The Dawn of Redeeming Grace Quotes

“Isaiah saw that this child would be everything we lack. For our confusion, he is the “Wonderful Counsellor”; for our weakness, he is the “Mighty God”; for spiritual orphans and prodigal sons, he is the “Everlasting Father”; in our distress, he comes to us as the “Prince of Peace.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace: Daily Devotions for Advent

“But divine wisdom operates with different presuppositions and on different principles. Given humanity’s fallen and sinful condition, God’s work of salvation must descend to the least and lowest in order to restore us to God. As the church’s Early Fathers saw, the Son of God needed to become what he was not in order that we might become what we are not. God’s long-promised King was therefore born into poverty, not into riches; in humility, not pomp; and in an artisan family, not in a king’s palace. Paul understood this wisdom: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9); “Though he was in the form of God … [he] emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2: 6-8). The wooden manger, and now whatever humble house Joseph and Mary had found, was just the beginning of things. Divine wisdom dictated that the Saviour-King would be born into poverty and would live in borrowed accommodation with nowhere of his own to lay his head. And at the end of his life, he would be laid again on wood, this time not in a manger but on a cross, and in his death be accommodated in a borrowed tomb.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace: Daily Devotions for Advent

“We can’t help admiring Joseph. He heard the word of God; he believed the word of God; and he obeyed the word of God, whatever the cost might be.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace: Daily Devotions for Advent

“We sometimes ask, “What’s in a name?” In the case of this name, Jesus, the Christian’s answer is “Everything”. Because “Jesus” is not only a name; it is who he is.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace: Daily Devotions for Advent

“In the coming of the Lord Jesus, God has kept his promise to bless the nations through Abraham’s seed (Genesis 12:1-3). Therefore, we can trust him to keep his promises to us too—promises to work for our good, to be with us by his Spirit, and to bring us home to be with him in glory for ever. For “all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory” (2 Corinthians 1:20).”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace: Daily Devotions for Advent

“Isaiah had written that this “child” would bring about a great deliverance “as on the day of Midian” (Isaiah 9:4). He was referring to the “Battle of Midian,” when, guided by God, Gideon had reduced his army in stages from 32,000 down to 300 men carrying 300 trumpets and 300 jars with torches inside them. They surrounded the Midianite camp by night, and then, on the signal, they smashed the jars—letting the light shine out—blew the trumpets, and shouted in triumph; the Midian army fled in disarray (Judges 7:1-25). Truly “the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25). Perhaps Paul was thinking about this incident when he wrote about the light of the gospel shining in the darkness in the face of Jesus Christ, and he added, “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). For this child—“little, weak and helpless,” as one carol puts it[7]—was nevertheless “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). Truly, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men” (v 25).”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace: Daily Devotions for Advent

“the Bible. He created in us a sense that there was something wrong or missing. And so, by various means, he brought us to the Bible’s message and to faith in Christ. The important thing is not how spectacular God’s work is but how effective it has been. All that matters is that we have come to Christ, and have found in him what we were looking for, even if we did not at first know what that really was. And that is a reason to be profoundly thankful. It is an amazing thought that thousands of people may be reading this book during Advent, and even reading this very page today. Perhaps one of them is experiencing what these wise men experienced: a searching for something that seems to be missing, the feeling that something is not quite right, or a new and unfamiliar sense of their sinfulness. Perhaps, already, they have started on a spiritual journey that has taken some twists and turns. But now it is becoming clear that what they need more than anything else is the Saviour, the King, Jesus. Perhaps you are that person. Have you found him yet?”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace: Daily Devotions for Advent

“But the truth is that while they may be more dramatic, ours are no less supernatural, for the same Lord sovereignly designed the events that also led us to faith. It was he who placed us in a Christian family, or brought us into contact with a Christian, or stirred up in us an unaccountable desire to read”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace: Daily Devotions for Advent

“God sees as clearly in the dark as in the day; he knows what he is doing and where he is going. He can even weave the dark threads of man’s evil deeds, tragedies, and disasters into his purposes and use them for his glory.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace: Daily Devotions for Advent