“Christ is no half Savior” by J.C. Ryle
“If any reader of this paper really wants a right heart, I thank God that I can give him good encouragement.
I thank God that I can lift up Christ before you, and say boldly:
Look at Christ,—Seek Christ,—Go to Christ!
For what did that blessed Lord Jesus come into the world?
For what did He give His precious body to be crucified?
For what did He die and rise again?
For what did He ascend up into heaven, and sit down at the right hand of God?
For what did Christ do all this, but to provide complete salvation for poor sinners like you and me,—salvation from the guilt of sin, and salvation from the power of sin, for all who believe?
Oh, yes! Christ is no half Savior. He has ‘received gifts for men, even for the rebellious.’ (Psalm 68:18)
He waits to pour out the Spirit on all who will come to Him.
Mercy and grace,—pardon and a new heart,—all this Jesus is ready to apply to you by His Spirit, if you will only come to Him.
Then come: come without delay to Christ. What is there that Christ cannot do?
He can create. By Him were all things made at the beginning. He called the whole world into being by His command.
He can quicken. He raised the dead when He was on earth, and gave back life by a word.
He can change. He has turned sickness into health, and weakness into strength, famine into plenty, storm into calm, and sorrow into joy.
He has wrought thousands of miracles on hearts already.
He turned Peter the unlearned fisherman into Peter the Apostle, Matthew the covetous publican into Matthew the Gospel writer, Saul the self-righteous Pharisee into Paul the Evangelist of the world.
What Christ has done once Christ can do again. Christ and the Holy Ghost are always the same.
There is nothing in your heart that the Lord Jesus cannot make right. Only come to Christ.
If you had lived in Palestine, in the days when Jesus was upon earth, you would have sought Christ’s help if you had been sick.
If you had been crushed down by heart-disease in some back lane of Capernaum, or in some cottage by the blue waters of the sea of Galilee, you would surely have gone to Jesus for a cure.
You would have sat by the way-side day after day, waiting for His appearing.
You would have sought Him, if He did not happen to come near your dwelling, and never rested till you found Him.
Oh, why not do the same this very day for the sickness of your soul?
Why not apply at once to the Great Physician in heaven, and ask Him to ‘take away the stony heart and give you a heart of flesh‘? (Ezek. 11:19)
Once more I invite you. If you want a ‘right heart,’ do not waste time in trying to make it right by your own strength. It is far beyond your power to do it.
Come to the great Physician of souls. Come at once to Jesus Christ.”
–J.C. Ryle, Old Paths: Being Plain Statements of Some of the Weightier Matters of Christianity (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1898/1999), 332-333.
