God Loves… Himself

Self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, are the darlings of nature, which she preserves as her life. That makes Christ seem ugly to nature, to all nature’s glorious interests. Let nature but make a gospel, and it would make it quite contrary to Christ; it would be to the just, the innocent and the holy; Christ made the gospel for you; that is, for needy sinners, the ungodly, the unrighteous, the accursed. Nature cannot endure to think the gospel is only for sinners; it will rather choose to despair than to go to Christ upon such terrible terms. When nature is but put to it by guilt or wrath, it will go to its old haunts of self-righteousness and self-goodness. An infinite power must cast down those strongholds. None but the self-justified stands excluded from the gospel; Christ will look to the most abominable sinner before Him; because to such an one Christ cannot be made justification; he is no sinner. Thomas Willcox

The heart has been said to be a factory of idols, but it is also a very deceitful factory of idols. It is a fight for the whole life of true believers to be free from false gospels that arise and from the heart that wanders after forms of being nice and self-righteousness. It is hard to escape the polluted air of “churchiness” and “niceness” and “good people” and simply admit from the depths of the soul that I am a needy sinner. It is so hard for the soul to arrive at the point of believing these things as true about self in ways that are far deeper than a creed or confession can put them. Only the Holy Spirit can convict the soul and show it the depths of its own sin that it understands that the Gospel of grace alone is for the ungodly rather than the godly. The Gospel of grace alone is for needy sinners and not for those who are competent in themselves. The Gospel of grace alone is for the unrighteous in and of themselves as opposed to those who think they are righteous. The Gospel of grace alone comes to those who have nothing in and of themselves but an accused nature and accursed actions and saves them based on Christ alone.

The Gospel of grace alone is not just for those who were sinners, but for those who are sinners. Oh how the proud heart rebels against this. Oh how the proud heart thinks that it is saved by believing the Gospel but after that it (the proud heart) lives a moral and good life. But Scripture teaches us that the Gospel is for sinners and no one else. The most advanced believer can never advance beyond the Gospel of grace alone at any point. The most advanced believer is a sinner and will grow in the knowledge of his or her sin and that is one method God uses to show saved sinners their utter need of Christ and His grace each moment of each day.

This is so vital for people who are concerned about their hearts and how their hearts are in reality. It is far easier to develop a pseudo-righteousness or standard than it is to bow to God as a wretched and vile sinner who will never be anything more than that in and of self. The only righteousness that a sinner can have is the perfect righteousness of Christ given by imputation. The only righteous act that a sinner can do must come from Christ or it would not be righteous in any way. But the Gospel of grace alone is what the sinner must have each moment. We never grow beyond out need for the work of Christ as a wrath-bearing substitute for His people. We never grow beyond our need of Christ as our perfect righteousness and as our perfect Mediator and High Priest. But for those who grasp at straws and fig-leaves to cover themselves, they are choosing themselves as their own saviors and they are choosing themselves as their own righteousness and as their own mediators and high-priests.

It is not just necessary to examine our hearts to see if we are saved, but also for these vile things that come up in our heart to challenge Christ and His offices. Sinners who are truly born of God and justified by God will fight these things as well. It is so hard to continually see self as worse and worse and as more reliant upon Christ each day, but that is reality. Christ will strip His people of their pride and self-righteousness so that they may be reliant upon Him alone and that His glory may be manifested in and through them. The more people are stripped utterly and totally naked of all hope in self and of all righteousness of self, the more they will rely on Christ alone and His grace alone. While the natural man fights to prevent his heart and the sins of his heart exposed to him, the true believer learns to love to be in the dust and to be low that all would be Christ and Him alone. The believer does not love the sin, but loves to see the glory of Christ shine.

