Consider, the greatest sins may be hid under the greatest duties, and the greatest terrors. See that the wound that sin has made in your soul be perfectly cured by the blood of Christ! Not skinned over with duties, humblings and enlargements. Apply what you will besides the blood of Christ, it will poison the sore. You will find that sin was never mortified truly, if you have not seen Christ bleeding for you upon the cross. Nothing can kill it, but beholding Christ’s righteousness. Thomas Wilcox
These words by Wilcox, written in the mid-1600’s, have more wisdom and insight than most of the books written in the modern day. If we simply accept the fact that men are in darkness and have no spiritual wisdom but what is given to them by grace, we can easily see that men don’t truly see their sin. If we then accept the fact that men have deceptive hearts in their blindness, it is easy to see that men will not understand how truly great some sins are. Instead of dealing with the truth of sin in their hearts and seek the cure of sin by Christ, they will focus on doing duties thinking that their duties will cover their sin when in fact trying to cover sin with duties is a great sin itself as it is a form of self-righteousness and a rejection of the righteousness of Christ. The heart is so terribly deceitful that it will try to hide great sins with duties which is to hide sin with more sin and possibly and even greater sin. The wound of sin cannot be taken care of by anything other than the blood of Christ. Nothing but Christ, nothing but Christ, nothing but Christ should be the song of every heart that knows its sin.
When Wilcox uses the words “skinned over with duties, humblings and enlargements,” he covers a lot of territory. Some of the meaning may be of how it is not the animals that covers our sins, but Christ. Not only do our deceptive and deceitful hearts work to get us to try to cover over our sins and consciences with duties, but they also try to deceive us into thinking that it is enough to be humbled in some way for sin. We should be humbled for sin, though there are forms of humility that are not true humility and these can be used for hearts to deceive themselves with. The heart is so wicked it will also think that if it has some enlargement of heart that God must have forgiven it, but again that is deception. Duties, being humbled, and an enlargement of soul can be nothing but the work of the flesh. The Israelites had many duties and many things that they were to do to humble themselves, but all of those could be and were done as works of the flesh. The works of the flesh, regardless of how religious they are and how pleasing they may be in the sight of others or self who see them, will not cover over the smallest part of the smallest sin. Nothing but Christ can do that.
As Wilcox notes, when we apply things other than Christ to our sin what we are really doing is seen by the analogy of pouring poison on an open sore. Trying to cover an open sore with poison is no cure at all but will certainly lead to a greater sickness and perhaps death. The wound of sin needs to be cured and the poison of duties, humblings, and enlargements will do nothing but make things worse. Making all efforts to keep the law will not cover sin because the intent of giving the law was to reveal sin. Trying to come up with sorrow and humility from the flesh is an effort to keep the law in a way, but it is from the flesh and there is no profit at all in the flesh. Poor sinners who are not instructed in the Gospel of grace are constantly going to physicians who are pouring poison upon the wounds of their patients and the patients are so blind that they cannot see that either. There is only one Physician who is suited to the deadly wounds of sin and that is Christ Jesus. It is His blood alone that can heal.
Sinners also set out to mortify sin, but they set out to do this by the works of the flesh in various duties. It is Christ alone and His cross and righteousness that will mortify sin. It is Christ in the soul teaching the soul by His Spirit that it must die to sin and grow more and more in living out what it means to be crucified with Christ. As a sinner is declared just in Christ and because of Christ, the Scriptures also teach us that the sinner in Christ is said to have been crucified with Christ. It is in beholding the crucified Lamb of God and seeing the value and worth of the bloody cross as the glory of God shines in those great truths that sinners are in time mortified to sin. Nothing can kill my sin and my trying to cover sin with the poison of duties than growing into the truth of being crucified with Christ and having His perfect righteousness. What good are duties for righteousness if sinners have a perfect righteousness in Christ and have no need for any more? His righteousness is perfectly sufficient. In light of Christ who suffered and died on a bloody cross and His perfect righteousness for sinners, there is nothing but poison in anything else that sinners try to cure their wounds of sin by. The worst thing of all, perhaps, are the works of religion which is using the things that should point to Christ in an effort to do what Christ alone can do.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment