God Loves… Himself

Whatsoever is of nature’s spinning must be all unraveled before the righteousness of Christ can be put on. Whatever is of nature’s putting on, Satan will come and plunder every rag away, and leave the soul naked and open to the wrath of God. All that nature can do will never make up the least gram of grace that can mortify sin, or look Christ in the face one day. Thomas Wilcox

It is one thing to understand the righteousness of Christ as a doctrine, but it is quite another reality to behold the righteousness of Christ. But to go even farther, it is quite another to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ which is to be clothed with Christ Himself. It is to be clothed with Christ Himself. Before a person can put on a new set of clothes, the old clothes must be taken off. This is true because of the size of the clothes but also because the old will get the new dirty. The point of the biblical truth, however, is that the two cannot go together.

Every person in the world is clothed in some form of righteousness in his or her own eyes. No one but those that the Spirit has enlightened their eyes to see their own nakedness (in terms of righteousness before God) can see these things. Adam and Eve began to make excuses and blame others as soon as they sinned, which shows that they were trying to defend their own righteousness. The worst of men and women defend themselves regardless of their actions in order to defend their own righteousness. Men and women will defend their actions throughout their lives (not to mention others) in order to defend their own righteousness, but they must be brought to the point of utter and total nakedness in their own sight before they will look to Christ alone. The analogy is quite to the point. The very rags of self-righteousness must be taken off so that a person may be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. But the person cannot take those rags of in his or her own strength, but grace must do this.

Anything that nature is capable of doing in terms of morality or of religion is no better than filthy rags, yet that is what people would rather be clothed in rather than Christ. People prefer to earn their own righteousness (they think) rather than see their own sin and filthy rags and turn from those and look to Christ alone. But some day Satan will come and show the soul what it is really like before he drags it down to hell where the soul is exposed to nothing but wrath and wrath for eternity. The soul has no covering in reality and so is open to the wrath of God, which is exactly what Satan desires of all human beings who bear the image of God. Oh how the proud heart wants to retain the thought toward itself and for others to think of it that it is righteous, but the reality is that it is poor, blind and naked. The poor sinner will try to clothe itself in good thoughts of self and the good thoughts of others, but that is nothing but self-righteousness and that is nothing but filthy rags.

The poor sinner will never have Christ and his righteousness put on him or her in truth and reality (though many will be deceived about it) because the blinded and deluded sinner (despite claiming great light) still looks to his own righteousness in many ways. Even if the poor sinner did the very best s/he could do each and every moment of life, apart from regeneration and the clothing of the sinner with Christ the sinner will not have the least amount of grace to appear before God with and will not have the least amount of grace to mortify sin. This is to point out that all that men can do apart from grace has no standing before God in the slightest. Apart from grace man has no way to do anything but sin and add demerit and wrath to his standing before God.

While it is interesting to know and think about how unbelievers constantly try to appear righteous to themselves, it is far more sad to think of professing believers who are secretly trying to stand in their own righteousness because of their supposed faith or works at church. These people can be orthodox and yet trust in their own orthodoxy as their righteousness rather than looking to grace alone to give them righteousness in Christ. These people can also try to hide their sin to themselves in order to appear righteous to themselves. This type of person can try to believe in grace and profess grace alone and yet deep in that heart the person is trusting in self and the profession of grace rather than Christ and His grace alone. The heart is so damnably deceptive that it will hide under every orthodox doctrine or practice in order to maintain something of its own righteousness. That type of heart refuses to come into the light and loves the darkness because it will not see its own nakedness and its own vileness before God. But regardless of whether a person is in open rebellion or is the most pious appearing professing Christian, the person that does not have Christ in reality is a damned soul. The person that will not bow to God as a vile person with no righteousness and no ability to gain it will not have Christ and the robe of the righteousness of Christ.

Nature can afford no balsam fit for soul cure. Healing from duty, and not from Christ, is the most desperate disease. Poor, ragged nature, with all its highest improvements, can never spin a garment fine enough (without spot) to cover the soul’s nakedness. Nothing can fit the soul for that use but Christ’s perfect righteousness.            Thomas Wilcox

Wilcox is quite clear that sin is bad enough, but trying to heal our wounds from sin is perhaps even worse. A heart that thinks it can overcome sin by self-righteousness is a deceived heart, but the heart that thinks it can make up for sin or that it can earn something from God on the basis of self-righteousness is a horribly darkened heart. The natural man and anything in all of creation can do nothing of a spiritual nature. There is nothing that the natural man can do in his filthy heart do, even with all the refinements of education and religion, to cover one sin much less cover his entire soul for his entire life. The soul is completely naked of righteousness and is covered with sores that are bleeding and oozing. The only thing that can heal the sores is Christ. The only thing that can cover the nakedness of the soul is the righteousness of Christ.

