“I look at the cross of Christ” by J.C. Ryle

“Would I know the length and breadth of God the Father’s love towards a sinful world?

Where shall I see it most displayed?

Shall I look at His glorious sun, shining down daily on the unthankful and evil?

Shall I look at seed-time and harvest, returning in regular yearly succession?

Oh, no! I can find a stronger proof of love than anything of this sort.

I look at the cross of Christ.

I see in it not the cause of the Father’s love, but the effect.

There I see that God so loved this wicked world, that He gave His only begotten Son,—gave Him to suffer and die,—that “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

I know that the Father loves us, because He did not withhold from us His Son, His only Son.

I might sometimes fancy that God the Father is too high and holy to care for such miserable, corrupt creatures as we are!

But I cannot, must not, dare not think it, when I look at the cross of Christ.”

–J.C. Ryle, Old Paths: Being Plain Statements of Some of the Weightier Matters of Christianity (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1898/1999), 237.