some of Lorenzo’s friends: “Bid him to do penance for his sins, for the Lord is not a respecter of persons. He does not spare the princes of the world!