God Loves… Himself

Look more at justification than sanctification. In the highest commands consider Christ, not as an exactor to require, but a debtor, committed to the work according to His promise. If you have looked at work, duties and qualifications, more than at the merits of Christ, it will cost your dear. No wonder you go about complaining; graces may be evidences, the merits of Christ alone (without them) must be the foundation of your hope to stand on. Christ only can be the hope of glory (Col 1:27).    Thomas Willcox

The thought here has to do with the foundation that the sinner stands on and what the sinner looks to for assurance. If a sinner looks to his work, duties, and qualifications for justification, all would say that the sinner is trusting in self and a false gospel. But what of those who look to their own works, duties, and qualifications in sanctification? Can we say that they are believing in Christ alone? After all, can we do works and duties enough to sanctify us or is Christ Himself our sanctification as well? The one who believes in Christ is one who will always believe in Christ. The one who repents and believes will be the one who always (in this life) repents. There is never a point where a person is supposed to rest and trust in works, duties, and qualifications for salvation.

I Corinthians 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”

This text teaches us that Christ is our righteousness and so we know that we have no righteousness but that of Christ imputed to us. We will tell all who try to have works and duties as part of their righteousness that they believe in a false Gospel. We will also tell people that Christ is our wisdom and we will chastise others if they try to rest in their own wisdom. We know that our redemption as purchased by the blood of Christ and nothing else and will fight for the idea that our works and duties have nothing to do with obtaining our redemption. But Christ is also our sanctification. But the contrast, it seems, for some reason we are just fine with letting people encroach on the work of Christ by finding it okay to have sanctification by works and duties. This is not to say that the justified person will not have works and duties, but the way of sanctification is by Christ and not works and duties.

The sinner that is to come in the presence of God will never have a way to come but by and through Christ. Once can never come into the presence of God based on his or her own duties and works at any point. Our prayers and our services are tainted with sin and apart from Christ they have nothing in them that God is pleased with. God is not pleased with our sacrifices as such and out duties as such, but all things must be done in and through Christ. When the text above (I Corinthians 1:30-31) tells us that it is by His doing that a person is in Christ, it teaches us with great clarity that it is not by our doing that we are in Christ. When the Father places a person in Christ, the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are all in Christ. We must not yank sanctification out of Christ or out of the rest of the list as if we could do that in our own power.

If sanctification did come in whole or in part by the works and duties of man, then man would have something to boast about. But the whole of salvation and sanctification are in and of Christ and so there is nothing for man to boast about regarding himself, but indeed all he has to boast about is Christ and Christ alone. The Gospel of grace alone is the Gospel of grace alone for the whole of the Christian life and eternity. The Gospel of grace alone is all about Christ and not about the duties and works of man in justification or sanctification. It is all rooted in and worked by Christ. We must not let our views of sanctification be out of Christ.

It is true (as Willcox points out) that graces are evidences, but they are not what we must stand on or trust in as our hope. Christ and the merits of Christ are our only hope. While the true believer will have evidences of grace in the heart and life, those evidences of grace do not take the place of Christ and His merits as what the believer stands on. The believer will have times when there are obvious evidences, but at others the evidences cannot be seen by the despairing eye. At that point the sinner must know that the absence of graces must never take the place of Christ and His merits. At times when God is showing the believer the depths of his or her sin the believer may hit rock bottom and thrash about looking for comfort in anything. There is no comfort in anything or any one but Christ Himself. The merits of Christ saves sinners and the sanctification of sinners can have nothing to do with his justification. Christ and only Christ should be boasted in and trusted in for justification and sanctification.

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

The glorious doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone (justification by Christ alone) is behind this wonderful statement above. While the Gospel saves sinners, it is also the foundation on which sinners must stand for the rest of their lives and for all eternity. God is on the throne and sinners will never see His face and His glory in a manner or way other than grace and grace alone which only comes by Christ. What the believer must grasp is that there is no other satisfaction and no other righteousness that a person can stand on other than the satisfaction made by Christ and the righteousness of Christ.

While some may argue that the Gospel is what unbelievers need to hear and after people become believers they need to hear other things, that is only partially correct. The believer needs to hear the Gospel often as that is the very basis the believer stands on and what the believer must not be moved from. The Gospel is the basis for Christian works as it is the only way a believer can do anything out of love for God rather than love for self, which obviously is the Great Command. A person does not have to legalize the Gospel as to his or her statement on justification to legalize the Gospel, because we can legalize it by the way we treat the Gospel as to whether we live based on Christ alone or not.