Self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, are the darlings of nature, which she preserves as her life. That makes Christ seem ugly to nature, to all nature’s glorious interests. Let nature but make a gospel, and it would make it quite contrary to Christ; it would be to the just, the innocent and the holy; Christ made the gospel for you; that is, for needy sinners, the ungodly, the unrighteous, the accursed. Nature cannot endure to think the gospel is only for sinners; it will rather choose to despair than to go to Christ upon such terrible terms. When nature is but put to it by guilt or wrath, it will go to its old haunts of self-righteousness and self-goodness. An infinite power must cast down those strongholds. None but the self-justified stands excluded from the gospel; Christ will look to the most abominable sinner before Him; because to such an one Christ cannot be made justification; he is no sinner. Thomas Willcox

It is quite plain that the natural man or the man of the flesh is quite opposite to the spiritual man or the man of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus was given the Spirit without measure and in doing all out of love for the Father He was hated by the very religious of His day on earth in human form, but that was because they were natural men and they had the religion of natural men. The Pharisees, who were the very religious in the days of Jesus on earth, had come up with their own gospel. It was a gospel quite contrary to Christ Himself and His work in saving sinners. The gospel of the Pharisees was indeed for those who worked hard to be just, innocent, and holy. But the Gospel of Christ was for needy sinners, the ungodly, the unrighteous, and the accursed.

While it may not be common or popular to put it that way, in reality those are the two positions (broadly speaking) that are set out across the world today. We have the teaching that if you will do certain things to become moral or become those like Christ will save, then you will be saved. This is also what many in the Reformed community have fallen into in our day as well. It is true that repentance is a neglected teaching in our day, but we don’t repent in order to be saved. We are saved by grace alone that we may repent. The biblical teaching on holiness has also been replaced with the seeking of holiness by the power of self. But Jesus Christ came to save sinners and only those. He came to save the ungodly and indeed only those who are ungodly in their own eyes and hearts will ever really look to Christ alone to be saved.

The proud heart of man longs and craves for some degree of self-righteousness and each proud heart refuses to be brought low and admit what a wicked heart that s/he has. The proud heart of man refuses to admit, really admit from the depths of the heart, that he is wicked and vile in the eyes of a thrice holy God and has no way to save himself. When the truth is preached or taught and these proud hearts read or hear it, they cannot bear it and will flee to the refuge that while they are sinners at least they are not that bad. It is easy enough to convince most people that they are sinners, but it takes an almighty power to overcome proud hearts and convince people that they are the vilest of sinners and have no hope in themselves.

How people need to examine their hearts to see what is the real hope in them. How people need to see the depths of their sin and the fact that they have no righteousness in them in fact and so they need to flee from any hope in themselves. How people need to cry out to God to expose any self-righteousness in them and to open the eyes of their hearts to the depths of their sin that they may look to Christ alone. The awful power of pride in the heart will always guide the heart away from seeing itself as ungodly, unrighteous, and accursed. Sinners flee from that with all of their strength. But while this is not something they enjoy, it is something that they must do if they are going to have Christ as a real Savior. He is for real sinners. We all need to look deep in our hearts to find out if we have a lurking self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, are the darlings of nature, which she preserves as her life. That makes Christ seem ugly to nature, to all nature’s glorious interests. Let nature but make a gospel, and it would make it quite contrary to Christ; it would be to the just, the innocent and the holy; Christ made the gospel for you; that is, for needy sinners, the ungodly, the unrighteous, the accursed. Nature cannot endure to think the gospel is only for sinners; it will rather choose to despair than to go to Christ upon such terrible terms. When nature is but put to it by guilt or wrath, it will go to its old haunts of self-righteousness and self-goodness. An infinite power must cast down those strongholds. None but the self-justified stands excluded from the gospel; Christ will look to the most abominable sinner before Him; because to such an one Christ cannot be made justification; he is no sinner. Thomas Willcox

Every single human being born is by nature a child of wrath. The very nature of that human being is to be worldly and self-focused and to do all out of the love of self which is a natural (fallen) man. The heart loves the world and the things of the world (fleshly, natural) as opposed to the things of the Spirit. The things of the natural man include self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. It seems to be human nature to fight at all costs to preserve life, but fallen human nature seems to want to defend self-righteousness and self-sufficiency even more. The fallen human seems to want to preserve and defend self-righteousness and self-sufficiency even to the death. It appears that human beings will die rather than give up its self-righteousness and self-sufficiency.

