Men talk bravely of believing whilst whole and sound; few know it. Christ is the mystery of the Scripture; grace the mystery of Christ. Believing is the most wonderful thing in the world. Put any thing of your own to it, and you spoil it. Christ will not so much as look at it for believing. When you believe and come to Christ, you must leave behind you your own righteousness, and bring nothing but your sin: (Oh, that is hard!) leave behind all your holiness, sanctification, duties, humblings, and so on; and bring nothing but your wants [lacks] and your miseries, or else Christ is not fit for you, nor you for Christ. Christ will be a pure Redeemer and Mediator, and you must be an undone sinner, or Christ and you will never agree. It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness; that is to acknowledge Him Christ. Join anything to Him of your own, and you un-Christ Him. Thomas Willcox
The heart of man is horribly deceived by self, the devil, and sin. There is deception all around man and it seems that man wants to be deceived on a constant basis rather than bow in utter humility and inability before God as undone and in utter need of a Savior for justification and in living the life of grace after that. Christ is perfectly holy and will not do one thing that is unholy, which is to say He will not do one thing that is not out of perfect love for His Father and that is not for His glory. Christ is a pure and perfect Redeemer, which means there is nothing that can be added to what He has done as a Redeemer since all He did was to the glory of God. Christ is a pure and perfect Mediator, which means that there is nothing that can be added to His perfect work to the glory of God. Believing (faith) the Gospel of grace alone, then, means that all must come from grace or it is an attack on what Christ has accomplished. Believing in a grand sanctification means, then, that all must only come by Christ alone and grace alone. The denial of that in theory or practice is an attack upon Christ has accomplished.
What must be said is that the work of Christ is perfect and what men must have is Christ in order to have a perfect righteousness. Men must not work for righteousness as that is impossible, but instead they are to look to Christ alone for righteousness. Christ is given as a Head for His people and all things come from the Head. In Christ all grace and spiritual blessings are stored and there is no other location for them to be found. When people set out to work in order to obtain a righteousness, whether it be to obtain righteousness in the flesh by duties or simply to make it more likely to obtain some, they are not looking in the place where the only acceptable righteousness is found, which is to say it is the only real righteousness at all.
If there is only one real righteousness and location where that righteousness is found, sinners must come completely undone or it is like they are coming with a false righteousness to the wrong place and demanding a real righteousness for themselves. One cannot come to the real Christ with false righteousness and expect that it will be acceptable. One cannot come to the one and only Redeemer which has been provided by grace alone and expect that one can do something to redeem self by works. The beauty and glory of Christ Jesus is infinite in the sight of God and far exceeds the power of any and all men to behold the depths of His beauty and glory, so no man should try to come to such holiness and beauty and try to sully that with an attempt to offer up his own righteousness which was worked up in his own putrid flesh. Sinners must come with empty hands and hearts in order to come to the Savior and Redeemer who is full of a perfect righteousness that only comes to sinners by grace alone. It is only when sinners stop trying to contribute to their salvation and sanctification that they give up on themselves and look to Christ alone for all and for that all to come by grace alone. It truly is a beautiful and glorious thing.
Willcox tells us (above) that it is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness. It is the hardest thing in the world because the proud heart of man finds it impossible. But it is necessary to take Christ alone for righteousness to take Him as Christ (Messiah). He did not come as the Beloved of the Father to live and die and be resurrected to provide part of a salvation for men, but in order to truly and fully save them. In brutal language Willcox tells us (in truth) that any attempt to add to Christ something of our own is to un-Christ Him, which is to say it is not to take Him as Christ (the Messiah) who is the perfect and full Redeemer of sinners. The glory of Christ is that He saves sinners completely and totally and does so by grace alone. It is not just that no help is wanted, but no help will be accepted. He will not give up His offices in order to accept the filthy menstrual cloths of the pride of men in offering up their idols of self-righteousness. However, here is hope for the sinner whether believer or unbeliever. Christ alone saves sinners by grace alone. Look to Christ completely and not self at all. Come undone or not at all.
God Loves... Himself 
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