It was come to this: either we must die eternally, or the Son of God must spill his blood; either we, or God’s own Son must suffer God’s wrath, one of the two; either miserable worms of the dust that had deserved it, or the glorious, amiable, beautiful, and innocent Son of God.

The fall of man brought it to this; it must be determined one way or t’other and it was determined, by the strangely free and boundless grace of God, that this his own Son should die that the offending worms might be freed, and set at liberty from their punishment, and that justice might make them happy. Here is grace indeed; well may we shout, “Grace, grace!” at this.

And beside, God did not do this for friends, but for enemies and haters of him. He did not do it for loyal subjects, but for rebels; he did not do it for those that were his children, but for the children of the devil; he did not do it for those that were excellent, but for those that were more hateful than toads or vipers; he did not do it for those that could be any way profitable or advantageous to him, but for those that were so weak, that instead of profiting God, they were not able in the least to help themselves.

God has given even fallen man such a gift, that He has left nothing for man to do that he may be happy, but only to receive what is given him. Though he has sinned, yet God requires no amends to be made by him; He requires of him no restoration; if they will receive His Son of Him, He requires neither money nor price; he is to do no penance in order to be forgiven. God offers to save him for nothing, only if he will receive salvation as it is offered; that is, freely through Christ, by faith in Him. (Jonathan Edwards, “Glorious Grace“)

By Richard Shin

There is a lot of great resources for you to enjoy this weekend and the weeks to come. Go, go, go!

• First, Trusting God by Jerry Bridges is currently free in the Amazon bookstore for the Kindle edition. I don’t know how long this deal will last, so you should take advantage of it now.
• There has been a lot of talk about Rachel Held Evans’ book called A Year of Biblical Womanhood, where Evans dedicates a year out of her life to obey the Biblical commands towards women literally. It’s one thing for a guy in the complementarian camp to critique the book; it’s quite another for a woman to do so in the same light. So here‘s a review by Mary Kassian, a council member of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and the author of Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild. 
• Tabletalk magazine just began releasing their magazines in digital format. It’s currently available on the iPad, and soon to be released for the Kindle Fire and Android tablets.
• Back in 1987, Virginia Stem Owens published an article that sheds a little light unto why people hate the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Andy Naselli reproduced it on his blog, and it’s quite fascinating.
• Michael Kruger, the author of the fantastic Canon Revisited, has a series on 10 Misconceptions about the New Testament Canon. He is done with 9 out of the 10, but these are great articles to read through for a variety of purposes. And as a bonus, here’s the transcript of his interview with Apologetics 315.
• Nathan Busenitz at the Cripplegate makes a case for why Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers and the Beacon‘s most regular contributor, was a cessationist.
• R.C. Sproul is doing a weekly series on the TULIP of Calvinism. You can find the introduction to the series here. This is a great introduction to understanding the doctrines of grace.
• Dr. Albert Mohler has a new book out called The Conviction to Lead. He writes an introduction to his book on his blog here, and Adrian Warnock has a review of it here.

That should be enough for you to munch on this weekend.

Coram Deo