What this shows us is that the fallen human heart is full of self and will defend self at virtually all costs. The Gospel of grace alone and Christ alone is hated when it is understood by the sinner. The Gospel of grace alone teaches the sinner that he has no righteousness at all and that he has no sufficiency at all. If sinners are justified by grace ALONE, then they have absolutely nothing that they can offer up as righteousness when it is the righteousness of Christ ALONE that is acceptable to God. The Gospel of grace alone teaches us that the self-sufficiency of God is the power and the price of the Gospel and that there is no sufficiency in man at all. When the natural man hears that, he hates that. He is full of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency and his heart rebels against the idea that he is capable of nothing but sin and has nothing to offer to God.

The Gospel of GRACE alone instructs men that all their idols that they find in nature are of no help and of no real good to them at all, but instead those things do nothing but add to their condemnation. This is so hard for the natural man to accept as true. Man fights to believe that he does some good things, but the Gospel says salvation is all of Christ and all of grace. Man fights to think that he has some ability to do what God says, but the Gospel says that the whole of the Gospel is all of Christ and all of grace. But even more, Christ tells us that apart from Him we can do nothing. Oh how the natural man does not like that and how professing Christians do not like that either. In order for anyone to do anything good or spiritual, that person must have Christ work that in and through him or her. The natural heart rebels against this need to be utterly dependent on Christ. The natural heart rebels against the need to repent of all of its worldly pleasures and desires and depend totally on Christ for all things.

The Gospel of grace alone appears to have virtually disappeared from the modern scene. There are so many ways to be “converted” now that the true Gospel is hidden from sight. The liberals have no Gospel at all, but they try to preach something about the Bible. Conservatives have brought in many little things that appear good but are adding to the Gospel of grace alone as well. They add faith and/or repentance as something that people must do in order to be saved, but in fact those are things given by grace. They will add all sorts of rules and things to live by that may be good ideas, but they are not the Gospel. How each person should spend time in prayer asking God for mercy to open the eyes of the heart to see ways in which s/he does not depend on Christ alone but instead is looking or depending on works or even a work. The heart should be examined to see if it is looking to self for any sufficiency rather than to grace alone. The Gospel of Christ alone and grace alone teaches us that our hearts should be examined as we cry out to the Lord to deliver us from self.

It is not, as you imagine, that His state in glory makes Him neglectful, scornful to poor sinners; no, He has the same heart now in heaven. He is God and changes not. He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). He went through all your temptations, dejections, desertions, rejections (Mat 4:3-12; Mark 15:24; Luke 22:44; Mat 26:38), and has drunk the bitterest of the cup and left the sweet; the condemnation is out. Christ drunk up all the Father’s wrath at one draught; and nothing but salvation is left for you. Thomas Willcox

Oh how sweet this thought is for poor sinners who doubt and are in torment as they consider their sinful hearts. The Lord Jesus Christ is not neglectful toward you and does not scorn you, though that is for the poor in spirit and those who bewail themselves. Yet there are some who are so weary of their sin and their hard hearts that they are insensible, or at least think of themselves that way. But if you would think back in Scripture of how Christ treated sinners, you would know that He never had a harsh word or look for the poor sinner that was broken of heart. Christ was and is tender to sinners who were sick of sin in themselves. Christ was and is tender to those with broken hearts as all of Scripture testifies. It is Christ who binds up the wounds of the bleeding sinner and applies the balm of Gilead. It is Christ who takes away the guilt of those sins and gives Himself as the sinners greatest all.

The Lord Jesus was the Lamb of God and took away the sins of the world. Oh sinner, are you truly sick of your sin? Then look to the Lamb of God who is meek and lowly and He will teach you that meekness and lowliness. Look to the Lamb of God as taking away your sin and rest in His righteousness. While indeed He was perfect and sinless, yet He learned obedience through suffering. The living God who took human flesh in the second Person of the Trinity was tempted far beyond what you are capable of, yet He did not sin. In this we can behold His glory in not sinning and yet the glory of His perfect righteousness He gives to poor sinners who do not have any of their own. What comfort Christ is to those who will look to Him and not try to obtain righteousness themselves.

