Examining the Heart 39

He that fears to see sin’s utmost vileness, the utmost hell of his own heart, he suspects the merits of Christ. Be you never such a great sinner (I John 2:1); try Christ to make Him your Advocate, and you shall find Him Jesus Christ the righteous. In all doubtings, fears, storms of conscience, look at Christ continually; do not argue with Satan, he desires nothing better; bid him go to Christ, and He will answer him. It is His office to be our Advocate ( I John 2:1). His office to answer law, as our Surety (Heb 7:22). His office to answer justice as our Mediator (Gal 3:20; I Tim 2:5). And He is sworn to that office (Heb 7:20-21). Put Christ upon it. If you will do anything yourself, as to satisfaction for sin, you renounce Christ the righteous, who was made sin for you (II Cor 5:21).        Thomas Willcox

The Psalmist cries out for God to search his heart and make known his heart, but that is not a popular thought in our day if indeed any day. It seems that if God knows the heart and a person loved God, that person would want God to open it and make it known so that s/he could cry out to repent of that sin. But as Willcox notes, perhaps one reason for not wanting to see the vileness of sin and hell in our own hearts is because we have a hard time thinking that the sufferings and merits of Christ are for such sinners. The real issue of knowing the darkness and blackness of our own hearts can be pride and the love of darkness, but also one that flees to self-righteousness. On the other hand, it can be of simply a weak faith in the glories of the sacrifice and righteousness of Christ.

Notice the biblical tone of Willcox in the second sentence. The tone is that no matter the greatness of your sin and how vile of a sinner you think you are (and actually are), look to Christ as your Advocate. It is not just that Christ can advocate for people based on a human legal system, but He functions within the Divine legal system as THE ADVOCATE. He does not plead the law to get the guilty off, but He has given Himself as the sacrifice that removes wrath from the guilty. It is not that He does an underhand trick to get the guilty off, but He takes the wrath of the Judge upon Himself and He is righteous to do so. He is Jesus Christ the righteous.

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).

The sinner may be overwhelmed by one sin or several sins, so it makes no sense to the sinner to ask God to help him see more sin. It is hard for the sinner to think that his sin can be taken care of by Christ as it is. Oh sinner, look to Christ and the living Christ. He has died for sinners and has fully satisfied the wrath of the Father for all the sins of His people no matter how many they have committed. When He died for sin all of your sins were future to Him at that point and so sins that are future to you are no more future to Him than your earliest sins, not to mention your sinful nature. What is lacking in Christ that you are afraid to have your heart opened to Him? He sees all of those sins anyway. Christ is sufficient for your sin and all of your sin. If you think you can hide any sin from Him, you are mistaken. If you think that you might expose a sin that He has not suffered for, you are mistaken. Oh come to the throne of grace with boldness because there is the fullness of grace for sinners. A righteous Savior has saved sinners righteously and gives them a perfect righteousness.

Satan is smarter and wiser in a worldly sense than anyone in human flesh, so we must go to Christ who is our true wisdom. It is not a good idea to argue with all the evil thoughts and fiery darts of the evil one, so we send those arguments to Christ. If we are accused by the law of beings sinners, we can send that thought and doubt to Christ because He has fulfilled all the demands of the law in the place of all His people. The law has no demands upon those who have Christ. It cannot condemn them and it cannot give them righteousness. If it is argued against us that we have no right to go to God because of sin, we point those thoughts to Christ who is the Mediator between God and man. Oh sinner, don’t look to yourself to answer any of those accusations, but Christ is the One who has answered all of those accusations in fulfilling His offices perfectly. Whenever we try to answer those questions ourselves, in reality we are in some way trying to make satisfaction for our sin apart from Christ. It is Christ alone who can answer those objections fully and at all. Look to Christ in His many and glorious offices as the answer to all the objections that Satan can bring up through our doubting hearts.

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