People can be taught though means of education and example how to be polite, some basic manners, and to be morally acceptable in society. People can be taught a high degree of information about nature and basic external morality, but also a lot about internal morality that is within the grasp of human endeavors apart from the Spirit of God and the fruits of the Spirit. But not even the highest degree of those things can possibly cover for one sin. There is no obtaining the righteousness necessary to have one sin covered much less all sin covered apart from the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteousness that man must have can and will only come by grace and grace alone. There is nothing that man can work up that will please God as God can only be pleased with Himself and His own works. The righteousness of Christ satisfies both points as He is God and so the works of Christ are the works of God. In the righteousness of Christ God is pleased with that righteousness because it shines for His glory and He beholds His own glory in that.

The grace of God is what saves sinners from beginning to end and not what man can work up to cover his own vile nakedness. Of himself man can only sin in every thought, word, desire, intent, motive, and deed. Man drinks iniquity like water and in every part he is full of self, pride, and all manners of sin. There is nothing in man that would attract a holy, holy, holy God who is perfect in justice and wrath as well, so this should teach us with utter certainty that God saves by grace alone. How vile and awful are the sermons of the hirelings who will not teach men how utterly impossible it is for them to earn the slightest bit of righteousness and how they really are in the sight of the living God. How wicked it is for so-called preachers not to point men to the grace of God over and over rather than their own morality and works. Men must be driven from their works as they are bound fast to them by nature and love. They will only be driven from them by grace and so ministers need to set forth the glory of this grace that will take away their sin and give them a perfect robe of the righteousness of Christ.

There is nothing that will fit the soul nor cover it from the wrath to come but the righteousness of Christ. This robe of righteousness is fitted and created for each soul that God chooses and it will fit that soul perfectly and is all that the soul will ever need. All the righteousness that men try to work up is nothing but works of filth and dirt and will not cover the soul with a perfectly white and clean robe of righteousness. The righteousness of men is like a very poor tailor who cannot measure and cannot sew and uses only manure to stitch together garments. But the grace of God is what measures and sews the perfect garment out of the finest of materials and they will last for eternity.

Why will men not look to Christ alone and His beautiful garment that fits perfectly and will last for eternity? It is because they want to do it themselves. It is because they want to sew something of it so that they will have some control of their salvation and some of the glory of it as well. But Christ will not share His glory with another. The Gospel of grace alone is exactly and precisely that. It is a Gospel of grace alone and it will not share the smallest thread of men’s works. The Gospel of grace alone has been planned from eternity with a perfect plan and it has been carried out perfectly by Christ. There is nothing that needs to be added or can be added. It stands alone or men will stand without the righteousness of Christ and will stand on their own righteousness which less than a pile of manure in the sight of God. We must forsake our own works and efforts and look to grace alone by grace alone.

Nature can afford no balsam fit for soul cure. Healing from duty, and not from Christ, is the most desperate disease. Poor, ragged nature, with all its highest improvements, can never spin a garment fine enough (without spot) to cover the soul’s nakedness. Nothing can fit the soul for that use but Christ’s perfect righteousness.      Thomas Wilcox

There is nothing in all of creation that can heal the soul. That statement is so powerful and hits at some real issues with the Gospel of Christ alone, yet it is so ignored in how souls are dealt with. It is possible for the body to be healed and for the body to obtain help from things of nature, but it is heresy to assert that anything of nature can help the soul. The deceptive hearts of men and women who are born according to the flesh and by nature are children of wrath can do nothing to heal their own souls. A soul that is born from above is born of the Spirit and so it requires the Spirit and His work to heal the soul, but of course He works as the Spirit of the Great Physician. As the soul that is born of God as a supernatural work of God so the only cure that can cure the soul of sin is a supernatural work of God. As all of creation could not create itself or change its own nature, so the soul that is dead in sin can only be made alive by the giver of life. The use of analogies could be multiplied, but the real point and issue is that nature has nothing to help the soul.

Men and women try to heal their desperate disease of the soul (even death) by pasting a few dead works on the wound in order to cover it up, but that is no better than Adam’s leaves. We are given all sorts of duties in our day to help the soul, but what we don’t hear is that nothing found in nature and nothing that is produced by nature can possible touch the inmost aspect of the human being. People constantly try to make up for their past sins by present duties, which is nothing but trying to make up for our sins by our works. There is nothing a human being can do to make up for one sin much less the many multitudes of sins that humans commit daily, yet it is rare to find a person that does not try to make up for sin by working or doing good or being religious in some way.

