John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

In the first place, one who trusts in Christ has ALL his sins paid for and forgiven. Being a Christian is not a matter of getting saved again every day. And while for fellowship we ought to confess any known sin and thus not let it come between us and our fellowship with God, the salvation question is settled once and for all on the basis that Jesus Christ is righteous and He had paid the whole debt. It is not charged against us any more. - John R. Rice

And if someone says that each sin must be confessed, the simple truth is that none of us know all the sinfulness of our hearts. The Bible says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). So one who confesses whatever sin he is conscious of can have fellowship with God, but all sin is paid for and it does not depend on us finding out every sin and confessing it afresh and getting forgiveness again. Salvation is a once-for-all business. It is wholly of God's grace, not of works; it is eternal, everlasting life. - John R. Rice

The Bible clearly shows the unpardonable sin is the sin of a lost person who hardens his heart against God and comes to such a rock-ribbed conclusion against God that he cannot be changed. His heart is hardened and so the Spirit of God may give him up. The unpardonable sin is always by a lost person, and on the matter of salvation, not on other matters. No Christian can commit the unpardonable sin for the simple reason that on the matter of salvation his sins are already pardoned. Do you think Jesus Christ would have to come back to earth and die again to get somebody saved again if he did wrong? No, he has already paid the whole price and it is already all forgiven, past, present and future, as far as the salvation of a soul is concerned. - John R. Rice

In a great citywide campaign attended by thousands, I was greatly moved with a certain thought: If the President of the United States should come to the same city for a well-announced lecture, he would have far more people to hear him the first night than I would have. But if he stayed a week, speaking twice daily, his crowds would be greatly diminished before the week was over. If he continued a month, as I often have in great city-wide campaigns, with ever-increasing crowds, his crowd would dwindle to far less than a preacher of the Gospel would address each evening! The difference is in the theme, the subject, the form. A gospel sermon can be the most useful form of literature, the most moving, the most fruitful in eternal results. - John R. Rice

Through an interpreter I preached in Japan to a small crowd under a tent on that classic, beautiful but awful story of the prodigal son. There the traditions of centuries make reverence for parents the highest morality. As I pictured the rebellious, ungrateful, arrogant son, they shook their heads sadly. Who was the wastrel, rebel son? It was I, I said! An old man's face clouded in shame for me as I admitted it. But when I pressed it home, pointing an accusing finger, "But it was you! You are the prodigal, too!" he was first startled, ready to deny; then crestfallen and shamed. He bowed his head as he saw it was so.
Oh, my sins-- OUR SINS! Here is the mudsill of the Gospel. Here is a main pillar of the temple of truth. - John R. Rice

Yes, Jesus is alive! And I will see my mother and father again. Oh, yes, and Joe, my preacher brother, and Gertrude and George and Jesse and sister Jimmie, and Dr. Bob Jones, and Bill Sunday, and Paul and Elijah and all the blessed dead who died in the Lord. As Jesus lives, so will we live! Blessed Pillar of Faith! Jesus rose from the dead! - John R. Rice 

It is Christ and the Bible, or no Christ and no Bible. It is the Bible Gospel of salvation or no salvation at all! - John R. Rice