Home > Author > Joel R. Beeke

Joel R. Beeke QUOTES

Joel R. Beeke QUOTES

1 " Some of us have little spiritual vitality because we fail to feed on Christ day by day. Over time, we become spiritually anorexic. "

― Joel R. Beeke , Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation

2 " Jesus calls all sinners to repent. True repentance is not a nebulous response of sorrow; it requires definite actions. Repentance so transforms the mind that it results in a changed life. Repentance does not merely say “I’m sorry” (similar to what we say when we accidentally step on someone’s foot). Rather, true repentance says from the heart, “I’ve been wrong and grieve over my sin, but now I see the truth, and I will change my ways accordingly. "

― Joel R. Beeke , Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation

3 " Now I know not anything that will contribute more to the furtherance of this good work than the bringing of family religion more into practice and reputation. Here the reformation must begin. "

― Joel R. Beeke , A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life

4 " Christ did not come to earth simply to be our moral teacher. If that were His only mission, He could have come as He did in former times, as the Angel of the Lord, without our flesh and blood to encumber Him. Instead, He had to become like us so that He could raise us up to be like Him. "

― Joel R. Beeke , Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation

5 " In Christ’s first coming, He implemented a rescue plan conceived in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. He did not come to promote holiday cheer, boost end-of-year sales, or serve as the central figure in a Nativity scene. He came to save sinners. To save sinners, Christ had to put away what makes people sinners–namely, sin. "

― Joel R. Beeke , Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation

6 " It is possible to be saved without assurance, but it is scarcely possible to be a healthy Christian without assurance. "

― Joel R. Beeke , Knowing And Growing in Assurance of Faith

7 " Assurance that does not lead to a more holy walk is a false assurance. The person whose assurance is well-founded, who experiences tru peace and joy, who is busy in the Lord's service and lives in close fellowship with Him, will lead a holy life. A believer cannot persist in high levels of assurance while he continues in low levels of holiness. "

― Joel R. Beeke , Knowing And Growing in Assurance of Faith

8 " Assurance that does not lead to a more holy walk is a false assurance. The person whose assurance is well-founded, who experiences true peace and joy, who is busy in the Lord's service and lives in close fellowship with Him, will lead a holy life. A believer cannot persist in high levels of assurance while he continues in low levels of holiness. "

― Joel R. Beeke , Knowing And Growing in Assurance of Faith

9 " The Indwelling of Christ by faith…is to have Jesus Christ continually in one’s eye, a habitual sight of Him. I call it so because a man actually does not always think of Christ; but as a man does not look up to the sun continually, yet he sees the light of it…. So you should carry along and bear along in your eye the sight and knowledge of Christ, so that at least a presence of Him accompanies you, which faith makes. —Thomas Goodwin, Works, 2:411 "

― Joel R. Beeke , A Habitual Sight of Him: The Christ-Centered Piety of Thomas Goodwin

10 " Thomas Goodwin Jr. wrote of his godly father: In all the violence of [his fever], he discoursed with that strength of faith and assurance of Christ’s love, with that holy admiration of free grace, with that joy in believing, and such thanksgivings and praises, as he extremely moved and affected all that heard him…. He rejoiced in the thoughts that he was dying, and going to have a full and uninterrupted communion with God. ‘I am going,’ said he, ‘to the three Persons, with whom I have had communion: they have taken me; I did not take them…. I could not have imagined I should ever have had such a measure of faith in this hour…. Christ cannot love me better than he doth; I think I cannot love Christ better than I do; I am swallowed up in God….’ With this assurance of faith, and fullness of joy, his soul left this world.89  "

― Joel R. Beeke , A Habitual Sight of Him: The Christ-Centered Piety of Thomas Goodwin

11 " You are to consider that God does not hear you for your prayers’ sake (though not without them), but for His name’s sake and His Son’s sake, and because you are His child. The mother does not neglect to hear and relieve her child when the child cries, but she is tender, not because the child cries more loudly, but because the child cries, and the weaker the child is, the more pity she shows. Again, though the performance in itself might be weak, yet considered as a prayer, it might be strong, because a weak prayer may set the strong God to work. The faith we produce may be weak, yet because its object is Christ, therefore it justifies. So it is in prayer; it prevails, not because of the performance itself, but because of the name in which it is made, even Christ’s name. Therefore, as a weak faith justifies, so a weak prayer prevails as well as a stronger, and both for the same reason, for faith attributes all to God, and so does prayer. As faith is merely a receiving grace, so prayer is a begging grace. "

― Joel R. Beeke , A Habitual Sight of Him: The Christ-Centered Piety of Thomas Goodwin

12 " Thomas Goodwin Jr. wrote of his godly father: In all the violence of [his fever], he discoursed with that strength of faith and assurance of Christ’s love, with that holy admiration of free grace, with that joy in believing, and such thanksgivings and praises, as he extremely moved and affected all that heard him…. He rejoiced in the thoughts that he was dying, and going to have a full and uninterrupted communion with God. ‘I am going,’ said he, ‘to the three Persons, with whom I have had communion: they have taken me; I did not take them…. I could not have imagined I should ever have had such a measure of faith in this hour…. Christ cannot love me better than he doth; I think I cannot love Christ better than I do; I am swallowed up in God….’ With this assurance of faith, and fullness of joy, "

― Joel R. Beeke , A Habitual Sight of Him: The Christ-Centered Piety of Thomas Goodwin

13 " Christ will receive all who come to Him, but
Christ will not be sweet to them until sin is first bitter in them. "

― Joel R. Beeke

14 " Faith is not bare knowledge or passive persuasion but the
embrace of Christ by the heart, resulting in personal knowledge of God.
The heart must therefore be prepared by the law awakening the sinner
to his need of Christ. The law beats on the stony heart as a hammer to
smooth its surface before God writes His Word upon it. Though some
men called this repentance, Calvin preferred to think of it as preparation
for faith, which in turn leads to true repentance. "

― Joel R. Beeke

15 " The love of Christ is insatiable. The more you experience His redeeming love, the more you desire it. The more you desire it, the more you want to dwell on it. The more you dwell on it, the more you cherish it and are satisfied by it. You can never 'mind' Christ's love too often, since his love knows no bounds. "

― Joel R. Beeke

16 " You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed," John Bunyan writes. "Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan."24 "

― Joel R. Beeke , Living for God's Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism

17 " the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, once completed, became for the church the “only external means of divine supernatural illumination. "

― Joel R. Beeke , A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life

18 " The conferring and comparing of Scriptures is an excellent means of coming to an acquaintance with the mind and will of God in them. —JOHN OWEN "

― Joel R. Beeke , A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life

19 " God, through the Law, His alien
work, brings man to despair and humility and to a recognition of his
need, and through the Gospel, His appropriate work, He gives man faith
and the knowledge of His forgiveness. "

― Joel R. Beeke

20 " Many forget that most of the greatest theologians God has given to the church were also pastors and teachers in the local church. "

― Joel R. Beeke , A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life