God Loves… Himself

Oh! Look off every object beside, and look wholly and only to the love, the everlasting, eternal, and unchangeable love of God towards you, which encircles you (and if I may so express it), in the arms of which you will be sustained in eternity.                    Letters of Samuel Eyles Pierce

The sacred writings of Holy Scripture (I Cor 16:22) tell us that if anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed (eternally damned). That text of Scripture does not tell us that if anyone does not obey what God says some of the time, then let that person be cursed. The Scriptures do not tell us that if anyone is not moral, then let that person be accursed. The Scriptures do not tell us that if anyone does not attend church, then let that person be cursed. The Scriptures do not tell us that if anyone does not believe or hold to a certain creed, then let that person be cursed. The Scriptures also do not tell us that if anyone is not committed to evangelism, then let that person be cursed. The Scriptures do not tell us that as long as a person is a minister or a member of a church, then that person is okay. But the Scriptures do tell us that if anyone does not love the Lord, then let him be accursed.

If we take the words of Scripture in a relatively literal way, then we know that we can only have one master at a time and only one supreme love at a time. Our supreme love is what we think about the most and dwell on the most. Of course we must be clear that the command to love God with our whole being and the command to love Christ cannot mean that we have the ability to love Him from our own flesh, but instead we must know that God alone can give us love for Himself and He will only do this by grace. I John 4:7-8 is so very clear on this matter that the only people who love are those who are born of God and know God. This “knowing” of God does not mean that we must know about Him, but that He must dwell in us and communicate His nature to us.

The encouragement of Pierce (from the quote above) is quite consistent with the Great Commandments. We should encourage others and ourselves to look off of the things of the world and all other things as well in order to fix our eyes (eyes of the soul) upon Christ in whom the love of God shines forth. Seek the Lord for true humility that you would be able to see beyond your self-love and pride and behold the glory of the free-grace of God shining in your soul giving you love for Himself because of who He is rather than what we have done to obtain it. Think of the glory of the eternal covenant in which the eternal and triune God covenanted within Himself to take a people and love them for all eternity. Think of the love of the Father for the Son and yet His sending the Beloved Son to suffer and die for those whom He would set His love on. Think of the love of the Son who would look upon poor helpless sinners and go to the cross and suffer the wrath of His Beloved Father in order that He might remove the wrath of God from those sinners so that the love of God may dwell in them.

This eternal and unchanging love of God has taken away His own wrath at the cross so that His love for Himself would dwell in His people and share with them the life of His love for Himself. Look to Christ and behold the love of the Father and the Son and know that this is for sinners and no one else. This great and holy love encircles and encompasses sinners and not the self-righteous. This great and holy love encircles and encompasses sinners and not the proud and those with a self-made religion. This great and holy love takes those who deserve nothing but hell and wrath and wraps those everlasting arms around them and makes them objects of love. This great and holy love takes those who are vile and helpless in sin and makes them holy in His sight and gives them grace to live by.

This great love which is from eternity and cannot change will then encircle and encompass those who have Christ for all eternity future. This love is so great because it comes from such a great God who shares His love for Himself with His people who are nothing but imperfection in themselves, but He sets His love upon them and cleanses them, unites Himself to them and they become the temple of the living God. The world has nothing to offer a person that is beholding the eternal love of God and knows that it comes to his or her soul by grace alone. The world is nothing but pseudo-glitter, but Christ is the real thing. Behold the love of God in Christ as He took human flesh. Behold the love of God in Christ as He lived on this earth. Behold the love of God in Christ as He went to the cross to suffer and die. Behold the love of God in Christ as He was resurrected never to die again but to be the Mediator for His people. Behold the love of God in His beloved children as everything that happens to them comes from His hand of love in order to make them more like His Beloved Son. What else is there? Let us bow to Him and ask Him to give us fervent desires to adore and love the Beloved Son.

The whole issue of humility seems to be such a puzzle when one really thinks about it, or perhaps when one really tries to be humble. Humility always seems to be either just out of reach or totally and way beyond the reach. When one tries to get a glimpse of what humility is, even the world admires humility as long as it is in a worldly way. But Christ was truly humble and He was crucified, which shows that the world hates true humility.

