Charles Simeon Quotes

We must come to good works by faith, and not to faith by good works.

When some say that good works are forbidden when we preach faith alone, it is as if I said to a sick man: "If you had health, you would have the use of all your limbs; but without health, the works of all your limbs are nothing"; and he wanted to infer that I had forbidden the works of all his limbs.

It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone.

This doctrine (justification) is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour.

At the heart of the Protestant faith is the conviction that there is nothing we contribute to our salvation but our sin, no merit we bring but Christ's, and nothing necessary for justification except faith alone.

I preach salvation by grace through faith alone. I preach for the repentance of sin.

I'm afraid that in the United States of America today the prevailing doctrine of justification is not justification by faith alone. It is not even justification by good works or by a combination of faith and works. The prevailing notion of justification in our culture today is justification by death. All one has to do to be received into the everlasting arms of God is to die.

Christianity loses its scriptural fidelity and internal power when it no longer affirms both sola fide and the necessity of obedience.

Theres some inherently unique characteristics of Christianity, the chief of which is that Christianity teaches that we are saved by what Christ has done for us, instead of we are saved by what we do for God.

We are justified, not by giving anything to God,--what we do,--but by receiving from God, what Christ hath done for us.

Abhor all idea of being saved by good works, but O, be as full of good works as if you were to be saved by them!

For me it is the virgin birth, the Incarnation, the resurrection which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of these laws. I am always astonished at the emphasis the Church puts on the body. It is not the soul she says that will rise but the body, glorified.

I have a hard time picturing several aspects of the modern world without Luther.

Anyone can be sentimental about the nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don’t believe in the resurrection, you’re not a believer." “If you don’t believe in Easter,” Owen Meany said. “Don’t kid yourself—Don’t call yourself a Christian.

The fundamental principle of Christianity is to be what God is, and he is light.

Many Christians in the evangelical tradition use words like "conversion," "regeneration," "justification," "born-again," etc. all as more or less synonyms to mean "becoming a Christian from cold." In the classic Reformed tradition, the word "justification" is much more fine-tuned than that and has to do with a verdict which is pronounced, rather than with something happening to you in terms of actually being born again. So that I'm actually much closer to some classic Reformed writing on this than some people perhaps realize.

The peculiar doctrine of Christianity is that of a universal sacrifice and perpetual propitiation.

You may have done some really nifty things in life, but if you think they're going to get you into Heaven, forget it. The only way any of us are going to get in is by receiving God's gift of grace, which is available to every person.

The Christians believe that Jesus Christ died to save man. With you it is belief in a doctrine, and this belief constitutes your salvation. With us doctrine has nothing whatever to do with salvation. Each one may believe in whatever doctrine he likes; or in no doctrine.

The essential fact of Christianity is that God thought all men worth the sacrifice of his son.

Jesus is the human face on the kingdom of God. He makes it concretely accessible.

The evidence of justification by faith is the ongoing work of sanctification through the Holy Spirit.

God without Christ is no God.

The Christian test was a willingness to believe in the one Jesus Christ and His Message of salvation. What was demanded was not criticism but credulity. The Church Fathers observed that in the realm of thought only heresy had a history.

We're in danger of losing an even more foundational belief of Christianity: that salvation is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ.