Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated] Quotes

“He sees by faith an unseen Savior, who . . .
loved him,
gave Himself for him,
paid his debts for him,
bore his sins, carried his transgressions,
rose again for him, and
appears in Heaven for him as his Advocate at the right hand of God.

He sees Jesus — and clings to Him. Seeing this Savior and trusting in Him — he feels peace and hope and willingly does battle against the foes of his soul.

He sees . . .
his own many sins,
his own weak heart,
a tempting world,
a busy devil —
and if he looked only at them, he might well despair. BUT he sees also a mighty Savior, an interceding Savior, a sympathizing Savior — His blood, His righteousness, His everlasting priesthood — and he believes that all this is his own. He sees Jesus — and casts his whole weight on Him. Seeing Him, he cheerfully fights on, with a full confidence that he will prove more than conqueror through Him that loved him (Romans 8:37).”
― J C Ryle, The Gospel of John

“Let us never forget the practical lesson before us. As long as we live, let us diligently use it in forming our estimate of believers. Let us not condemn others as graceless and unconverted solely because they do not see the path of duty from our standpoint or feel things exactly as we feel them. “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4). The gifts of God’s children are not bestowed precisely in the same measure and degree. Some have more of one gift, and some have more of another. Some have gifts which shine more in public, and some which shine more in private. Some are more bright in a passive life, and some are more bright in an active one. Yet each and all the members of God’s family, in their own way and in their own season, bring glory to God.”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“How often men say that they want clear explanations of such doctrines as the Trinity. Yet here we have our Lord handling the subject of His own Person, and, behold! we cannot follow Him. We seem only to touch His meaning with the tip of our fingers. We learn, for one thing, from the verses”
― J.C. Ryle, The Gospel of John

“How often men say that they want clear explanations of such doctrines as the Trinity. Yet here we have our Lord handling the subject of His own Person, and, behold! we cannot follow Him. We seem only to touch His meaning with the tip of our fingers.”
― J.C. Ryle, The Gospel of John

“Christ has all power and is able to save to the uttermost, because Christ is divine.”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9).”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“God must begin the work of grace in a man’s heart, or else a man will never be saved. Christ must first choose us and call us by His Spirit, or else we shall never choose Christ.”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“Sound views of doctrine and knowledge of controversy will avail us nothing at last, if we have known nothing of love.”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“Christ is far more willing to give than the world is to receive.”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“Peace is Christ’s distinctive gift – not money, not worldly ease, not temporal prosperity. These are at best very questionable possessions”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shall thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“Conscience is a most important part of our inward man and plays a most prominent part in our spiritual history. It cannot save us. It never yet led any one to Christ. It is blind and liable to be misled. It is lame and powerless and cannot guide us to heaven. Yet conscience is not to be despised. It is the minister’s best friend, when he stands up to rebuke sin from the pulpit. It is the mother’s best friend, when she tries to restrain her children from evil and quicken them to good. It is the teacher’s best friend, when he presses home on boys and girls their moral duties. Happy is he who never stifles his conscience but strives to keep it tender! Still happier is he who prays to have it enlightened by the Holy Spirit and sprinkled with Christ’s blood.”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“In grace as well as in providence, Christ works still. He is ever taking away sin.”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“Free speech, free laws, political freedom, commercial freedom, national freedom – all these cannot smooth down a dying pillow, or disarm death of his sting, or fill our consciences with peace. Nothing can do that but the freedom which Christ alone bestows. He gives it freely to all who seek it humbly. Then let us never rest until it is our own.”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“what miserable creatures great men are when they have no high principles within them and no faith in the reality of a God above them.”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“I pray for them – I pray not for the world.”
― J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“Rarely do we see a person so entirely taken up with spiritual matters, that attention to this world’s affairs is made a secondary matter or postponed. And why is it so? Simply because true conversions to God are uncommon.”
― J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

“Good feelings and desires are useless if they are not accompanied by action.”
― J.C. Ryle, The Gospel of John

“Peace, and not riches, had been the great legacy which He had left with the eleven the night before His crucifixion.”
― J.C. Ryle, The Gospel of John