The eternal Word was the second Person of the Trinity and as such always lived in unceasing joy and pleasure in perfect oneness in that Trinity. The eternal Word was worshipped and adored by the angels and all who are around the throne of the living God. It is beyond human ability to comprehend what Scripture teaches us that this eternal Word did when He stripped Himself of glory in appearance and joined human flesh (a real human nature) to the Divine Person of the second Person of the Trinity. How can one really imagine the depths of such humility? How can one even begin to touch the fringes of His ways when the distance between an ant and a human is far closer than it is between a human and the Divine? It is no wonder that people settle for a worldly concept of humility rather than try to seek to be like Christ.

A worldly humility thinks of something like the Pope who has a tradition of washing the feet of a beggar each year. But that is one human being washing the feet of another. That is one sinner washing the feet of another sinner. In a word or two, big deal. But then we have the Lord of eternal glory who was perfectly sinless washing the feet of a sinful man and something has changed. The One who breathed all things into existence and is the One that the whole world was created through and also created for stoops to wash the dirty feet of a sinful man? If we are not startled at the thought, it is most likely that we don’t understand it or our hearts are hardened to some degree.

The humility of the eternal Word is simply beyond description, but that should not keep us from trying. What would it have been like for the eternal Word who from all eternity dwelt in the presence in perfect oneness with a holy, holy, holy God? What would it have been like to have had myriads of angels who were sinless around you at all times singing your praise? But the eternal and thrice holy Word took human flesh and lived with sinners. How awful it must have been for One who was perfectly holy to have been around such vile and wretched sinners. Yet far more horrible than that is that this eternal and thrice holy Word had all the sins of all whom would ever believe imputed to Him and counted as His. He became the most sinful being in all of history because He took all the sins of all those who would believe upon Himself. Maybe eternity is needed that sinners may bow and look at the glory of such humility in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But there is one more step to consider. The eternal and thrice holy Word had never known pain and never knew anything but living in the perfect love of His Father. When the eternal Word went to the cross, He bore the wrath of that Father for the sins of all who would ever believe. Surely, then, this is something to spend time meditating on and thinking about. Surely this is one of the most glorious things that we can think of. Surely we must step back and behold the glory of the humility of Christ in willingly choosing to suffer the eternal wrath of the Father in the space of a few hours for His people.

If human beings were not wracked with depravity and humility came in any other way but by grace alone, we would wonder that any human being could possibly be proud ever again. However, human beings are born dead in sin and part of that is pride. Part of the sinful nature (a very important part) is that of self and pride. When sinners see something of true humility which is the absence of pride and self, they hate it. Sinners want a humility that they can work up and a humility that they can be praised for. But the humility that God will accept can only come from Christ. It is not the humility of human effort and it is not the humility that men should be praised for, but it is a humility that Christ has earned and He gives it to people by grace alone. All spiritual blessings are in Christ and come from Christ. God gives grace to the humble and so this humility must be of grace as well or grace would be given to those who worked up humility for it. Oh no, all is from Christ.

When we behold the stupendous nature of the humility of Christ, we must also know that this humility paid for our pride and it is this humility that we must share if we will have any humility at all. We must know that this humility is from and of the life of Christ and it is actually Christ living in His people. This humility can only come to the people of God by grace who gives grace and then more grace because this Christ is full of grace.

Hebrews 11:26 considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.

It is easy to admire Moses for his giving up all the riches of Egypt by considering that the reproach of Christ was greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. That was good for him in that time, we might think, but now is a different day and I want all the things I can get. We can also think that we have the spiritual riches of Christ now and that we simply long to have some of the things of this world, though some would say God is glorified in us when we have plenty of riches.

Without going into any or all of the arguments in a direct way, yet we can say that we are called to deny self, take up the cross, and follow Christ. We are not to do this because we earn merit or anything like that, but simply because we are to follow Christ. Involved in the motives in doing so, however, is that all spiritual blessings are found in one and only one location or place, and that is in Christ. There are no spiritual blessings in any other place and regardless of how we try or work, there are no spiritual blessings to be found but in Christ. We cannot find one spiritual blessing in our so-called “free-will” or anywhere else in us, but instead they are all in Christ. We cannot find one spiritual blessing in any other human being or any group of human beings, but each and every spiritual blessing is found in Christ and only in Christ. All blessings found in Christ can only come by grace and come by a free and glorious grace at that.

Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

Why does God save sinners to begin with? “So that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7). The riches of grace cannot be seen as anything but a spiritual blessing when those blessings are found in Christ. The riches of His grace are said to be a “surpassing riches.” In Ephesians 3:19 the same word in the Greek is used for that which surpasses knowledge and so the riches of His grace are beyond our ability to comprehend them though we can admire from a great distance and even taste something of His glory in that grace. As Moses looked to a far greater riches and reward found in Christ to that of the wealthy Egyptian nation, so believers are to view Christ as exceeding the whole world in terms of riches and wealth. Christ Himself should be seen as the riches and Christ Himself should be the focus and object of our greatest desires and love.

Ephesians 3:8 is a glorious verse in that it shows that Paul saw that preaching Christ was a grace given to him, but it was grace to preach “the unfathomable riches of Christ.” The riches of Christ are beyond what the mind can plumb the depths of. The riches of Christ are beyond what any human being can even begin to find out how deep and wide they are. The riches of Christ are what people in heaven will be enraptured over for all eternity. For all eternity those in heaven will behold the glories and riches of Christ and the grace that is found in Christ and is the reason sinners are saved by Christ. For all eternity the unfathomable riches of Christ will be the delight of the souls for all in heaven and for all eternity people will dive to as deep as they can go only to find out that the glory of those riches are so great that they will never be able to dive to the bottom of them.

For all eternity those in heaven who were the worst of sinners on earth will delight themselves in thinking of how the grace of God saved sinners for no reason other than to manifest the riches and glories of Christ. People there will wonder how they could ever have been blinded to the treasures found in Christ and of how they could have ever thought if His grace was enough to cover their sins. It is in the presence of Christ that saved sinners will know what Moses knew (though perhaps ever so slightly) about the fact that reproaches for Christ were far better than a world of riches. In that place there will be oceans of love that cannot be emptied that are full of the love, kindness, mercy, and glory of God.

Since it is true that in heaven there are such treasures and that saved sinners have treasures in heaven, it should be clear that those treasures are worth far more than the riches of the whole world. How saved sinners should flee from sin in order to pursue a greater knowledge and experience of Christ here and for eternity. Even in this life we are to give up seeking the world and its treasures to seek Christ and His glory. It is like giving up a small clump of dirt for riches untold.

It is so easy for people to fall into ways of thinking of grace and holiness that are not according to the New Covenant, but rather are according to their own strength and a legal form of the law. It is so hard for people to come to the Gospel of grace alone and then to live by grace rather than by a self-righteousness in their own strength. It is so easy for believers to become frustrated by their own sin rather than look to Christ and His grace to overcome their sin and their guilt. It is easy for sinners to think that they are defeated when they battle sin with the power of self rather than by grace which is His strength. Believing sinners and unbelieving sinners need to understand that apart from Christ they can do nothing (spiritual or good). All true spiritual fruit must come from Christ (the Vine) first and come by His Spirit. All sinners have a great need to understand and experience the grace of God in their souls. We must taste and see that the Lord is good rather than just know about it.

God justifies (declares just or righteous) sinners by grace and grace alone, which is to say that it is by Christ and Christ alone. No amount of suffering conviction or pain or pricks of conscience can pay for one sin. No amount of seeking can pay for one sin or earn the slightest bit of merit or righteousness. But we seek in order to be loosened from self-righteousness and self-sufficiency, though it seems as if many are deceived into thinking that seeking brings God under obligation in some way. We come to God knowing that He saves by grace and grace alone knowing that all the acceptable sufferings for sin come to us by grace alone and all the acceptable righteousness comes to us by grace alone as well.

Our sins cannot overcome the blood of the cross and our unrighteousness cannot be greater than His righteousness, yet nothing else but Christ and His blood and righteousness are acceptable. This should dash all our hopes in self and grant us a great hope in Christ and Christ alone. We come to the throne of grace to receive nothing but grace and grace alone. This grace is free in the sense that it is totally uncaused by us. This grace comes on behalf of Christ and the glory of God. Men constantly look to themselves for some reason to receive grace and after they have received grace they will look to themselves to see if they can keep grace. No, grace is the spring of all true holiness and holiness is not the spring of grace.