This is such an important point. We cannot claim to know the Gospel in truth if after we claim to be converted we go on living in sin, but neither can we claim to know the Gospel in truth if after we claim to be converted we go on living by the law as if we gained something by keeping the law. The law can only be kept out of love, but the soul can only keep the law out of love if it is been freed from earning something from the law. The Gospel of grace alone teaches us to live based on that grace alone. The Gospel of Christ alone teaches us to live based on Christ alone. Our living cannot be separated from the Gospel we believe deep in our hearts.

There are many within Christendom who seem to believe that they should suffer for their sins as if that satisfied God in some way for their sin. No, Christ alone can do that. There seems to be many that think that their salvation is conditioned on their repentance rather than their repentance is conditioned on their salvation. The Gospel is not conditioned by what we do, but rather we are conditioned by the Gospel of grace alone. If the Gospel is truly by grace alone, then there is no condition that we can meet. It is grace alone that saves by itself and apart from any help that we can give it.

The Lord Jesus Christ is not half Mediator and He is not 99.999 Mediator. He is 100% Mediator at all times in the case of the believer. There is no sin that the believer can bear and to try to suffer to make up for a sin is to try to make satisfaction for sin that Christ alone can make. There is no righteousness that a sinner can earn and trying to do so is to say that the righteousness of Christ is less than perfect and that I can add to the work of Christ. These are ways we legalize the Gospel without realizing it in most cases. The Gospel of grace alone is resisted by all men at virtually all points until grace breaks the heart and makes the person pliable in His presence.

The way believers live is a demonstration of how they believe the Gospel. It is not that they are living the Gospel as such, but their lives demonstrate in some ways of how much they believe that they cannot add to the Gospel in any way, shape, form or fashion. Sinners are saved by grace alone and they are to live by grace alone. Sinners are saved by Christ alone and they are to live by Christ alone. Indeed there are severe trials as to faith, health, and all aspects of life, but we are to live by the life of Christ alone. This should lead us to desire to examine our hearts on a regular basis, though not out of a fleshly duty, but out of love for Christ and His grace. We should long to be like the David who wanted his heart exposed to him. So we should want the Spirit to show us ways that are not pleasing to Him and part of that would be living in ways that are not consistent with the Gospel of grace alone.

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

There are some profoundly important thoughts in this paragraph. It is a profoundly biblical thought that believers should look to Christ for pardon from sin, for the strength of grace to carry out the duties, and then after the duty is done we must still look to Christ for the person and the duties to be accepted. There is perhaps a fine line that a person must walk here between the need for duties to be done and forms of legalism. But it is Christ Himself who is the line between those things. As one as one walks the line of Christ then one will not fall into a vicious form of antinomianism or some form of legalism. But there are real and present dangers on both sides.

Notice the language that Willcox gives in his relentless pursuit of biblical thinking on the Gospel and the necessity of Christ-centeredness in all things. Without this, that is, without looking to Christ at all points of the duty “it is but carnal, careless duty.” This is not antinomianism, but this is living unto Christ by the strength of grace. This is not legalism, but living by grace alone. One can have a solid creed and one can have a correct doctrine, but the heart must be looking to Christ whether one has a creed or correct doctrine. The creed and the doctrine does not guarantee a person that s/he is looking to Christ and receiving grace from Christ, but this is something that the heart must actually do as opposed to being just something to intellectually hold as factual.

How could anyone argue against looking to Christ alone before all duties, during all duties, and after all duties? We look to Christ as our bearer of wrath and as such the satisfaction for our sins. We look to Christ as our life and as such the strength and life of grace that dwells in us. We look to Christ as our great Mediator who is the only Mediator between God and man and who alone can take our duties that He has worked in us and present them to the Father in His own name and covered by His own blood and in His own righteousness as perfect. Indeed, our duties are nothing else but carnal, careless duties apart from Christ. But they are carnal and careless duties if they don’t have Christ at all points.