The law was never given in order to help people save themselves and works were never given as a way of salvation. This is so very hard for the mind to grasp and deal with, but it is even harder to deal with it from the heart. A heart can still be in the bondage of works while professing justification by faith alone. A heart can still be the slave of sin and in bondage to works while professing Christ alone and grace alone. The heart has so many winding trails and deceptions that it will use orthodox language to support its heresies and its frail and futile attempts to work for salvation. The heart will take the orthodox language of justification and sanctification and yet use the orthodox language and theology to justify the hidden desire to be in control of salvation and so do it by works. We can say the words that our sanctification in some way is evidence of a changed heart, but our hearts can still be trusting in its works rather than Christ alone even as the mouth pours forth orthodoxy.

The human nature is so diseased with sin that it is sinful in all of its parts and nothing is left that is untainted by sin in human nature and in all the works that any human being can do. How can sinful works, though with some outward good in appearance, make up for sin when it is in itself sinful? How can sinful works, which the soul is trusting in, help the soul when it is adding to the sins of the person? How can good works, which Christ has created His people for, plans out the good works and gives them grace to do them make up for sin or add to righteousness? The human soul was not made to help itself, but instead it is to look to grace alone rather than works for its healing. The proud and very stout human heart will allow God to help it some and perhaps help it a lot, but the proud heart will not be saved by grace alone. The proud heart may be deceived enough that it will come to an intellectual understanding of grace alone and so bow to that, but in its heart it things it is distinguishing itself by believing the doctrine. This will not cure the soul that grace alone can do.

Orthodox doctrine and a grand system of doctrine can become a system of thought and/or works for some to think that they have arrived, but those doctrines and systems of doctrines can be held and believed to some degree without having the grace of Christ applied to the healing of the soul. A belief in correct doctrine can be that which comes from nature as well and a belief in a doctrine concerning Christ is different than a believing in Christ. A belief about grace is different than the application of grace by the Spirit on a believing soul. The soul cannot be healed by works of any kind and that includes the religious kind as well. We are lost apart from grace alone.

Consider, the greatest sins may be hid under the greatest duties, and the greatest terrors. See that the wound that sin has made in your soul be perfectly cured by the blood of Christ! Not skinned over with duties, humblings and enlargements. Apply what you will besides the blood of Christ, it will poison the sore. You will find that sin was never mortified truly, if you have not seen Christ bleeding for you upon the cross. Nothing can kill it, but beholding Christ’s righteousness.   Thomas Wilcox

The heart is deceptive, sin is deceptive, and the devil is the deceiver. The sentence above that “the greatest sins may be hid under the greatest duties” is more insightful the more one thinks about it. There are at least two ways of looking at the meaning, with one being that people can hide their sins under doing great duties and so they don’t look at their sins because they are focused on their duties. The second way is that people’s greatest sins are in doing the duties but the duties hide the sin from the understanding of the person, or the sin is in the heart of the person and they are blinded by the external actions or duties. It could also be true that both ways of understanding the statement are true.

We can take a minister as an example. The minister is caught up with religious activities and even fervor and so cannot see anything but what he is doing. He can be orthodox in his theology and quite moral in terms of his external behavior, but his heart is the issue. This man can be doing all he does out of the love of self though he may think that he is doing it all for the glory of God. After all, he knows that a person should do all for the glory of God and he says he does all for the glory of God, so he assures himself that he is doing all to the glory of God. But this minister has deceived himself and is actually doing all from his own strength (strength of the flesh) instead of receiving his strength from grace. The deception of the heart is so strong in that the person knows what is right and he tells himself that he is doing what is right but his own motives and intents are hidden from him.

We can also think of a pastor standing in the pulpit to preach. The man has worked hard on his manuscript and has consulted multiple commentaries. The man has spent time praying over the sermon and during the week has spent time in reading the Bible. All of the actions of this man are commendable, but in many ways they don’t tell us what is in the heart of this man. The sermon is delivered, even delivered well, and it is straight from the Bible and is very orthodox. But where is the heart of that man? He can be deceived by how orthodox the sermon is and perhaps how orderly and even how well it came off, but that tells us nothing how the heart. Did he love God in the preparation of the sermon? Did he love God in the giving of the sermon? Perhaps this man preaches orthodox sermons in order to make it appear that he is righteous. This man can be covering over a heart that hates the true God with sermons that are orthodox. This man can be hiding an adulterous heart (spiritually adulterous) and an idolatrous heart under the guise of orthodox sermons. The man can be quite deceived himself and yet his sin is being hidden under his great duty.

We can also imagine this man (the minister) has having what appears to be a perfect family (whatever that may mean). The family is ordered well, the wife is a great helper to him, and the kids are nice kids. But once again, we are looking on the outside and we are not looking at the heart of the man or the family. The two Greatest Commandments do not tell us many things, but they do tell us to love God with all of our being all of the time. All the external things of family and church can be ordered by human flesh, carried out by human flesh, and in so doing hide true unbelief and enmity toward God underneath outward acts of righteousness.

While this little BLOG used ministers as an example, this can be true of any man in virtually any situation. Men will go to great lengths to hide their true heart from others and even themselves, but men can be greatly deceived by religion. The very outward acts that religion requires of people can be done in the flesh and men use that to deceive themselves. The very outward acts of religion that religion requires of people can hide the reality of the spiritual realm and the utter necessity of a new heart and of true love. We make the horrible assumption that if we are doing the outward acts then of necessity that shows a new heart and we must have true love. In that case, once again, the greatest of sins (self-righteousness and true unbelief) are hidden by and underneath the greatest duties.

Consider, the greatest sins may be hid under the greatest duties, and the greatest terrors. See that the wound that sin has made in your soul be perfectly cured by the blood of Christ! Not skinned over with duties, humblings and enlargements. Apply what you will besides the blood of Christ, it will poison the sore. You will find that sin was never mortified truly, if you have not seen Christ bleeding for you upon the cross. Nothing can kill it, but beholding Christ’s righteousness.    Thomas Wilcox

These words by Wilcox, written in the mid-1600’s, have more wisdom and insight than most of the books written in the modern day. If we simply accept the fact that men are in darkness and have no spiritual wisdom but what is given to them by grace, we can easily see that men don’t truly see their sin. If we then accept the fact that men have deceptive hearts in their blindness, it is easy to see that men will not understand how truly great some sins are. Instead of dealing with the truth of sin in their hearts and seek the cure of sin by Christ, they will focus on doing duties thinking that their duties will cover their sin when in fact trying to cover sin with duties is a great sin itself as it is a form of self-righteousness and a rejection of the righteousness of Christ. The heart is so terribly deceitful that it will try to hide great sins with duties which is to hide sin with more sin and possibly and even greater sin. The wound of sin cannot be taken care of by anything other than the blood of Christ. Nothing but Christ, nothing but Christ, nothing but Christ should be the song of every heart that knows its sin.

When Wilcox uses the words “skinned over with duties, humblings and enlargements,” he covers a lot of territory. Some of the meaning may be of how it is not the animals that covers our sins, but Christ.  Not only do our deceptive and deceitful hearts work to get us to try to cover over our sins and consciences with duties, but they also try to deceive us into thinking that it is enough to be humbled in some way for sin. We should be humbled for sin, though there are forms of humility that are not true humility and these can be used for hearts to deceive themselves with. The heart is so wicked it will also think that if it has some enlargement of heart that God must have forgiven it, but again that is deception. Duties, being humbled, and an enlargement of soul can be nothing but the work of the flesh. The Israelites had many duties and many things that they were to do to humble themselves, but all of those could be and were done as works of the flesh. The works of the flesh, regardless of how religious they are and how pleasing they may be in the sight of others or self who see them, will not cover over the smallest part of the smallest sin. Nothing but Christ can do that.

As Wilcox notes, when we apply things other than Christ to our sin what we are really doing is seen by the analogy of pouring poison on an open sore. Trying to cover an open sore with poison is no cure at all but will certainly lead to a greater sickness and perhaps death. The wound of sin needs to be cured and the poison of duties, humblings, and enlargements will do nothing but make things worse. Making all efforts to keep the law will not cover sin because the intent of giving the law was to reveal sin. Trying to come up with sorrow and humility from the flesh is an effort to keep the law in a way, but it is from the flesh and there is no profit at all in the flesh. Poor sinners who are not instructed in the Gospel of grace are constantly going to physicians who are pouring poison upon the wounds of their patients and the patients are so blind that they cannot see that either. There is only one Physician who is suited to the deadly wounds of sin and that is Christ Jesus. It is His blood alone that can heal.

Sinners also set out to mortify sin, but they set out to do this by the works of the flesh in various duties. It is Christ alone and His cross and righteousness that will mortify sin. It is Christ in the soul teaching the soul by His Spirit that it must die to sin and grow more and more in living out what it means to be crucified with Christ. As a sinner is declared just in Christ and because of Christ, the Scriptures also teach us that the sinner in Christ is said to have been crucified with Christ. It is in beholding the crucified Lamb of God and seeing the value and worth of the bloody cross as the glory of God shines in those great truths that sinners are in time mortified to sin. Nothing can kill my sin and my trying to cover sin with the poison of duties than growing into the truth of being crucified with Christ and having His perfect righteousness. What good are duties for righteousness if sinners have a perfect righteousness in Christ and have no need for any more? His righteousness is perfectly sufficient. In light of Christ who suffered and died on a bloody cross and His perfect righteousness for sinners, there is nothing but poison in anything else that sinners try to cure their wounds of sin by. The worst thing of all, perhaps, are the works of religion which is using the things that should point to Christ in an effort to do what Christ alone can do.

