The sun may as well be hindered from rising as Christ the Sun of righteousness (Mal 4:2). Look not a moment off Christ. Look not upon sin, but look upon Christ first. When you mourn for sin, if you see Christ then, away with it (Zech 12:10). In every duty look to Christ; before duty to pardon; in duty to assist; after duty to accept. Without this it is but carnal, careless duty. Do not legalize the gospel, as if part remained for you to do and suffer, and Christ were but half a Mediator and you must bear part of your own sin, and make part satisfaction. Let sin break your heart, but not your hope in the gospel. Thomas Willcox
While it is common in modern professing Christianity to think of Christ as a sacrifice for sin, it would be rare to find those who encourage you to look to Christ in every duty. The failure to do this, once again, is an assertion of the ability of self and is the denial of human depravity. Willcox sets out some steps in duty that we need Christ for, which is to say that we must have Christ or our duties are nothing but legalism or outright sin.
Forms of legalism are rampant with the modern version of professing Christianity. No, not all of these are the type of legalism where works are specifically said to contribute to salvation. What is rampant, however, is for people to do externally good works and duties and so think that this proves that they are saved. Every duty that is done apart from Christ and without looking to Christ is but a “carnal, careless duty.” The person must be accepted before God before a duty can possibly please Him, so a person must look to Christ in order for his or her person to be accepted. Looking to Christ and to Christ alone for pardon for sin is necessary if the duty is to be done for a reason other than a works out of self-interest. In the Old Testament the people had to go to the priest and they had to offer sacrifice for their persons, but they were supposed to look to Christ through those sacrifices. Now we are to look directly to Christ who alone can wash our sins away and make our persons acceptable to God.
Where is the strength to come from to do a duty that pleases God? It can only come from Christ. Either the strength of grace and love come from Christ to do the duty and motivate the duty or we have the strength and love of self to do the duty. The latter is completely unacceptable to God, but this seems to be rarely mentioned. It is part of the duty of the believer to do all that s/he does in the strength of grace and love for God. The believer is always completely dependent upon Christ for grace and love and so all duties must be done with a looking to Christ rather than self or simply do them because we see that they are commanded. When the self is the strength and love for duties rather than Christ, it is self that is manifested before God and it is self that is working for the glory. Clearly, then, without a single question this is doing duties out of love for self and that is the spirit of the Pharisees.
The last step, so to speak, is to look to Christ after the duty. The duty done in the strength and love of Christ was done by a human being that is not perfect and will never be perfect until eternity. What this means is that the very best thing that a human being can do is tainted with sinful hands. While it may be true that the person was accepted before God and that the act was done in the strength and love for God given by Christ, it still came through a tainted soul and so is tainted. Even the very best we do must have Christ to make it acceptable to God.
What this should teach the soul is not that it must look to Christ at each step of an event, but that it must look to Christ at all times. God does not shine forth His glory except through Christ and so in order to see His glory and in order for His glory to be manifested through us this means that self must be denied and in every aspect of every step/moment of our duties we must have Christ. The soul should focus on Christ during the duty and love Him in doing it, but it will not be a perfect love and so the soul needs to have the blood of Christ cover its sin even in the very best that it does. As Paul taught us, Christ is our life, our wisdom, and our righteousness. We are to love Him at all times in all we do. It is not the external action that makes it right, but it is Christ and His grace that makes it acceptable to the living God.
God Loves... Himself 
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