In one sense there is no real preparation of the soul for grace if by preparing one means that one can merit a bit of it or become better in order to receive it. The soul is only prepared for grace when it is stripped of thinking that it has some merit or some righteousness that might move God to save it. No, no, no, but instead we come to God empty of all and simply look to grace alone. We come as poor, naked sinners with nothing but demerit in us yet knowing that God saves sinners and makes sinners holy and blameless in His sight because of Himself and His own glory. The Son died for sinners because He loved the Father thus fulfilling the Great Commandment on behalf of His people. We should never let our sin, though indeed it is terrible, stop us from seeking the grace of Christ since His grace is far greater than our sin. This is no excuse for sin, but we should know that in this live we will sin in all we do as all we do is less then perfect. We need grace for our very best acts and prayers.

For our whole of life we may be haunted by past sins and perhaps present sins when we see just how far short of His glory we have fallen and still fall. Yet God does not save because people are good, but because He is good. God does not save because people obtain some standard of holiness, but because He is holy. God does not save because people follow His law of love, but because He is love. God does not save because people obtain some form of sufficiency in themselves, but because He is self-sufficient. God does not save because of anything found in the person, but because of the glory He finds in Himself. The grace that saves sinners is uncaused by themselves and within themselves because grace has a far greater cause and that is the love God has for His own glory. The freeness of His grace should move us to flee to Him for refuge, but also to flee from sin and pursuse holiness. Grace teaches us to pursue holiness by the strength and power of grace rather than to pursue an outward form of righteousness in our own strength. The beauty and glory of grace is seen as it shines forth from God for the purposes of and glory of God. May we behold Him shining forth in the face of Christ and may we be instruments of glory in His gracious hands.

In their fallen condition men are so taken with the physical things of life. When a person has problems of certain kinds, we just naturally think that they are having mental problems. When a person has physical problems, we are so concerned and ask many kinds of questions. But why are people so blind and unconcerned about the spiritual condition of people? Why are people more concerned about the body which will last at the most (generally speaking) less than 100 years and yet the immaterial part of man which will exist in heaven or hell for eternity is virtually ignored? Are human beings so blind to spiritual things and so open to physical things that they are almost to a person virtually insane in light of the far greater importance of the things that are not seen over the things that are seen?

Men and women in our day are given to great efforts to the foods they eat and to exercise for strength, looks, events, and health. Billions of dollars are spent annually on those things. But the same people are utterly blind to their eternal souls and are not willing to spend anything or take any great pains for their soul. One rich man in the Bible was going to build great barns in order to store up his goods and take life easy, but he was told that his soul would be required of him that night. How many people in the modern day spend their lives in using their intellectual gifts, athletic gifts, or any other kind of gifts and ignore their souls? Spiritual blindness is assuredly a great, great judgment that God sends on people.

Matthew 10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 16:26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

The Scriptures also sets out and compares the value of the soul of man versus the body alone. The reason for this, clearly, is because the present body lasts for a very short duration and the soul lasts for the rest of eternity. The believer is to live in light of the fact that the body can be killed by human beings and yet the soul cannot be harmed by other human beings, though God can destroy both. This shows that eternal things are what should determine our actions and our loves.

The Scriptures also shows that if anyone could possibly gain the whole world it would be of not profit that person if that person lost his or her soul. This is to say that the whole world is not worth the soul and as such people should live for eternal things rather than the things of this world. What would a person give in exchange for his soul? While it appears that some have sold their soul to the devil for various things, what a horrible exchange that is if even the whole world is not worth the soul. If even the whole world is not worth the soul, then why do people basically and essentially sell their souls for various pleasures and possessions? One reason is that they are blind to spiritual things and eternal realities.

Even in the modern professing “Church” present and physical things are given far more weight than the soul. This is seen in the things people pray for and the ways that they live. People seek God to give them more things rather than seek God to give them Himself. People seek God for physical health rather than for spiritual health. People seek God to give them financial blessings rather than spiritual blessings. People seek God for things that can be seen rather than the things that cannot be seen. People seek God in order to be spiritual rather than to seek Him for the Spirit. People seek God to be saved from the guilt of sin rather than to be saved from the power of sin. People seek God so that they can escape hell rather than that they can see His glory in heaven. People seek God so that they can have mansions in heaven rather than have Christ in heaven. People seek Christ so that they can have manna on earth rather than have Christ both now and forever. People seek Christ for life rather than for eternal life. People seek the Holy Spirit for gifts rather than for holiness. People seek the Holy Spirit for all kind of abilities rather than the ability to love Christ. This is simply to say that worldliness has taken over in the professing “Church” and eternal things have largely been forgotten. The professing “Church” has largely sold its soul (so to speak) for the things of the world.