Sinners, while under obligation to love God perfectly, must never legalize the Gospel of Christ alone and make it to where they must suffer for their own sins or make up something that is lacking in the righteousness of Christ. We must never look at our duties as if we do them to make up something that is lacking in Christ. We must never do them in our own strength. We must never do a duty as if it earns us some righteousness. We must always know that a duty that is properly done starts with Christ, is all from Christ all through the duty, and ends with Christ. Anything else is less than the Gospel of grace alone or at least takes us into a form of legalism at some point.

It is true that the Gospel is thought of by so many as that little message a person hears when s/he becomes a Christian, but after that it is not thought so highly of. But the reality of the matter is that the Gospel of grace alone and Christ alone has much to do with life and obedience. It is the Gospel of Christ alone that delivers us from the wrath of God and so we should never try to suffer for sin for the rest of our lives and for eternity. It is the Gospel of Christ alone that gives us a perfect righteousness in this life and for all eternity. Each day we are to live in that light which tells us that we are to live out of love for God and His glory rather than trying to suffer for sin or to earn a bit of righteousness. This great and glorious Gospel of grace alone that comes because of Christ and through Christ has everything to do with all that we are to do. How we need to examine our hearts and cry out for grace to cast out all things opposed to Christ and His glorious life of grace in and through His people.

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.

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

The believer in Christ Jesus must look to Christ at all times and for all things. The gaze of the inward eye of the believer must always (in some sense and to some degree) be looking to Christ for grace and the strength of grace. The believer must look to Christ alone for justification, for sure, but also look to Christ alone for sanctification and Christ alone for holiness and Christ alone for strength in all things.

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

The heart of the believer is in what seems to be a constant battle, and in many ways it is. There is the battle with sin, with the fiery darts and accusations of the evil one, and then striving for holiness. There is the battle with self and pride in doing works by the strength of grace rather than the strength of self and pride. All men have wicked hearts and thought the bondage of sin is broken in redeemed man, he still cannot do one iota of good apart from receiving that from Christ.

The Gospel of grace alone saves men from self and pride by grace alone, yet this does not mean that grace stops. Men are saved by grace alone that they may live by Christ and His grace rather than self. Justifying faith is a gift of God by grace and yet faith must continue and it will only continue if it is upheld by the grace of God. Faith will never come from the will of a believer, but instead the only source of true faith is God. The opposite of faith is pride and self, which means that the more a person looks to self for faith the more opposite of true faith that really is. The encouragement is for the believer to always look to Christ regardless of what is going on and regardless of the circumstances surrounding the believer. There are no answers other than Christ.

The first example given of looking to Christ is that of a person mourning for sin. A person mourning for sin will either be focused on the sin itself, the inward pain or the idea of self-defeat, or the mourning soul will mourn as it looks at Christ and then the looking to Christ will take away the mourning. The point is that so many seem to think that there is something holy about a long mourning for sin and so they focus on the mourning, but the purpose of true mourning is to drive us from sin to Christ. The purpose of mourning for sin is not so that the sinner can suffer enough as if that makes up for part of the sin. That view tells us that there is something insufficient in the sufferings and cross of Christ.

It is important for believers to understand the fullness of Christ and the sufficiency of His cross and righteousness. The believer has no suffering for sin left, though indeed there may be suffering for other reasons. The believer needs to examine his or her heart and look for its attitudes and the secret things of the heart for what it is really doing during times of mourning and suffering. If it is deceived into thinking that the mourning and suffering is in some way meritorious to God, then the soul is not truly looking to a totally sufficient work of Christ. If the soul has the sneaking thought that it deserves something for the suffering or mourning it is going through, then it is not resting completely on the righteousness of Christ. If the soul is mourning and pride comes sneaking in that “I” am mourning in a right way and others are not, then that soul is not looking at the humble Savior. The heart is very deceptive and it takes a lot of humbling of the soul and seeking of the Lord to open our eyes to those deceptions. But that is another aspect of constantly looking to Christ for all things in all circumstances.

You may be brought low, even to the brink of hell, ready to tumble in; you cannot be brought lower than the belly of hell. Many saints have been there, even dowsed in hell; yet even then you may cry, even there you may look toward the holy temple (Jonah 2:4). Into that temple none might enter but purified ones, and with an offering too (Acts 21:26). But now Christ is our temple, sacrifice, altar, high priest, to whom none must come but sinners, and that without any offering, but His own blood once offered (Heb 7:27).      Thomas Willcox

This describes the experience of many of the saints of God, both before they were converted but also after. With the terrors of a tender conscience and the devil’s fiery darts, true believers are brought low and think that they are ready to fall into hell. Their fears are great because they have been wrestling with a heart that has so much darkness and evil in, but the fiery darts of the evil one makes it far worse. They feel that they have been given over to a final hardness of heart and they know that they cannot soften their own hearts. They have this sense of utter terror of hell and the sense of a complete inability to do anything about it. They will walk through a town or the country bemoaning the day that they were born because they were born into sin.

The hand of the living God is merciful toward His people that He leads in this way. He is burning off the dross and teaching them by experience the hatefulness of sin and of their own inability. Those He chooses to lead in this path will not doubt their own inability or of the grace of God. In the perfect timing, providence, and wisdom of God brings the person to the perfect breaking of heart, the brass of heaven will be removed and that person will be able to cry out to God. But even more the brass (in appearance) of heaven is removed and while that person is in a great trial of body or perhaps of faith, even from there the soul should cry out to the living God. It is when the soul has been delivered from self and pride and all trust and confidence in self that the soul knows that there is only One that can help it. It knows that the only One who can help it is not One who helps based on the worth of the soul needing help, but of His own worth. The soul must learn to look to Christ regardless of its condition and regardless of how close to hell it thinks it is. The soul should look to Christ and Christ alone and it needs to learn that by practice, though the Lord makes that practice a hard thing. But we learn obedience through suffering.

There are other things that the soul looks to and must be broken from that. When the soul is brought low by trials, it can look to the law and the keeping of the law, but this will lead the soul to despair or legalism. The soul can look to itself and complain to God that if God loved the soul it should not be treated like it is being treated, but this usually leads to either despair or anger and pouting. Both of the methods of treating the soul and all others is based on the soul looking to self in some way. The soul, though it tells itself that God blesses the obedient and so it strives for obedience according to rules and laws, will be looking to self and the strength of the flesh. It is only the soul that looks to Christ alone that will overcome its great trials by grace. It must be grace that strengthens us and not the flesh. As long as the soul is looking to the law and/or to self in some way, it has not learned to lean on Christ alone and rest in Him alone.

The picture that Willcox gives us is that of the soul entering into the temple. In the temple of the Old Testament one had to bring the blood of a sacrifice and it had to be brought by a high priest. The soul that has been stripped of self-righteousness and stands naked of any help but Christ alone has a High Priest to offer a perfect sacrifice in its place. This soul stands in the blood of Christ and that is its plea. This soul will stand in the righteousness of Christ without one look to its own righteousness. The law was never given so that sinners could have a method of coming to God on the basis of, but instead in the hands of the devil who uses it to point to our sin is accuses and points out the damnation we so richly deserve. The law was never given so that sinners could have righteousness from that law to come to God on. The law was never given as a way for sinners to make up for their sins. No, the law was given in order to show sinners just how sinful they are. When sinners see just how sinful they are, they desire nothing of themselves and will only be satisfied with Christ. Therefore, from the depths they will cry out to Christ and Christ alone and they will look to grace alone rather than anything from themselves. But oh what a hope poor, stripped and naked sinners have in Christ. “Nothing of my own do I bring, simply to the cross I cling.”

You complain much of yourself. Does your sin make you look more at Christ, less of yourself? That is right, or else complaining is but hypocrisy. To be looking at duties, graces, enlargements, when you should be looking at Christ, that is pitiful. Looking at them will make your proud; looking at Christ’s grace will only make you humble. By grace you are saved (Eph 2:5). In all your temptations be not discouraged (James 1:2). Those surges maybe not to break you, but to heave you off yourself upon the Rock Christ.       Thomas Willcox

The idea of complaining is not necessarily bad, but it depends on what one is complaining about and to whom one is voicing the complaints. The driving point of this paragraph (above) is that a person must be driven to Christ or flee to Christ regardless of whether one has the sense of drowning in sin or experiences much grace. If we complain of sin in order to appear righteous to others, that is sinful. If we complain of sin and yet don’t even try to leave the sin, that is sinful. If we complain of sin and yet that drives us to an unhealthy form of introspection, that is sinful as well. What we must see is that if we truly complain of sin that should lead us to complain to Christ who alone can deliver us from sin.