The Lord Jesus had many dejections, even being a Man of sorrows and grief. Yet He did not sin in His dejection and is able to strengthen all those who give up on themselves and come to Him alone. The Lord Jesus was rejected by virtually all, even His own Father while on the cross with Whom He had perfect fellowship and communion with from all eternity. But again, He did not sin and instead earned a perfect righteousness for His people. Sinners who are rejected by men can know that they have a great High Priest who was rejected far more then they, yet without sin. He pities poor sinners who are rejected by men. He pities poor sinners who are dejected and harried with various trials and temptations. He is not the wrathful God toward His people just waiting to pour out His wrath when they make the slightest slip, but instead He is kind and gracious toward them.

Poor sinner, Christ has drunk the bitterest of the cup and left the sweet; the condemnation is out.” Behold the glory of grace in this Christ Jesus and know that if you are in Christ all the condemnation is gone concerning you. The Father will discipline you and there are consequences for sin, but the wrath has been completely swallowed up in the sufferings of Christ. Oh sinner, look to Christ and Him alone! Sinner, look to Christ who does not expect you to do anything to please Him as such, but look to Christ who will come to you and will bind up your wounds. Look to Christ and know that in grace He must come to you. As the Father ran to the son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, so the living God will run to you in Christ Jesus and in Christ you are embraced with eternal love.

Behold the glory of Christ having “drunk up all the Father’s wrath at one draught; and nothing but salvation is left for you.” Behold the grace of God in Christ Jesus and don’t look to your own sufferings and don’t look to anything you have ever done as having been the slightest bit efficacious toward taking away wrath from your own soul, but look to Christ who has fully satisfied the wrath of God for sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ has not left the slightest bit of wrath for you to suffer, but instead has left you nothing but salvation to have for all eternity. What can you do to pay Him back? Absolutely nothing! He did not save sinners for what He could get from them, but instead He saves sinners for the manifestation of the glory of His own grace. Our whole lives are to be lived for His glory out of love as nothing is left to earn for salvation and we cannot pay Him back the slightest. It is all grace.

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.

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.

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)

As long as sinners trust in themselves and think that they have the slightest power in themselves to do something, they will not despair. The present paragraph by Willcox, therefore, is not to those who believe that they have any power in themselves. The Lord Jesus called those who were weary and heavy-laden to Himself, but He did not call the unbroken sinner who was still working for his own righteousness. In fact, He had the hardest words for those who were still trying to earn their own righteousness, but He was kind and tender to the broken hearts of those who were despairing of their sin. As one ancient writer put it, the Lord Jesus never had a harsh word for broken sinners. It is so hard for the proud human heart to utterly despair of all hope from itself. The human heart wants so desperately to rest in something it is or something it has done. It wants to do something, even if it is so small. It will not give up all hope in itself and look to grace to take it by the hand to work despair in self.

The human heart is so bound to self and the efforts of self that it thinks it has given up trying to help self at many points, but it does not. Through modern day preaching and teaching people are told to repent and believe, so they repent and believe (something, or in some way) as a work of self and the flesh and think that they have truly repented and believed. But only those who despair of self and give up all hope in self are called to Christ because only those who leave self will come to Christ in truth. People are told to look to Christ, so they look to Christ in their own way and under their own strength and power. But that is in reality nothing more than one way of looking to self and the strength of self. Christ calls those who despair of self, though not all despair is the despair of self. There is also the despair that is nothing but pride. It is a despair of trying to get God to do what self wants and it is frustrated that God will not do what self wants and when self wants it. True despair is that which is a despair of self, but not toward God. It is the point of true brokenness which self arrives at when it sees that it can do nothing to please God or move God to save it.

Those who are converted can also fall into a trap or pattern of doing duties or making a profession in an effort to find something in self that will please God or give self a form of righteousness. The human heart is so deceptive and so wicked that it will fight and fight in order to keep from a total despair of self because it is at that point that self must bow in humility to the sovereignty of God and the fallen human heart loves self-reliance. Even after the soul has come to Christ, there is a battle with self to look to Christ alone, but the self wants some of the credit and the self still does not want to give up all hope in self at all times. One of the great battles of the believer and the unbeliever is to arrive at a point of despair of self that one may truly look to Christ alone. In this one cannot look to self to look to Christ, but one must utterly forsake self and do that by grace alone or it will still be an act of self in the strength of self.