You who pride yourself on the gifts you have, look to see there is not a worm at the root that will spoil all your fine gourd, and make it die about you in a day of scorchings. Look over your soul daily, and ask, Where is the blood of Christ to be seen upon my soul? What righteousness is it that I stand upon to be saved? Have I got away from all my self-righteousness? Many eminent religious people have come at length to cry out, in the sight of the ruin of all their duties, “Undone, undone, to all eternity!”       Thomas Wilcox

The pride of gifts is one that is hidden to many and yet all have it to varying degrees. Some pride themselves on their physical gifts in the sense of athletic ability or perhaps in the area of the arts or craftsmanship in some field. Others have pride in their intellectual gifts, but what Wilcox is speaking of here is in the realm of Christian living. Regardless of the area of giftedness the human heart is either given to pride or prone to pride for anything it might be able to distinguish itself from some others. The proud heart is always looking for a way to distinguish itself in order that it and others may admire it. The area of spiritual giftedness is no different in the human heart in one sense, but it can really expose the depths of pride in its own way.

All physical gifts are from God, but they are perceived to be something He gives us in our genetic material and then leaves the use of them up to us. Spiritual gifts are thought to be gifts that He gives us to be used at church or in spiritual things and yet they are still thought to be powered and used at our discretion. What Wilcox is getting at, or at least I think so, is that some people have pride in their use of what they think of as spiritual gifts and yet there is no reliance upon the blood of Christ for sin and no reliance on the righteousness of Christ. The gifts themselves can appear to hide our sinful hearts from us and they (the gifts) can hide our absolute need of the righteousness of Christ each and every moment from us.

Spiritual gifts (whether real or simply perceived as such) are from God and are to be powered by grace with the intent of His glory. Spiritual gifts are not to be used for the honor of self whether before our own eyes or before others, but instead they are to be manifestations of the glory of God. Even in our physical gifts they are not there so that the creature can use them to exalt self, but instead are for the glory of God. With spiritual gifts, however, it seems that the obligation to use them for the glory of God is even greater. There is no place for anyone to exercise a physical gift and then exalt in himself before himself and/or others, but to use a spiritual gift in that way is idolatry and even blasphemy. It is to use Christ and His Spirit as means to gain honor and glory for self rather than to seek the glory and honor of Christ.

Each heart should be careful to note that pride in what it is doing is completely opposite of what the humble Lamb of God was when He took human flesh to Himself and went to the cross to die for the glory of God and the good of sinners. A heart of pride is completely opposite to a heart that is resting in the righteousness of Christ which He earned by humble doing all that He was sent to do and fulfilling the law out of love for God and His people. When Christ healed a person He was not full of pride, but instead He pointed to God. When Christ fed thousands, that did not fill Him with pride but instead He humbly pointed to the glory of God.

When sinners see how utterly dependent upon God for all things, they should bow in humility before Him for any good He does through them. When sinners see that they have done something that appears to be good, instead of being puffed up about themselves they should be humbled that God would use them. When sinners see that they have done something of spiritual good, then should examine their hearts and know that it was the blood of Christ that purchased the Spirit for them and it was the Spirit who worked that in them. Despite all of that, sinners who are even modestly acquainted with their own hearts will know that their own sinful hearts have tainted all that they do and so they know that the very best they do still needs the blood of Christ to cover them. They will also know that the very best they have done, since it is tainted with sin, can add nothing to their own righteousness and as such they know that they need the perfect righteousness of Christ. Each day, then, sinners should be looking to Christ alone knowing that if what they are doing is causing them to think of self and seek the honor of self that means they are not looking to Christ alone. Only those who have Christ alone will not be cast out. We should be diligent to search our hearts to see if we are looking to the cross and righteousness of Christ alone.

You that glory in being a Christian, you shall be winnowed. Every vein of your profession will be tried to purpose. It is terrible to have it all come tumbling down, and to find nothing but itself to stand upon…You who pride yourself on being a Christian, see to your waxen wings, which now will melt with the heart of temptation. What a misery is it to trade much, and be bankrupt at length, and have not stock, nor foundation laid for eternity in your soul!     Thomas Wilcox

There was a different view of Christianity in the 1600’s (of which Thomas Wilcox was a pastor and writer) than there is now. In that time, which was basically 100 years after the time of the Reformation, Christianity was taken very seriously and was the most important thing in life, death, and for eternity. It was thought that there was a real devil and that he was very interested in deceiving men concerning their souls. It was also thought that the hearts of men were deceptive and that they could easily be deceived concerning their salvation. Wilcox wrote in a way in which to awaken people to their false professions, but also in such a way to warn true believers that they would be tried. In the modern day the least hardship will send professing believers into a tailspin because it is thought that if God loves you then He will give you an easy life.