1 Corinthians 2:1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

If it is true that Jesus the Christ is the testimony of God and is the very Truth about Him and from Him, then we must look to Christ as set forth in Scripture to know God. The Scripture declares that eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3). The Scripture also declares that Christ is the One who explains God to human beings (John 1:18). The study of Scripture and preaching, then, if the study and preaching are going to be in accordance with eternal life and the truth of God, must be a setting forth Christ as the truth of God. It is a severe neglect in the study of Scriptures to look for truth in them apart from the truth of who God is and how He reveals Himself in and through Christ. That would also reflect a great neglect in the area of preaching as well.
Jesus the Christ is the manifestation of the glory of God incarnate, which means that we cannot know the glory of the Gospel apart from beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ. While it may be interesting or not and it may be scholarly or not, yet the study of the Bible and the preaching of Truth must involve something of the glory of God rather than just some dry thinking about some abstract truths about God. Preaching is far more than just setting out some basic truths (even biblical truths) before people, it is supposed to be about setting out and pointing to the very glory of God. The souls of the people should be hungry for God and the very good of their souls require them to be feasting on Christ Himself, so surely that is what preaching should do.
If it is true that the cross of the Divine Son of God and the blood of God is the center of history and the Gospel, then there is a lot more about Christ and the cross than can be declared in a lifetime of preaching. It may be the case that for eternity in heaven the glory of God in the face of Christ and the cross will be what captures the attention, affections, and adoration of saved sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ is more than some facts about Him, but He was God incarnate moving around on this planet shining forth the glory of God for all who had eyes to see. In the parables and the miracles the point was (and is) to set forth the glory of God. The glory of the cross was not in Christ saving sinners in and of itself, but it was that God saves sinners for His own glory. The glory of the cross is all about how the Father loved the Son and the Son loved the Father and the cross sets out and displays that.
The wonder of the cross and the preaching of that should be all about the glory of God rather than the glory of man. It appears that men have lost sight of the true glory of God in the cross and have made it all about man, which is a humanization of the cross rather than seeing the Divine glory and truth of the cross. If we focus the cross on how Christ died for me, then we have just (by deduction) demonstrated how Christ was an idolater in loving a human rather than God. If we point to how God the Father loved human beings so much that He sent the Son to die for them, then we have just (by deduction) demonstrated how God the Father loved human beings more than the Son. Apart from the cross being where the glory of God shines in and through Christ, the cross will be humanized to the point where humanity becomes the focus rather than God.
The preaching of the churches, then, must learn to preach Christ and Him crucified if they are going to preach the Bible at all. While it is sad, preaching can take the stories of the Bible and turn them into little more than humanized Bible stories that we tell kids. Apart from preaching Christ and Him crucified in the context of the Gospel of the glory of God, we will humanize the Gospel and make it no more than a Bible story as well. Instead of the Gospel of the glory of God being the focus of all history and the whole of Scripture as it should be, it is now not even the center of preaching and it is not even mentioned much either. This is to say that the professing churches have humanized the teaching of Scripture and so it is no wonder if the world has humanized all things.

It is shocking how little Christ is preached in our day. Despite the clear and unequivocal teaching by Paul on this subject, Christ is not the subject or focus of much of the preaching of today. Despite the fact that there is salvation in no other name, Christ is not the primary focus of preaching today. Despite the fact that Christ is the wisdom of God and of His people, Christ seems to be virtually ignored in churches today. Despite the fact that Christ is the sanctification of His people, He is not the center of sermons on sanctification. Despite the fact that Christ is the only righteousness acceptable to God and human beings must have Him to have a perfect righteousness much less any righteousness at all, Christ seems to be rarely set forth in that way. Despite the fact that each sinner must be redeemed and that Christ is the only redemption there is, He is not set forth as the Redeemer of His people. I would venture to say that the name of Christ is used in an irreverent way by the world than He is spoken of in a Christ-centered and reverent way by the professing churches of our day.