The heart is a factory of idols (Calvin), but in doing that it is also a factory of ways to look to self rather than despair of self. It is a far different thing to have a theology of grace alone than it is to despair of self and die to self in order that the soul can look to Christ alone. The soul is not saved but its own looking to Christ, but it must be saved by Christ Himself. So the soul looks to Christ to do all the work of salvation rather than thinking that it is saved because it looks. How the heart is so deceptive and fights to obtain some sufficiency for self so that it will not have to look to Christ to receive all. The soul is happy to look to Christ in its own power in order to get something, but it fights to look to Christ alone to receive at His good pleasure. How we must be so careful in examining our hearts, but even then we must pray for the Lord to open our hearts to us. We cannot even do that apart from grace. We are utterly dependent on Him in all spiritual things.

GRACE is the free favor of Jehovah, sovereignly fixed upon his people, and righteously communicating all spiritual and eternal blessings to them, for his own glorification. Every spiritual blessing flows from grace. Jehovah, the all-gracious God, is the fountain of all grace. His favor being fixed, he freely communicates to the unworthy and ill-deserving. He delights to give — as he delights to glorify himself. Grace is enthroned, and reigns “through righteousness unto eternal life — by Jesus Christ our Lord.” When coming to God for grace . . .no recommendation is necessary; every fear is groundless, and all your doubts are sinful. (James Smith, the predecessor of Charles Spurgeon at New Park Street)

The word “grace” is perhaps the greatest and most delightful word in the English language next to the word “Jesus” and related words. It is not just the word, however, but how this word conveys delight to the soul is because it stands for how God relates to poor helpless sinners. It is wonderful to the soul to think of how all spiritual blessings come to the soul by grace alone rather than the soul working to earn them or merit them. The spiritual person lives by grace alone and not because of anything earned or merited. When it is said that a soul lives by grace alone, what is meant is that the soul lives by what it has received from Christ based on the worth and merits of Christ rather than that of the soul that receives the blessings.

The God of all wrath and justice who is so inflexible in justice and holiness for one sin plunged the whole race of human beings under wrath, delights to show grace to the unworthy and ill-deserving. It appears that not only are so many men who are under His wrath are working hard at religious things to earn His favor, but it also appears that some true believers are in bondage by constantly looking to themselves and their own efforts to obtain a blessing from Him. Yes, it is so gloriously true that God is under no obligation to a human being to give grace to them, but He is under obligation to Himself and His own glory to give grace. But it is not a duty to Him to do so, but He delights to show grace and to set forth the glory of His name in doing so.

The wonderful grace of God is not locked up in the safe of one who is hesitant to give, but instead He loves to shine forth His glory in Christ by His grace. This God lives within Himself as triune in perfect love and delight and the overflow of that is His grace toward poor sinners who cannot help themselves. God delights to show grace to sinners because it shows His love for Himself in sinners and it is a display of Himself to sinners. God delights to show grace toward sinners because this puts Himself on display for Himself to delight and enjoy. Let the people of God not be hesitant to come to God for grace, but instead come to Him eagerly and with expectation because He is a God of great mercy who delights to show grace.

If true believers understood the following statement by James Smith it would utterly change their prayer lives. “When coming to God for grace . . .no recommendation is necessary; every fear is groundless, and all your doubts are sinful.” Why do people hesitate to go to God in prayer? One reason is because they continue to have a nagging thought that they must be worthy or that they must turn from all sin before they pray. Another reason is that they think that God does not really want to show grace. A third reason is that they think that God will not give grace but for major things. All of these things are simply arguments that are false. God shows grace to those who have no recommendation and cannot have one. Not only that, those are the only kinds that He will show grace to. This great God loves and delights to show grace and so saved sinners should go to Him expectantly and seek the Lord to delight Himself in glorifying His name by showing grace. It is always a major thing for God to manifest His grace even when He does it for the things that seem so small to us.