The believer must learn to quit looking at self so much as that leads to a focus on self rather than a sense of dependence on Christ for all things. The heart must be given to Christ and to Christ alone rather than doting on self in some way. The gaze of the believer’s love and heart is to be fixed on Christ rather than self. Christ opens the hearts of His children at times so that they can see how foul they are which should drive them to Him. Christ may open the hearts of His children so that they can see their great weakness, but that is so that they will seek Him as the total Self-Sufficient One in all things. But by nature men are focused on self and want to remain that way. For some reason they think that they can cure themselves of sin or that there is some righteousness to be obtained by focusing on the sin. There are times to focus on sin, yes, but that is to break ourselves of a self-focus and drive us to Christ in all things.

The opposite of the person (only in one sense) who dwells on his own sinfulness rather than the sin driving him to Christ is the person that dwells upon his or her own gifts and graces. What these two things have in common is that they both dwell on self rather than Christ. The person that focuses on his or her own gifts and graces rather than being taken with the giver and worker of those gifts and graces is a proud person and does not realize the true source of those graces. If we see graces and kept duties in ourselves, that should lead us to praise Christ alone and not self. The giving of grace that gives us graces should lead us to marvel at the grace that God shows. But it is so easy for an imperfect heart to use grace to focus on self rather than Christ.

Whether God opens the eyes of sinners to see their sin or opens the hearts of some to obedience by grace, the purpose is to show all our utter dependence upon Christ. How the heart of the believer may be taken up with a temptation, but the believer needs to focus on the grace of Christ and the cross of Christ in order to break the power of that temptation. But the heart of the believer may also be taken up with the graces that God gives and works through that believer, but in that case the believer should also look to Christ for strength to overcome such a sinful and wicked heart that would try to take the credit for what Christ is doing in the soul.

The soul must learn that it has no strength in terms of fighting sin at its root apart from Christ. The Lord Jesus has left His people in a state of total and utter dependence upon Him if they are to do good at all. Jesus told us that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). It is only grace that can teach us this in the depths of the soul and it is only grace that can give us the grace to rest in Christ whether in times of temptation or in times where God is working His graces in and through us. Both temptations to sin and graces given are to teach us that we must have Christ at all times. We may indeed swing from one to the other as we grow, but we need to learn to seek Christ as our Rock and our Anchor at all times. Our hearts are too often taken away from Christ to look to self in some way.

Because our blessed Lord, His apostles, and prophets have said such things, many think they believe them, when in truth they do nothing less. The reason why they so deceive themselves, is, that what they read in the Scripture, they readily make bond to their own fancies; but were they to hear the same words from any minister of the gospel in a sermon, or to read them in any evangelical author, they would immediately exclaim against them, as Methodism, Enthusiasm, Calvinism, Antinomianism, and what not. To make us believe God’s word upon its own record and upon its own authority, requires a power more than human.      Sir Richard Hill

The truth of the words above has much to teach all, from the lowest to the highest in understanding. It is easy to read the Bible and think that the words are understood, but what is hidden to us is that we read the Bible and we understand it according to our own ways of thinking. That way of thinking may have been developed by history or by others around us, but that is not the same thing as reading the Bible and understanding it according to the intent of the Author of Scripture. We can see that in others when they read the Bible to find proof of their own positions. This is quite easy to do, as those who know their own hearts even a little will testify that they have done so. The Scriptures say what they say, indeed, but our intent and motives in reading them will cause us to twist things to our own prejudices if we are not very careful. The understanding we have combined with self-love will always move us to read the Bible in accordance with our present understanding and it will also move us to interpret things in a way that make them easier on our own hearts and sin.

Every single time a person reads the Scriptures something changes. The Scriptures (by the power of the Spirit) will change the person to be more in line with the will of God or the person will change the meaning of the Scriptures to be more in line with the person. Indeed there may be a middle ground where a person is reading so lightly that no real changing is taking place, but instead the person is just reading to be reading or to do the ritual for the day and no understanding is taking place. But if a person is paying attention to the Scriptures, that person will either be changed or will change the Scriptures. It must happen.

