Examining the Heart 66

We see sin great; we think Christ does so, and measure infinite love with our own line, infinite merits with our sins, which is the greatest pride and blasphemy (Psa 103:11-12; Isa 40:15). Hear what He says, “I have found a ransom” (Job 33:24). “In Him I am well pleased” (Mat 3:17). God will have nothing else. Nothing else will do you good or satisfy conscience, but Christ who satisfied the Father. God does all on account of Christ. You deserve hell, wrath, rejection; Christ’s deservings are life, pardon and acceptance. He will not only show you the one, but He will give the other. It is Christ’s own glory and happiness to pardon.   Thomas Willcox

While it is true that the vast majority of people in the world don’t see sin in any degree as bad as it is, some tender-hearted believer’s may see sin as greater than it is. In one sense it is impossible for a sinner to see it as greater than it is in reality, but for some reason some see sin as greater than the grace and love of Christ. Perhaps that is not blowing sin up as greater than it is as much as it is not seeing the grace and love of Christ as great as it is. The point, however, is that we must never think of our sin as greater than the love and grace of Christ. We must never see our sin as even close to as great as the merits which Christ has earned. The demerit of our sin, while against and infinite being, cannot be as great as the infinite love an infinite Being had toward and infinite Being. The precious blood of Christ has far more merit than the sins of a human being.

The “love” that a fallen human being has will only extend as far as self-interest will allow. When we limit love to self and the interests of self, we think of love in terms of our own limitations. This is not to say that a true believer is limited to his or her own self-interest, because a true believer has the Spirit of love in the heart and can love others for the sake of Christ. The love of God that is only found in Christ is beyond the measure of a human being and all human beings combined. The true believer must look to Christ and in Christ behold the love of God that is beyond comprehension and beyond all the sin of that believer. Yes, it is true, every single human being deserves hell, wrath, and rejection. That is what our conscience feels and that is what we know we deserve from the depths of our soul. However, Christ deserves far more and He gives those things by grace alone. The believer must not limit the love of Christ in his or her mind by comparing it to self, but instead the true believer must look at what Christ has purchased and the infinite value of that.

The believer must learn that God is well-pleased in one place and in one place only. God’s pleasure is in Christ and in Him alone. For all of those who are in Christ, then God is well-pleased with them on account of Christ. How the believer must rest in that and find some joy in that. God is pleased with Christ and all in Him. It is not that sin is nothing, but that sin is swallowed up by the pleasure of God in Christ. This does not diminish the heinousness of sin and the need for the believer to flee from it, but instead this should motivate the believer to seek grace to flee from sin and to flee from sin because of the love of God in Christ. If God is pleased and satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ, then all believers should be satisfied with that and rest content in looking to Christ alone. If God is pleased with the righteousness of Christ, then all believers should be satisfied with that as well and cease striving after their own righteousness.

Willcox tells us that it is “Christ’s own glory and happiness to pardon.” Should sinner seek their own glory and happiness in trying to find out their own righteousness and make efforts to suffer for their own sin? The obvious truth of the matter is that when sinners seek to make room for their own righteousness they are seeking their own glory, but when sinners bow in utter helplessness and renounce their own righteousness the glory belongs to Christ. This is why the Scripture says several times that the sinner has nothing to glory and boast in but Christ. This shows us our hearts in a different light. The battle is always over control and glory. How our hearts are never perfect in this life and we will battle with ourselves and its wicked desire for control and glory. Legalism, which is so rampant in so many ways, as part of it is the desire for glory. Our hearts will always battle with legalism in some way and so we are to search our hearts for the desire for glory. But once more, it takes the grace of Christ to really do battle with our hearts. This battle is far above us, so we should bow to Christ as He glorifies His name in and through us by grace alone.

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