If you have seen Christ truly, you have seen pure grace, pure righteousness in Him every way infinite, far exceeding all sin and misery. If you have seen Christ, you can trample upon all the righteousness of men and angels, so as to bring you into acceptance with God. If you have seen Christ, you would not do a duty without Him for ten thousand worlds (I Cor. 2:2). Thomas Wilcox
It is a very important to ask ourselves and our own hearts if we have seen Christ truly. It is one thing to talk about it as a theory or a doctrine, but it is quite another to see Christ truly. It is one thing to discuss Christ as a doctrine, but it is quite another to examine our hearts to see if we take pleasure in talking about a doctrine or if our joy is in Christ Himself. It is also true that there are many sensitive or tender hearts that feel the weight of their depravity and inability and so think they have not seen Christ truly, but one can see Christ truly and not have the experience of the writer of the quote (just above) in its fullness.
The heart that has seen or beheld Christ is not satisfied with anything but grace and grace alone. Indeed the souls of men are not made perfect and there will be desires for sin, but the point is that a person who understands and feels the weight of his or her sin (to any degree) will know that there is no work that can make up for the least sin and therefore can heal a wounded conscience. Beholding Christ in His glory is in some way also to see the heart of self in its sin. The light of Christ reveals sin which shows us that those who are given light and so see Christ see themselves as sinful and even disgusting in the filth of sin. The soul that has seen the greatness of Christ and the greatness of sin will have nothing to do with works to do away with sin, but instead that soul wants nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? The only answer is nothing but the blood of Jesus.
The soul must examine itself and ask itself if it sees its sin but if it sees and knows that the grace of Christ far exceeds all of its own sin. This soul must learn by experience to rest in the finished work of Christ rather than its own sanctification. In one sense it is growth in sanctification to rest in the work of Christ rather than the sanctification of the soul. The soul will be trained by God in going through afflictions, sorrows, and dry periods where it doubts if it has grace or not. However, as the soul grows in dying to self and resting in and trusting in the grace of Christ and His blood and righteousness alone that soul will begin to have hope in Christ more and more during those afflictions, sorrows, and dry periods. The soul begins to look more and more from self and its sin, filth, and misery to see more of Christ, His righteousness, and His purity.
When a soul is in the midst of a sore trial, it may want to flee to the worth or merit of its sufferings, but it cannot. It will realize that all the suffering it can do has no merit or value to God for the least sin and cannot obtain one ounce of righteousness. The soul will learn that all of those hard things are not intended to torment it, though indeed there will be torment, but the greatest goal is to make the soul like Christ. Jesus Himself learned obedience by suffering and so His people will only learn obedience to the degree that they suffer. This does not mean the utter agony (necessarily) that Christ suffered on the cross, but also the suffering that He endured throughout His life on this planet. The soul will suffer because of its own sin and the sin of others. The soul will suffer pain in this life both inwardly and outwardly. The soul will suffer the abuse of others. In all of this, however, the soul must not look to any value or merit it can obtain by those sufferings, but to the value of the righteousness of Christ alone and know that it can receive no good but by grace.
The soul must learn to despise anything it can do or the honors of men in order that it may trample upon the temptation to trust in a self-righteousness that those things can bring. The soul must not just be made acceptable to God once, but must be acceptable to God in fellowship at all times. This is not to say that there should not be a supreme place given to justification, but simply to say that the soul must trample on all things for righteousness during its life in order to walk by grace alone and Christ alone. As justified sinners live, they sin. But justified sinners must look and rest in Christ and His righteousness alone as they live. It is, in a very imprecise way of putting it, living in light of justification and the righteousness of Christ alone that justifies. In the same way the justified sinner walks in light of the blood of Christ knowing that there is no satisfaction before God but by the blood of Christ alone and that comes to the sinner by grace alone. This is to say that God is only pleased with Christ and so sinners should live in Christ and by His cross and righteousness alone, which is by grace alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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