The nature of the unregenerate is to hate the truth of God and of true light holiness. The unregenerate person will twist and turn the Word of God to where s/he is comfortable with it or can like it at that point, but at the same time will insist that s/he is simply reading or interpreting the Bible as to what it clearly says. The regenerate person has to watch his or her own heart as well. True holiness and love for God is not natural, but instead must come from God each time it comes. Reading the Bible can cause the regenerate person to become uncomfortable as well. The regenerate person is in a spiritual battle each time s/he reads the Bible as well. Reading the Bible, then, is not an easy task where the calm person simply takes a seat in a comfortable chair and reads the Bible while sipping on a hot drink. If a person is really engaging the Scripture, a battle is taking place and the Scriptures may be insulting the person doing the reading. If a person is wrestling with God while s/he reads, this person can actually be groaning, weeping, praising, and even crying out to God in a loud voice.

Reading the Bible with the intent to be conformed and transformed is not an easy task, but instead it is a battle with self and the devil. We cannot come to the Scriptures with a proud heart and a confidence in our methods of interpretation and our own intelligence if we wish to find out the true meaning of Scripture. The true meaning of Scripture has more to do with the work of the Spirit in us in conforming us to Christ and transforming us as it does just simply understanding the doctrine or narrative. We cannot claim to understand Scripture unless we see how Christ shines forth in them and His Spirit is working the fruit of the Spirit in us to make us like Christ. Believing the Scriptures is not just saying we believe them, nor is it just an intellectual exercise we go through. It is being changed by the living God who speaks in the Scriptures and through His people.

John 7:17 “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.

John 13:17 “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Ezekiel 36:27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

Matthew 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Satan may bring forward and corrupt scripture, but he cannot answer scripture. It is Christ’s word of mighty authority. Christ foiled Satan with it (Mat 4:7). In all the scripture there is not an ill word against a poor sinner stripped of self-righteousness. No! it plainly points out this man to be the subject of the grace of the gospel, and none else. Believe but Christ’s willingness, and that will make you willing. If you find you cannot believe, remember it is Christ’s work to make you believe. Put Him upon it; He works to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). Mourn for your unbelief, which is a setting up of guilt in the conscience above Christ, and undervaluing the merits of Christ, accounting His blood an unholy, a common, and unsatisfying thing.      Thomas Willcox

Oh what an encouragement this is to poor sinners who have Christ and yet doubt as they are tossed by trials and temptations and wonder at their unbelief. Believing these things and/or having faith is the work of Christ and not human strength or ability. It is God who works faith in the soul by His grace. Even those who come to the point of recognizing that faith is the gift of God’s grace in salvation seem to leave it at that point rather than see that grace as always being in the hand of God to dispense as He pleases. It is so easy to buy into the ways of modern religion regardless of what theological stripe one wears, and that way is that man is to depend on self. Faith/belief has become the work of man that man is to depend on rather than what God gives broken sinners. True faith is looking to Christ for faith and not looking to the will of man for faith in Christ. True faith comes to the soul by grace and true faith receives grace rather than working by the strength and efforts of the human will.

Those who have felt the bondage of their own hearts know that they cannot look to themselves in hope for faith to get something from Christ, but instead the real truth is that those who know the bondage of their own hearts know that they must look to Christ in order to believe. It is Christ alone by His Spirit who can give them a fresh view of the blood of Christ on the cross. It is Christ alone who can show them that His merits are far greater than their demerits. This work of Christ in the soul is not just something that He does here and there, but it is something that He does for His children on a regular basis. The children fall into pride or trusting in self and in His sovereign care He leaves them to wallow in that for a while in order to teach them their utter dependence upon Him in a fresh way and a deeper way. He may withdraw His restraining hand from them in order to show them what their hearts are without Him and how dependent they are on Him to refrain from sin and to do anything good.

Growing spiritually is not done according to the human will and kindness, but according to the Divine will and spiritual kindness. God will give a person spiritual growth as He pleases and most of the time that involves hard things, and a lot of the time that involves hard things that stretch us beyond our abilities. Until we are stretched beyond our perceived abilities we will continue to trust in self rather than look to His grace. When the soul is in the midst of a very hard trial, it will reach the point of seeing that it cannot believe any longer. Ah, says the soul, I am lost. But the soul may not be lost despite what it feels. It feels the pain of being pushed beyond what it can believe in its own strength, but that may be the hand of God stretching the soul to learn to look to Him in order to believe. This being pushed to the brink and beyond, so to speak, is God’s mercy to us to teach us to look to Him for all things spiritual.