How we need to examine our hearts to see the basis on which we come to God to pray. We are told to pray without ceasing, but this is only possible when it is understood how freely sinners may come to God and that we come to a God who delights to show grace. The Scriptures tell us to come to the throne of grace boldly or with great confidence. Is this confidence in ourselves or in God? We should have no confidence in self but have great confidence in God who delights to show Himself and His glory in giving grace to the unworthy and ill-deserving. God loves and delights to show grace. If by His grace God would teach us this in the depths of our souls, we would pray with fervor, joy, and tenacity because He gives us those things by grace as well.

GRACE is the free favor of Jehovah, sovereignly fixed upon his people, and righteously communicating all spiritual and eternal blessings to them, for his own glorification. Every spiritual blessing flows from grace. Jehovah, the all-gracious God, is the fountain of all grace. His favor being fixed, he freely communicates to the unworthy and ill-deserving. He delights to give — as he delights to glorify himself. Grace is enthroned, and reigns “through righteousness unto eternal life — by Jesus Christ our Lord.” When coming to God for grace . . .no recommendation is necessary; every fear is groundless, and all your doubts are sinful.   (James Smith, the predecessor of Charles Spurgeon at New Park Street)

This wonderful and biblical statement (in accordance with the teaching of Scripture) teaches us the nature of spiritual blessings, how spiritual blessings come, and even why they come. A spiritual blessing comes to the sinner by grace alone, though that is not the usual conception of it. We are taught that we must do things to receive a blessing or do things to receive grace. We are taught that blessings come to those who pursue and obtain holiness and so on. No, holiness comes to those who obtain grace by grace alone. Holiness is a spiritual blessing rather than something we have to work for, though indeed it is not easy.

A spiritual blessing comes to sinners by the righteous communication of them by God. Notice that spiritual blessings come to sinners by the RIGHTEOUS communication of them by God. Can God righteously give spiritual blessings to sinners based upon anything found in sinners? Ah, this is such a powerful point of why grace must be sovereignly given instead of based on merit. A righteous God can only give grace in a righteous way. A holy God can only give grace in a holy way. Once again, then, we can see the absolute need of man receiving grace in a way that is sovereign and not because of his own merits, worth, and works. Oh the delights of grace being freely given in Christ and being righteously given at that! Oh the delights of a free grace that saves sinners and bestows spiritual blessings because of the wonder and glory of God rather than the merits, worth, and works of men.

The heart that loves God with all of its beings should not even want a spiritual blessing that is not for the glory of God, though indeed we are but frail human beings and so we are far from perfect in that. But how encouraging it is for a heart that loves God to know that all that God does for that soul is for His glory. How wonderful it is to think that though I am a sinner and I don’t desire and long for His glory that God will use me to shine forth His glory in all the blessings He gives. While I don’t have the heart and ability to glorify Him, God has the ability to glorify Himself in doing good to sinners by giving them spiritual blessings. This is what helps explain how God can righteously give spiritual blessings to sinners. God gives them to the glory of His own name which is the height of holiness and righteousness. No, it is not selfish of God to give blessings to His own glory, but instead it is the height of true love toward Himself and to sinners when He does so. That is the only way He can be righteous and still give spiritual blessings to those who not only don’t deserve them, but ill-deserve them.

How many things are there here for the heart to grow in and helps to die to self. There are many things here to give the soul reasons to praise the greatness of God. These help me examine my heart in asking it whether I desire spiritual blessings regardless of whether they are righteously given or not. I must have a wicked heart if I could care less how they are given as long as I get them. The nature of all spiritual blessings is that they are spiritual and can only come by grace alone, which also instructs me to look at my heart to see if I long for spiritual blessings by grace or if I work for them. Spiritual blessings come to sinners (as to why) because they glorify God. But again, the heart should only desire these blessings if they are for His glory. This is so instructive to ask how I am growing in holiness. I am only growing in holiness if I growing in my desire for His glory in the blessings He bestows. Another key is whether I recognize these as spiritual blessings as opposed to things that make me feel good.

