Despairing sinner! You look on your right hand and on your left, saying, “Who will show us any good?” You are tumbling over all your duties and professions to patch up a righteousness to save you. Look at Christ now; look to Him and be saved all the ends of the earth (Isa 45:22). There is no one else. He is a Savior, and there is none beside Him (Isa 45:21). Look anywhere else and you are undone. God will look at nothing but Christ and you must look at nothing else. Christ is lifted up on high, as the brazen serpent in the wilderness, that sinners at the ends of the earth, at the greatest distance, may see Him and look towards Him. The least sight of Him will be saving, the least touch healing to you. (Thomas Willcox)
The heart is where Christ lives and the heart is what we are told to watch over with all diligence. The heart is what we are told to believe with and have faith in Christ with. The heart, then, is what must be examined and not just the doctrinal beliefs that we should have. If the heart is as deceptive as Scripture says that it is (and it is), then we must be careful to look after our hearts to be sure that we are not using our duties and professions of faith as our righteousness.
A person must make a profession of faith, but it is not the profession of faith that saves. A profession of faith is a profession that a person already has faith. Christ saves sinners by grace alone and not because they make a profession of faith. We are not to look to faith to save us as that is a denial of Christ, of grace, and of faith. We must not look to our duties as proof that we have Christ, but we can know if there are no duties there is no faith. There are duties that those with faith do, but they are no guarantee that a soul is saved. Likewise, duties and professions cannot earn or obtain the slightest bit of righteousness.
Christ alone is Savior and Sanctifier. The eyes of the soul must not look to anything or anyone other than Christ. If the eyes of the soul look to duties or professions, then the eyes of the soul are not looking to Christ alone. If the eyes of the soul look to any value or any righteousness that it thinks it has or can obtain, then it is not looking to Christ alone. The one and living God sees a perfect righteousness in Christ and in Him alone, so all who are united to Christ and have Him as their life are send as perfect in righteousness because of Christ. If God will only look to Christ for righteousness, then there is no other place for sinners to look.
Here is hope for the struggling believer. It is true that your profession was very imperfect. It is true that your duties are very imperfect. It is true that your motives are very poor at best and that you are full of sin, but it is also true that if you truly have Christ then you have a perfect righteousness. It is true that Christ has taken away the wrath of God for your sin and you have no need to suffer for it. It is true that even now you are united to Christ and you are one with Him, which means that you have no need of anything or anyone else to appease the wrath of God and to have all you need to enter into eternal glory. All the things you beat yourself up over are the very same things that are keeping you from seeing the glory of grace that God saves sinners by grace alone and for His glory alone.
Indeed we must examine our hearts and indeed we should do it with care, but this examination should not make us morose or driven to depression, but instead it should help us to see that we have Christ and He is our one and only real need. We don’t need to earn righteousness because He gives us a perfect righteousness. We don’t need to suffer for our sin as if that could pay the slightest part of one of our numerous sins, but instead Christ has fully suffered for our sins. Yes, it is true, that you are far more vile than you recognize, but it is also true that Christ is far more glorious than you recognize. Yes, it is true that the guilt of each of your sins are greater than you could fully pay for even if you suffered for all eternity, but the precious blood of Christ covers those sins and washes them white as snow. Yes, examine your hearts, but think of it as the pursuit of Christ Himself who gives great peace to His people.
God Loves... Himself 
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