Yes, it is true, the soul is to live by grace and live by faith. But when the soul cannot live by faith, it must learn that this is a gift of Christ in order that Christ may give Himself and His spiritual blessings. The soul should learn at some point, though indeed relapses are common in this area due to our pride and self-reliance, that when it knows that it is being pushed beyond its ability to believe it must look to Christ for faith. Even more, at some point the soul should learn to look to Christ before that happens and constantly look to Christ for faith. The problem with that however, is that the Divine wisdom knows that point and it can go beyond that point as well in order to teach us that we need grace in order to believe each and every day. Instead of the soul being cast into despair for its unbelief, it should know that faith in self is self-righteousness. We must be stripped of that in order to rest in grace.

Yes, we should mourn for our unbelief in thinking our sin is greater than the blood of Christ. Yes, it is a sin to undervalue the merits of Christ. But it is a far greater sin to think that our sin in this regard is beyond the work of Christ. Jesus Christ died for our sins of unbelief. Jesus Christ died for poor helpless sinners who waver and doubt and agonize over their unbelief. We must learn to rest in Christ in all our pain and despair. It is all of grace.

Satan may bring forward and corrupt scripture, but he cannot answer scripture. It is Christ’s word of mighty authority. Christ foiled Satan with it (Mat 4:7). In all the scripture there is not an ill word against a poor sinner stripped of self-righteousness. No! it plainly points out this man to be the subject of the grace of the gospel, and none else. Believe but Christ’s willingness, and that will make you willing. If you find you cannot believe, remember it is Christ’s work to make you believe. Put Him upon it; He works to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). Mourn for your unbelief, which is a setting up of guilt in the conscience above Christ, and undervaluing the merits of Christ, accounting His blood an unholy, a common, and unsatisfying thing.     Thomas Willcox

Here are some marvelous truths that poor sinners who have given up all hope in themselves and their own righteousness will find food for their souls in. Satan will misuse Scripture, twist it, and corrupt it. But what a comfort it is to know that he cannot answer it. We can see how Christ used the sword of the Word in His temptation in answering Satan who twisted Scripture in his temptation of Christ. The Lord Jesus quoted the Scripture in His answers to Satan’s use of them and that settled the issue. The great truth that is pointed out by Willcox above is that while Satan will attack people and use Scripture in some way, he will corrupt Scripture and twist it in his use. But the response of the believer is to look at Scripture in truth and rest in that. The authority of Christ is behind His Word and it is what is true and Satan cannot overturn that.

While Satan attacks believers with Scripture in his accusations, we can know that he is twisting Scripture when he is attacking poor sinners who have given up all hope and trust in their self-righteousness. He attacks the true believer who may be a doubting believer in the darkness of the dungeon of despair, but that same poor and doubting believer must look to the right portions of Scripture in the right way. The Word of God never says a word against the humbled and broken of heart sinner. The Word of God does not condemn sinners who are broken for their sin and have no self-righteousness that they are leaning on. The Word of God speaks of Christ as a tender Shepherd for sinners like that. The Word of God speaks of Christ as the Physician of souls who applies the balm of Gilead to the wounds and hurts of poor, broken sinners.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is of grace alone and that means grace without any help or works of man. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for the worst of sinners and none else. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not for the proud or those who are proud of their humility. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not for those who are diligent in their religion and in their morality and yet trust in their religion or in their morality. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not for the great theologians who can write tomes on theology (perhaps in an orthodox manner) and yet are not broken-hearted sinners. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not for the ministers with golden voices who preach with great eloquence upon things of religion but with self-righteousness and yet without a heart that is broken. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is only for poor sinners who have nothing of themselves to plead and look to grace alone for every spiritual blessing that is found only in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.

Isaiah 66:2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Oh poor sinner who is broken of heart and mourning over your lack of righteousness and sins of the heart that you seem to be drowning in. Jesus Christ came to save such as you and not the proud regardless of how holy they think they are. God dwells with the broken and the lowly rather than the proud and the successful person in religion. God loves to lift up the lowly and manifest His glory and grace in them. Take heart, poor sinner, look to Christ and His Word and know that it is true rather than the fiery darts of the evil one. Grace reigns and what a glorious reign it is!