reconciliation

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No man ever circumcised his own heart. No man can say he began to do it by the power of his own will, and then God only helped him by his grace. As the fact of outward circumcision on the body of a child was the act of another, and not the of the child who was only passive therein [but the effect was in the body of the child only], so it is in the spiritual circumcision—it is the act of God, in which our hearts are the subject. It is the blindness,, obstinacy, and stubbornness in sin that is in us by nature, withe the prejudice’s which posses our minds and affections, which hinder us from conversion to God. But by the circumcision hey are taken away.
—John Owen “Discourse on the Holy Spirit”

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Let us confess our debts, and pray for the forgiveness of our sins (Luke 11:4). This forgiveness of God’s passing by sin (Mic.  7:18), wiping off the score, and giving us a discharge.
God, in pardoning, lifts our burden from the conscience and lays it upon Christ (Isa. 53:6). To forgive is to cover sin (Ps. 32:1), to blot out transgression (Isa 43:25)… When God forgives sin, he blots out the debt, he draws the red line of Christ’s blood over our sins, and so crosses the debt-book… Sin, is the cloud interposed, but God dispels the cloud, and breaks forth with the light of his countenance….He casts our sins into the depths of the sea (Mic. 7:19).
—Thomas Watson “Practical Divinity”

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What shall I say! `Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief!’ (Mark 9:24) It seems to put faith to tile stretch, to admit what it indeed exceeds the utmost stretch of imagination to conceive. Blessed, for ever blessed be thy name, O thou Father of mercies, that thou hast contrived the way! Eternal thanks to the Lamb that was slain, and to that kind Providence that sent the word of this salvation to me! O let me not, for ten thousand worlds, `receive the grace of God in vain!’ (2 Cor. 6:1) O impress this Gospel upon my soul, till its saving virtue be diffused over every faculty! Let it not only be heard, and acknowledged, and professed, but felt! Make it `thy power to my eternal salvation;’ (Rom. 1:16) and raise me to that humble, tender gratitude, to that active, unwearied zeal in thy service, which becomes one `to whom so much is forgiven.’ (Luke 7:47) and forgiven upon such terms as these.
I feel a sudden glow in mine heart while these tidings are sounding in mine ears; but, oh! let it not be a slight superficial transport! O let not this, which I would fain call my Christian joy, be as that foolish laughter, with which I have been so madly enchanted, `like the crackling blaze of thorns under a pot!’ (Eccles. 7:6) O teach me to secure this mighty blessing, this glorious hope, in the method which thou hast appointed; and preserve me from mistaking the joy of nature, while it catches a glimpse of its rescue from destruction, for that consent of grace which embraces and ensures the deliverance!
—Philip Doddridge “The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul”

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To believe in Christ for redemption, for justification, for sanctification, is but one half  of the duty of faith—it respects Christ only as he died and suffered for us, as he made atonement for our sins, peace with God, and reconciliation for us, as his righteousness is imputed to us for justification… We are exhorted to receive and to believe in him, but this is not all that is required of us.  Christ in the Gospel is proposed to us as our pattern and example of holiness…”Wherefore, let us be much in the contemplation of what he was, what he did, how in all instances of duties and trials he carried himself, until an image or idea of his perfect holiness is implanted in our minds, and we are made like him thereby.
—John Owen

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The regenerate are such as sons both by receiving a new nature in their regeneration, and a new title in their adoption…. Because they are sons, therefore, God sends the Spirit of His Son into their hearts (Gal. 4:6), and he is styled the Spirit of adoption (Rom. 8:14-15).
Receiving the Son…. and believing in his Name, they have authority or right to become the sons of God (John 1:12), being also regenerate, born not of flesh and blood—but of God. And thus, by faith, receiving him, by faith they retain him, or have him abiding in them, as they abide in him. Their union is intimate and mutual.
What was lately a ruinous heap is become an animated temple, inhabited by the Divine presence. Where one person of the Godhead is present, there the whole Trinity is present. Amazing thing!
The Old and New Testament evince the right which believers—they who are God’s own people—have to the abiding indwelling presence of his Spirit as the inhabitant of that temple which they are now become. [All this is through] Emmanuel, the founder and restorer of this temple.
—John Howe