Wilcox, on the other hand, recognized that God tried His people and these trials were sent to purify His people and that these hardships were from true love. While it is not comfortable for people to examine their own hearts, it is a necessary task in order to see if one is a believer or not and also helps people during times of trial. If a person is not careful to examine self, however, that person will have nothing to stand on during the times of trials and perhaps on judgment day. A true profession of faith will be tried by God and false professions of faith may not be tried by God but instead established in its strength by the devil. It is necessary to pursue a form of self-examination as Paul said in II Corinthians 13:5.

It is one thing to glory in being a Christian in name and yet quite another to be one in truth. One can make a profession of faith very easily in the modern day and it never be questioned in our easy day of false religion. But a true faith will have trials from the outside and the inside. A true faith must grow and God will send trials and hard things to force it to grow, yet when He does the young or weak believer may have a hard time realizing what is going on. It is very hard for sinners to come to an end of self and to learn to look to grace alone. It is so hard for people who have always worked for what they get to learn to look to free grace alone. It is hard for those who have been moral all their lives to look to free grace to save them as horrid sinners. It is hard for those who have had easy lives without trouble or have had doting parents who removed all the hard things from them to understand that a good, loving, and gracious God will send fiery trials in order for them to grow.

It is so very hard for sinners (Christian sinners too) to be broken from their pride so that they may look to grace and grace alone rather than self. It is so very hard for sinners to come to the point of seeing how deep their depravity really is and that their hearts are far worse than the very worst of their outward sins. Yet the Lord in His great kindness and mercy will show people the depths of their sin (to some degree) and increasingly so as they mature. It takes a great faith which comes by a great grace to look to Christ alone while fighting the onslaught of our own wicked and sinful hearts. Yet without those trials and without the battles that faith has to have in order to grow in Christ and in grace, the soul would not grow and remain an infant.

There is such a great danger in people taking up a profession of Christianity and leaving a good and moral life, yet on judgment day they will have no hope at all. They will have sown seed on hard soil and they will have lived an outwardly moral life in the strength of self, though they may have professed Christ and prayed to Him in a way. They may have been the best of neighbors and the best of people in the town and church, but they did not have Christ. They did not live by grace and they never died to self. These people had a profession and they may have spoken much of Christ, but they were never united to Him by faith and so they never received Christ and His grace. They will have to stand upon their own filthy works and they will never have the wrath of God for their sins satisfied. They will face eternity entirely bankrupt rather than having the imputed righteousness of Christ and along with that all of His spiritual blessings. How much better it is to examine now rather than wait for the day when all things are opened by the Light and it is too late.

If you retain guilt and self-righteousness under it [root of your religion], those vipers will eat out all the vitals of it at length. Try and examine with greatest strictness every day, what ground your religion and hope of glory is built upon, whether it was laid by the hand of Christ. If not, it will never be able to endure the storm that must come against it; Satan will throw it all down, and great will be the fall thereof (Mat 7:27).    Thomas Wilcox

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is all of grace from eternity past to eternity future. This grace flows from the self-sufficiency of God and is aimed at the glory of God. In this Gospel of Jesus Christ and in the Gospel of grace we see that glory of God in all He has done to glorify His name in the Gospel. Included in this Gospel is the imputed righteousness of Christ in which is the only righteousness acceptable to God. This comes to sinners by grace and grace alone and is based on nothing found in the sinner (who has nothing but sin) but is based on God Himself. It is in Christ alone that sinners are declared just and sinners are declared just based on the righteousness of Christ alone. It is in Christ that God declares sinners just and is Himself just in doing so.

The proud heart of man, however, is always turned to self-righteousness and is given to efforts to obtain and defend righteousness for self. This is not always in the open and obvious to any human, but the heart longs for something it can do to either obtain or earn righteousness for itself under any deception or guise. It is even possible for proud hearts to brag about the righteousness of Christ and in doing so secretly harbor the thought that it is obtaining righteousness in some way for doing so. A proud heart can pray, give alms, and fast and think that it is humble while in reality it is quite proud and seeking righteousness in its own way.

Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

One of the ways that is perhaps hidden from our eyes many times is when we want others to notice the good we do. Instead of doing it out of love for God and His glory, we do it from self-love and the desire for others to notice us and honor us. This is one way that we do things from a heart of self-righteousness, though we don’t think of it that way. A desire to be thought of as good or honored as good is a form of desiring to be seen as righteous. This is so common in professing churches and in religious circles, but the recognition of others is an accepted way (in our day) to get people to serve and do things. This is to say that we try to motivate people to do things from a sinful desire for honor which is self-righteousness, and this is to motivate them to do outwardly good things from a sinful motive. When human beings are motivated to do things in order to be noticed or honored, this is a motivation that is from self-righteousness. When human beings want to do things in order to notice themselves or be able to think highly of themselves, this is also self-righteousness. If those things are true, then we are presently living in a tidal way of self-righteousness. It is simply everywhere.

Self-righteousness and pride cannot be separated, though they can be distinguished. We are to live for the glory of God rather than the glory and honor of self, which should show us that if we seek for our own glory and honor we are idolaters and are seeking the glory of self rather than that of God. If we seek the glory of self and/or think of ourselves with satisfaction when we obtain a goal, this is nothing but self-righteousness and pride. Our hearts do not have to go around thinking of self as righteous in order to be guilty of self-righteousness, but simply seek to do things to get others to think highly of us, honor us, or simply to think highly of self. The heart, then, is vital in the area of self-righteousness and makes it possible for anything we do to be done in the way of self-righteousness.

If self-righteousness is impossible to escape without an examination of our hearts and a pursuit of a true righteousness by grace, then all people should search their hearts for this viper that destroys all vital and true religion. It does not matter how gifted a person is or what a person is in the professing Church, self-righteousness will absolutely destroy any hope of having Christ. This must be repented of and this must be pursued at all costs. A profession of faith and of a life of faith that is rooted in self-righteousness, even if it is hidden to our own eyes, is part of the broad road that leads to destruction. A deep-rooted love of self which is bound to each unregenerate heart will seek a righteousness of its own and from that same self-righteous pride will try to hide it and keep it hid from the eyes of self and of others. Self-righteousness is an abomination to God who seeks His own.

If you retain guilt and self-righteousness under it [root of your religion], those vipers will eat out all the vitals of it at length. Try and examine with greatest strictness every day, what ground your religion and hope of glory is built upon, whether it was laid by the hand of Christ. If not, it will never be able to endure the storm that must come against it; Satan will throw it all down, and great will be the fall thereof (Mat 7:27).     Thomas Wilcox

The vitality of true Christianity is the life of Christ in the soul and this is when Christ takes away the guilt of sin and those who have Christ have a perfect righteousness as a gift from Christ and so they no longer need to live for their own righteousness but are free to live out of love for God and His glory. Self-righteousness in any form eats at the very heart of Christianity and takes the vitality (life) out of it. Guilt for sin will also do the same thing because a person that has Christ has a perfect satisfaction for the guilt of sin and so should be free of living under the guilt of sin. It is true that no one lives like that perfectly, but those who have the life of Christ in them will not be in bondage to the guilt of sin nor to the horrible sin of self-righteousness.

The true believer, which is the person that has died to self (been crucified with Christ) and now Christ dwells in that believer by His Spirit, is a person that lives because of what Christ has done and what the Spirit is doing in the person now. Every true person that lives by faith in Christ and so lives by grace alone is not a person that looks to self-righteousness to obtain anything, but instead is horrified at the thought of having self-righteousness. A self-righteous spirit is hated by God and is in reality to the person that is self-righteous an idol. How many who profess Christ seem to serve the idol of self rather than Christ and try to use Him to prop up the idol of self before others.

There is no life or vitality of Christianity in those who live by guilt or self-righteousness. Both of those are indeed vipers and come from the Serpent who deceives people into thinking that they are believers. One who is seeking Christ will find that these vipers will eat away at any hope of having Christ and of seeking Christ in truth. The very concept that the Puritans had of seeking was that a person should be broken of self-righteousness as they sought God and a person was not truly seeking who became self-righteous as a result of some form of seeking.

While it may not be possible to examine ourselves with strictness each and every day, it is certainly a good idea to examine ourselves often. This goes against the thinking in the modern day that if we have prayed a prayer or walked an aisle we should never doubt that Christ has saved us, but when one considers how deceitful the human heart is and how deceptive sin and the devil are, it is wisdom to examine ourselves to see if Christ is in us (II Cor 13:5). It is clearly taught in the New Testament that many will be deceived and many will seek to enter who will not enter. There will be many who were very religious, did miracles, and did many good works, and even many pastors and preachers who will be told that they were lawless and that they must depart from Him. They did not build their lives and righteousness upon Christ and Christ alone.