1 Corinthians 2:1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Paul is so clear that his preaching was not using words with man’s wisdom, but he preached Christ and Him crucified. To the natural man the cross is foolishness and weakness, which may be why it is so ignored or barely mentioned here and there, but Christ is the wisdom and the power of God unto salvation. One aspect of the preaching of the cross is the demonstration of the Spirit and His power, which is to take men and show them how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is by grace alone and it is by the work of the Spirit alone. God commands people to repent and believe, but only the Spirit can give them saving repentance and saving faith. Preaching of the cross of Christ, then, shows men how the Spirit does this and so proclaims the power of God to men so that they may be turned from their own works and efforts.
Jesus the Christ must be set forth as the centerpiece of the glory of God in all things and in all texts if He is to be preached in truth and love. In Luke 24 Jesus took the Old Testament and showed the men how those things were written about Him. In order to preach the Old Testament, then, one must preach Christ because according to Christ Himself the Old Testament was written about Him.
Jesus the Christ is the very shining forth and revelation of the glory of God and so is should be the center of the revelation of God’s Word. The Scriptures are the revelation of God and Christ Himself is the revelation of God as well. The Spirit breathed forth the Scriptures and He is the Spirit of Christ and He is to reveal Christ and His glory. The Gospel is not just a few words about some things in history (with some apology for putting it that way), but the Gospel is about the resurrected Christ who is on His throne and rules and reigns in His kingdom. The Gospel of the glory of Christ is the Gospel of the glory of God and we cannot preach the Gospel apart from showing the glory of God in the face of Christ.
This is to say that there is no real declaration of the essence of the glory of God apart from Christ and there is no declaration of the Gospel of grace alone apart from the glory of God found shining forth in Christ. When preachers preach a text and that apart from Christ as the main point and meaning, they have not preached the real meaning of the text. When preachers preach a historical Christ and miss the glory of Christ, they have missed the historical Christ as well. When preachers preach a lot about Christ and even His cross but don’t show how the glory of God shines in Christ, they have missed who Christ really was and is. One could argue, then, that apart from preaching as Paul set forth that there is no true preaching. The only hope for unbelieving sinners and believing sinners alike is Christ and Christ alone. There is no hope in humor, in the wisdom of men, in great scholarship, in rhetoric not in conservative morality and doctrine. The only hope is the glory of God in the face of Christ. Without Christ-centered preaching there is no real reason for preaching.

It is difficult to estimate or know the damage that “the self” has done to each human soul. While Jesus taught and teaches that a person must deny self in order to follow Him, it appears that the most popular message is that Jesus is there to help people fulfill themselves. What we end up with, then, is that brand of pseudo-Christianity is actually harming people and is but another religious way to serve self rather than Christ. It is a particularly virulent sort of harm in that it tries to teach that God wants for man what sinful man wants rather than man needing to be regenerated and become like God. This leads to all sorts of books and media products that are nothing more than the building up of self.

In Philippians 2 Paul told the church there that he had no one to send them. “For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus” (vv. 20-21). This is to say in order for a man to be a true shepherd of the flock of God that man must not be a seeker of the interests of self (literal translation), but instead be a seeker after the interests of Christ. It is only possible to be concerned for the spiritual welfare of souls if a person loves Christ and seeks the interests of Christ. The seekers of the interests of self may appear to have a spiritual interests in others and may even be self-deceived in some manner, but those who seek self in the depths of their hearts do all that they do out of self-interests. Their preaching may be orthodox, but it is for self rather than Christ and therefore will not truly be for His people either. They may have the services lined up perfectly and in order, but it is for self rather than Christ and His people.

When a people are taught that God loves all people and seeks their good by giving them what they (as fallen or natural men) want, this is simple and bold heresy. People must be taught that they must repent and seek God for Himself rather than the world. People are taught that God will give them what they want if only they will do certain things, but this is again to make God out to be a genie of some sort. The living God is to be bowed to and served according to His pleasure. The living God is to be bowed before and submitted to as a sovereign and glorious Being who gives to people as He is pleased to give them. The living God is to be wholly submitted to as clay in the hands of a potter with self given over to Him to be done with as He pleases.

