Life

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It is to a new LIFE that God is calling us; not to some new steps in LIFE, some new habits or ways or motives or prospects, but to a new LIFE. For the production of this new LIFE the eternal Son of God took flesh, died, was buried, and rose again. It was not LIFE producing LIFE, a lower LIFE rising into a higher, but LIFE rooting itself in its opposite, LIFE wrought out of death, by the death of “the Prince of LIFE.” Of the new creation, as of the old, He is the author. For the working out of this the Holy Spirit came down in power, entering men’s souls and dwelling there, that out of the old He might bring forth the new… The man from whom the old LIFE has gone out, and into whom the new LIFE has come, is still the same individual. The same being that was once “under law” is now “under grace.” His features and limbs are still the same; his intellect, imagination, capacities, and responsibilities are still the same. But yet old things have passed away; all things have become new. The old man is slain; the new man LIVES.

We want not merely a high and full theology, but we want that theology acted out in LIFE, embodied nobly in daily doings, without anything of what the world calls “cant” or “simper.” The higher the theology, the higher and the manlier should be the LIFE resulting from it. It should give to the Christian character and bearing a divine erectness and simplicity; true dignity of demeanour, without pride, or stiffness, or coldness: true strength of will, without obstinacy, or caprice, or waywardness. The higher the doctrine is, the more ought it to bring us into contact with the mind of God, which is “the truth,” and with the will of God, which is “the law.” He who concludes that, because he has reached the region of the “higher doctrines,” he may soar above the law, or above creeds, or above churches, or above the petty details of common duty, would need to be on his guard against a blunted conscience, a self-made religion, and a wayward LIFE.

(Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness)

Doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy LIFE. It is worse than useless; it does positive harm. Something of ‘the image of Christ’ must be seen and observed by others in our private LIFE, and habits, and character, and doings.

(J.C. Ryle, Faithfulness and Holiness)

It is not because [the Christian] has had so little of Christ that he yearns for more. It is precisely because he has had so much of Christ that he is sure God intends him for the perfected experience. . . . Paul knew that what had entered him on the day of his conversion was LIFE of the eternal order. He possessed it; it was there. Yet Holtzmann is perfectly right when he says that, “Biblical religion in general, Pauline in particular, is a thirst for LIFE.”

(James S. Steward, A Man In Christ)