Oh how our hearts should sing of this great grace that is free of our worth, merit, and works and comes to sinners freely because they come by the hand of a righteous God who does all for His glory. This frees sinners to seek grace freely because it is not based on the sinner’s worth and works. This frees sinners to seek His grace because that is how they glorify Him out of true love. God commands sinners to love Him and serve Him, but those things can only be done by grace in the soul freely and sovereignly given and fixed.

GRACE is the free favor of Jehovah, sovereignly fixed upon his people, and righteously communicating all spiritual and eternal blessings to them, for his own glorification. Every spiritual blessing flows from grace. Jehovah, the all-gracious God, is the fountain of all grace. His favor being fixed, he freely communicates to the unworthy and ill-deserving. He delights to give — as he delights to glorify himself. Grace is enthroned, and reigns “through righteousness unto eternal life — by Jesus Christ our Lord.” When coming to God for grace . . .no recommendation is necessary; every fear is groundless, and all your doubts are sinful.   (James Smith, the predecessor of Charles Spurgeon at New Park Street)

Here is a paragraph that sets for the concept and the glory of grace, yet is also very instructive to men of what to examine their hearts for. Grace is the FREE favor of God, which is to say that there is nothing men can do to earn or merit it. Grace has no cause (free of cause) other than God Himself, which is to say that there is nothing men can do to merit it or earn it. Grace cannot stand with the merit of men because it is given apart from the righteousness of man (who has none in reality) and apart from the merit of man (who has none in reality). This grace that is from the true God is utterly and absolutely free from the things that men work for. This grace that is from the God who alone is the fountain of grace changes the hearts of men to be holy rather than men becoming holy that they may receive grace.

Grace is sovereignly fixed upon His people. This grace is not given to them so that men can decide what to do with it, but instead it is fixed upon them and it will work in them as He pleases. Men will only be as holy as grace will make them rather than as holy as their wills can make them. This grace is sovereignly placed upon men and as such it is the hands of God to show it to whom He wills and whom He pleases. This grace is sovereignly placed upon men and as such no man can give it or decide who gets it. This grace is sovereignly placed upon men by God and not by a Pope or a priest or a minister. Man should seek God for grace as sovereignly dispensed rather than seek grace as if it came by the works or efforts of man.

If indeed grace is the free favor of God and sovereignly fixed upon His people, this should drive men to want to rid their hearts of all attachment to human merit, worth, and works. The heart is full of self, pride, and self-sufficiency and men are blinded to their attachment to merit, worth, and works. The mouths of men can be full of words about grace while their hearts are attached to human merit, worth, and works. How easy it is to extol the wonders of grace from the basic and sinful principle of self-love. How easy it is to praise God for all that He has done for me without understanding much of grace at all. How easy it is to praise God for a salvation by grace alone and yet have a heart that looks to self for the cause of its own salvation. How easy it is to praise God for a salvation by grace alone through faith alone and be deceived that the faith of that individual is the faith of self and in self.

The heart of man is fixed on self and why he should get grace because of self, but again that is not what the mouth will say. Arminians have words of praise about grace, but they are fixed on their own wills as free to do good apart from grace. Arminians have words of praise about grace, but they are fixed on their wills as making the final choice in terms of salvation. This is to say that they look to self for something to obtain grace rather than to God alone to give grace based on Himself. Oh how the Arminian will eschew the thought that he has or is working for his own salvation, but despite the words that is precisely the theology of the Arminian. The heart of the theology of the Arminian is that his will is free and for a will to be free it must also be free of grace. A will that is free of grace is not a soul that is saved by grace alone. A will that is free is not a will that must be moved by grace to do anything good. A will that is free is not a will that receives a free grace that is sovereignly fixed by God.

What the heart must see is that it must seek the Lord for grace in order to be free from its own thought of its will being free. Grace is sovereign and that is the only kind of grace that there is. The heart must be freed from its own misconception of free-will by sovereign grace. Those who adhere to a doctrinal Calvinism can also be bound to a heart that looks to itself and is blinded by pride of the doctrine to what it really is. The heart is so deceptive that it can be a Pelagian heart holding to a Calvinistic creed or theory. It is not what a person holds in the brain, but instead it is what the soul has in the deepest recesses that determine what it really is. Grace must be more than a theory and actually and really work in souls that long to be free of self and the merits of self.