It is the self in its likeness to the devil that fights God and wants to be served and wants self to be fulfilled. It is self that gets angry when it is denied what it wants. It is self that will blast away at people in anger and instead of loving the neighbor it will seek to do harm. It is self that hates others because they do not honor self as self wants. It is self that will trample on others in order to get what it wants and to climb a ladder to gain a position or honor. But all of this is still true of the religious self as well. Oh how that wicked heart will strive in the things of religion to gain honor and esteem for self. How that wicked heart will appear to deny self in many things, but that apparent self-denial is really for the sake of self and as such self is not truly denied.

When the self is not denied, it will grow worse and worse as God turns that heart over to sin and hardness of heart. As the sin of self increases, so does the blindness of self to self. The self is what part of man opposes God at each and every point. It is the proud self what rebels against God and His perfectly wise and holy will. It is the proud self that wants all things as it wants and is angry at God when He does not give self what it wants. It is this proud and self-centered self that wants to love self rather than God and the neighbor, which shows that even the best of what self can do is nothing but sin. The soul that is given over to self is in the hands of a fool and a vicious person who would kill God if s/he could get hands on Him.

The self, though it may feel good when it is being filled with its own selfish desires, is doing an unimaginable harm to the soul. Each sin that self does (which is everything that a person does) is as a child of the devil and that soul is doing nothing but treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath (Rom 2:4-5). With each thought, desire, and act the self is choosing itself and love for itself rather than for God and neighbor. Even when self does something that benefits others, it is still for the purposes of self. It is a horrible act of idolatry to want others to honor me rather than Christ, yet that is the nature of the sinful self. It lives a life of doing all things for self and the honor of self. In doing so, it is in direct opposition to all the commandments of God and God Himself.

The great teachings of Scripture on the doctrine of justification have always been under attack and perhaps especially so in the modern day. Martin Luther wrote and spoke in justification by faith alone and in doing that he was defending the teaching that man is justified by the sovereign grace of God alone. But in the modern day the idea of faith has eroded as well as where faith comes from and what it does. Part of how the biblical teaching on faith has disappeared (seemingly) is that we now simply ask people if they believe something rather than examining them and helping them examine themselves to see if they are in the faith and if Christ dwells in them.

Much of this might have been avoided if Luther would have spelled out what he meant and referred to justification as justification by Christ alone. It seems to me that this has a greater clarity for the ages, though indeed the prophets and lovers of error who want to contribute something to their own salvation or to maintain some control over it would have and will twist anything to keep (they think) their free-will. Without trying to say Luther was wrong in saying what he said because he was fighting errors in his own day, yet in our day (at the least) it appears that justification by Christ alone is a better way to put things in contrast to the modern errors.

When it is said that a person is justified by Christ alone, there is no real doubt that this is a message of truth about grace alone. There is no argument about a person being able to add to anything that Christ has accomplished, but instead it is by Christ alone. What righteousness can a person bring to the fore and add to what Christ has fully accomplished? What suffering can a person bring forth and say that it adds to the suffering of Christ on the cross when He Himself declared that “it is finished”? Where can a new heart come from unless Christ has accomplished the purchase of a new heart in His live, sufferings, death and resurrection? Where can a living faith (since it unites to a living Savior) come from apart from the work of the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of the living Christ?

How can a full and free justification depend in any way upon my belief? If Christ has accomplished what the Father planned from all eternity and sent the Son to accomplish, then my belief of it has nothing to do with what Christ has actually done. My belief (actually, faith) can only be there if I am united to Christ Himself and He is my life and the very life of my faith. It is God who takes people from the kingdom of darkness, evil, and disbelief and transfers them into the kingdom of His Beloved Son (and unites them to the Son) and that does not depend on my faith/belief, but instead faith is given to the soul in regeneration and the soul is spiritually alive because it is united to Christ. As such faith must look to Christ alone and not to self for faith or for evidences of faith/belief. True faith/belief cannot be found as coming from self as faith does not come from being united to self, but instead it is only seen in whether it is united to Christ or not.