It is not enough to say that I have Christ and it is not enough to entertain a hope of the glory of God. It is not enough to pray a prayer and to pursue an outward morality. It is not enough to pursue an inward morality from the strength of self. It is not enough to be very religious and do all the things of religion. If what a sinner does is not built upon Christ and does not come from Christ by grace alone, that sinner is building on a sandy foundation that will have a great fall regardless of what that sinner does in the name of religion.

Christianity is built on the grace of God and on the grace of God alone. A soul is saved by the grace of God alone and no man can help that grace save him or he would share in his own salvation and have something to glory in. A soul must live by Christ and be the manifestation of the glory of God through Christ in the world or that soul is in some ways seeking self and the righteousness of self. There appear to be many who are seeking fame and riches through religion whether in academics or in leadership or simply in service at a local church. It is possible to seek self-righteousness and honor for that in being busy in a local church, but it is not possible to seek the glory of God while one is seeking the honor of self (John 5:44). Since the natural man is so prone to self-love, honor for self, and self-righteousness it is easy for the evil one to deceive the natural man with the things of religion. But grace teaches us that we must die to those things that Christ would exalt Himself through us.

A word of advice to my own heart and yours.—You are a religious person, and partake of all the ordinances. You do well: they are glorious privileges; but if you have not the blood of Christ at the root of your religion, it will wither, and prove but a painted pageantry to go to hell in.   Thomas Wilcox

The author starts off with a point that wrests the attention from worldly things and even religious things. He gives a word of advice to the heart, not just the mind, and his advice goes beyond anything that the world has to offer and that includes worldly religion. While it is not easy to hear, most of the religion of people today has to do with ordinances and morality. It may be the case that the name of Christ is used, but that is a far different thing than having the blood of Christ at the root of the religion. It may also be the case that the cross of Christ is brought up and perhaps a cross (crucifix) is used and maybe the cross is preached (in some manner) in some cases, but once again that is a far different thing than having the blood of Christ as being the very root of the person’s religion.

Apart from having the real Christ and the truth of the cross and blood of Christ as the foundation of all a person’s religion, all the religious actions of the person will wither along with their worldly actions and loves and will indeed have nothing of substance to it and will prove to be a painted pageantry to go to hell in. This is incredibly sobering and should awaken people to examine their own hearts. When a person enters eternity and stands before the judge who sees all and knows all, if a person does not really and truly have Christ and His bloody cross as the foundation of all they are, then all of their religious actions will be nothing but that which helps send them to hell. Those very religious lives and religious actions will contribute to their eternal damnation instead of giving them salvation from eternal damnation.

It seems that so many today focus on their baptism and then the Lord’s Supper as what they must do and continue doing in order to be saved, but those are things that a person can do in his or her own natural power. Anyone can receive a baptism and anyone can eat the bread and drink the juice or wine. But it takes a sovereign grace to deliver a person from trusting in his or her religion and give them Christ and the cross instead of self to rely on and trust on. It appears that the vast majority of people today either trust in their baptism or in their own decision for something rather than Christ alone, which is simply another form of trusting in self for salvation.

Another way that people deceive themselves is to walk an aisle or pray a prayer as an act (they say) to trust Christ and that makes them think that they are trusting in the blood of Christ, but it is not. It is trusting in themselves to do something rather than trust in Christ alone to do something. Then these people set out to live moral lives and go to some church as a way of expressing their religion. They may get involved in worship teams and perhaps great movements of evangelism. But all of those things can be done (and most of the time are) from a heart that is spiritually dead and as such has no foundation in Christ at all.

The blood of Christ is the foundation of all true salvation and sanctification. The blood of Christ is the foundation of all human activities that can even begin to please God because God is only pleased with Christ Himself. It does not matter (in this sense) how moral a person can be without the blood of Christ because all that outward morality is done out of love for self and enmity toward God. There is nothing that is good apart from a true love for God. All that people can do apart from being covered by the blood of Christ and purchased by Christ is nothing but sin. The most religious actions a person can do are nothing more than an attempt to assert self (which is idolatry) in the presence of God rather than Christ Himself.

But despite the plain teaching of Scripture that it is not the will of man but God’s, men continue to teach self as the root of religion. Men can make their choices and can be as outwardly moral as a man can be while confessing an orthodox catechism and yet be as lost as a person can be and as deceived as a person can be. Jesus was far more severe with the religious people of His day than with anyone else, yet what pageantry we see going on in religious conferences and churches in our day. In the name of Christ (in one sense) we see the words and Person of Christ being denied by religious trappings and teachings. Instead of men being told to deny self and follow Christ, men are being told to fulfill self. Instead of God being loved, men love themselves. But God cannot be mocked and all of those covered by pageantry rather than Christ will be turned into hell. We must examine our hearts.