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“O Lord, I am not now instructed in truths which were before quite unknown. Often have I been warned of the uncertainty of life, and the great uncertainty of the day of salvation. And I have formed some light purposes, and have begun to take a few irresolute steps in my way toward a return to thee. But, alas! I have been only, as it were, fluttering about religion, and have never fixed upon it. All my resolutions have been scattered like smoke, or dispersed like a cloudy vapor before the wind. O that thou wouldst now bring these things home to my heart, with a more powerful conviction than it hath ever yet felt? O that thou would pursue me with them, even when flee from them! If I should even grow mad enough to endeavor to escape them any more, may thy Spirit address me in the language of effectual terror, and add all the most powerful methods which thou knowest to be necessary to awaken me from this lethargy, which must otherwise be mortal! May the sound of these things be in mine ears `when I go out, and when I come in, when I lie down, and when I rise up!’ (Deut. 6:7) And if the repose of the night and the business of the day he for a while interrupted by the impression, be it so, O God! if I may but thereby carry on my business with thee to better purpose, and at length secure a repose in thee, instead of all that terror which I now find when `I think upon God, and I am troubled.’ (Psal. 77:3)
“O Lord, `my flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.’ (Psal. 119:120) I am afraid lest, even now that I have begun to think of religion, thou shouldst cut me off in this critical and important moment, before my thoughts grow to any ripeness, and blast in eternal death the first buddings and openings of it in my mind. But O spare me, I earnestly entreat thee: for thy mercies’ sake, Spare me a little longer! It may be, through thy grace I shall return. It may be, if thou continuest thy patience towards me while longer, there may be `some better fruit produced by this cumberer of the ground.’ (Luke 13:7) And may the remembrance of that long forbearance which thou hast already exercised towards me prevent my continuing to trifle with thee, and with my soul! From this day, O Lord, from this hour, from this moment, may I be able to date more lasting impressions of religion than have ever yet been made upon my heart by all that I have ever read, or all that I have heard. Amen.”
—Philip Doddrige “The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul” Chapter iii

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Soul-trouble is attended usually with great pain of body too, and so a man is wounded and distressed in every part. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, says David. “The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit.” Job 6:4. Sorrow of heart contracts the natural spirits, making all their motions slow and feeble; and the poor afflicted body does usually decline and waste away; and, therefore, saith Heman, “My soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.” In this inward distress we find our strength decay and melt, even as wax before the fire; for sorrow darkeneth the spirits, obscures the judgment, blinds the memory, as to all pleasant things, and beclouds the lucid part of the mind, causing the lamp of life to burn weakly. In this troubled condition the person cannot be without a countenance that is pale, and wan, and dejected, like one that is seized with strong fear and consternation; all his motions are sluggish, and no sprightliness nor activity remains. A merry heart doth good, like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Hence come those frequent complaints in Scripture: My moisture is turned into the drought of the summer: I am like a bottle in the smoke; my soul cleaveth unto the dust: my face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelid is the shadow of death. Job 16:16, 30:17, 18-19. “My bones are pierced in me, in the night seasons, and my sinews take no rest; by the great force of my disease is my garment changed. He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. Many times indeed the trouble of the soul does begin from the weakness and indisposition of the body. Long affliction, without any prospect of remedy, does, in process of time, begin to distress the soul itself. David was a man often exercised with sickness and the rage of enemies; and in all the instances almost that we meet with him in the Psalms, we may observe that the outward occasions of trouble brought him under an apprehension of the wrath of God for his sin. (Psalm 6:1, 2; and the reasons given, verses 5 and 6.) All his griefs running into this most terrible thought, that God was his enemy. As little brooks lose themselves in a great river, and change their name and nature, it most frequently happens that when our pain is long and sharp, and helpless and unavoidable, we begin to question the sincerity of our estate toward God, though at its first assault we had few doubts or fears about it. Long weakness of body makes the soul more susceptible of trouble, and uneasy thoughts.
—Timothy Rogers on Trouble of Mind. The above based on the text of Psalm 6:6-7


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Forgiveness of sin is purely an act of God’s free grace… When God pardons a sin, he does not pay a debt, but gives a legacy… Forgiveness is through the blood of Christ—the outward cause meriting pardon (Eph. 1:7)…The guilt of sin was infinite, and nothing but that blood which was of infinite value could procure forgiveness… God’s free grace found a way of redemption through a Mediator.
By virtue of this pardon, God will no more call sin into remembrance (Heb. 8:12)… But sin is not forgiven till it be repented of. Therefore, repentance and remission are put together.
—Thomas Watson “Practical Divinity”

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If the heart of man had continued upright and unstained, divine consolations might have been received, without this painful operation preceding; but being sinful, it must first be pained before it can be laid at ease; must labor before it can be at rest. The sore must be searched, or it cannot be cured.” “The doctrine of repentance is right gospel doctrine. Not only the austere Baptist, who was looked upon as a melancholy, morose man; but the sweet and gracious Jesus, whose lips dropped as a honey-comb, preached repentance; for it is an unspeakable privilege that room is left for repentance.
—Matthew Henry

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“MY PEACE”–”the very peace of God which passeth all understanding;” and to the same peace the Saviour referred, when, conversing with his sorrowing disciples in the prospect of his departure, he bequeathed it as his dying blessing, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid;”– “not as the world giveth” for it giveth insincerely or partially, or only for a season: its best gifts even when longest enjoyed, are in their own nature transient;–we shall either be taken away from them, or they shall be taken away from us, and assuredly they must terminate when the world itself is no more; but the peace of God, having its seat in the soul, and being independent of all outward conditions, is “a well of water that springeth up unto everlasting life.”
—James Buchanan “”Comfort in Affliction”

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