A true faith in Christ will always have evidences because Christ will always manifest Himself in some way, but this is not to say that a true faith will always be perfect and so absent from any doubts or even forms of unbelief. But a true faith, though it may take some period of time in great trials, will begin to focus on Christ rather than self. This great and glorious teaching of justification by Christ alone will begin to get the eyes of the sinner off of the sinner and back on to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The Scriptures teach us that all things are from Him, though Him, and to Him. Such is the true faith of those who have been justified by Christ alone. They may wander a bit here and there, but the living Christ who is live Himself will draw their wandering eyes and hearts back to Himself. He purchased their sanctification and He will apply it.

The Lord Jesus Christ has fully and completely satisfied the wrath of His Father in the place of His people and there is no sin that has the power to take their soul from Christ, though it may have the power to distract. The Lord Jesus Christ earned a perfect and complete righteousness for His people and there is no need of any other righteousness (and no other righteousness is acceptable either) to enter the gates of glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect Husband of His people and the perfect Head of the Church. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect King of those in His kingdom and no one can take them out of His hands. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect Mediator as He has offered a full and complete satisfaction for the sins of His people and He ever lives to intercede for them. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect Prophet and He will teach His people in His perfect timing. Oh how sinners need to recognize the beauty and perfection of the perfect justification which Christ has accomplished. It is indeed and will always be justification by Christ alone. A person’s belief accomplishes nothing, so no need to trust in it.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

When we consider the great teachings of Scripture, they are not there just to give us information and they are not to teach us what we can do in our own strength. In Musings 34 (http://www.godloveshimself.org/?p=2018) we looked at how believing that the doctrine of justification is true is not the same thing as being justified. The new birth was also mentioned at the end. In the passage above (John 3:3-5) Jesus speaks pointedly and with power in a way that reflects on the issue being mused on here. Jesus did not tell Nicodemus that he must know the truth about the new birth in order to enter the kingdom. Jesus also did not tell Nicodemus that he must believe the truth about the new birth in order to enter the kingdom. Instead of that, Jesus told Nicodemus that he must actually be born again in order to enter the kingdom. There is a huge difference between believing what is true and what is true actually happening to you.

If we take this as a picture or even as an example of the teachings of Scripture, we can view what it means to believe something with different eyes or with a different perspective. Neither Jesus or Paul declared that a person must believe the facts about justification in order to be justified, but simply that a person must be justified. This is not to say that knowing the facts and believing the facts are not important and even vital, but simply to say that they are not enough in and of themselves. In order to preach justification one must preach this in a way where people need to see that they must actually be declared just by God rather than just believe something about it. This would seem self-evident, but evidently it is not.

In the glorious teaching of Scripture we see that the righteousness of Christ is given to those who believe. But what does that mean? Does it mean that those who hear the facts and believe that the facts are true are then accounted as righteous in the sight of God? Does believing the facts move God to actually impute the righteousness of Christ to people? No, that is obvious as well. What we must wrestle with, then, is how the righteousness of Christ is actually imputed to His people rather than just the fact that there is a truth about it. We cannot cause God to impute righteousness to us, so either we believe that God does these things and so He does it, or He imputes righteousness to His people based on His grace and they believe that as fact.

We can also see that the imputation of the righteousness of Christ would drive men to see that they have no righteousness of their own. If the righteousness of Christ is all that is needed, then when men see that their own supposed righteousness (the best they can do) is nothing better than filthy rags, their mouths can be closed regarding excuses and self-righteousness while at the same time they can have great hope in Christ. Believing the fact of this righteousness of it, however, would not give them this righteousness or that righteousness would come from God on the basis of what man does.

The Gospel of the glory of God, on the other hand, is focused on what God has done in Christ and what God will do by the Spirit in the hearts of sinful men. It will do men no good to hear and believe the facts of what God has done in Christ if they are not given new hearts to enter the kingdom. It will do men no good to hear of justification by faith apart from works if they are not actually justified. It will do men no good to study the imputation of the righteousness of Christ if they are never united to Christ and so have His righteousness given to them. This is simply to say that the Gospel does not just require men to believe and depend on men to believe, but instead it requires the work of God in the soul. When God works in the souls of men, they are regenerated, justified, and granted the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. This is more than just believing the facts about those things, but these things are the works of God in the souls of man in the present day. The Gospel is about the living God who works in hearts today and will do so as He pleases. The Gospel is all about Him and what He has done, but also what He has done guarantees what He will do in our day and the days to come. If we believe in what He has done rather than what He has done and will do in us, we are not looking at a Gospel of grace alone.