God Loves… Himself

KJV Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

NAS Ephesians 5:16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

We are commanded to love God with our whole being (heart, mind, soul, and strength) all of the time and we are commanded to be holy in all we do. Jesus spoke of the sinful thoughts of others and we are also told that the Word judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Ephesians 5:16, given in two translations above, tells us how we are to use our time. The word for “redeeming” or “making the most of” is a word that can mean redeem or purchase, but also use something in the best way. It is also true that Christians have freedom, but is this freedom from holiness or are they now free to seek holiness? I would argue the latter.

Every human soul is headed for an eternity filled with everlasting and indescribable torment or one filled with Christ and His joy. How is a soul headed for eternity to live? Hopefully this will not appear legalistic, and even more the hope is that it is not, but can those who strive to love God have lives filled with sports, movies, reading novels, and television shows? Can spending hours a day or week doing those things make a person holy and can they be part of a life set on living to the glory of God?

We are told that we should be rounded people and we are to be part of society and all the things of the world so that we may relate to the world, but was that how Jesus and His disciples did things? Jesus told us to seek first His kingdom and that we only have one true master. What if the way we spent our time told the truth of our hearts and who our true master is? I would wonder, though not really, if people spend more time in communing with God or with the entertainment of the modern day? I wonder if professing believers spend more time talking about and thinking about things of the world (though perhaps not bad in and of themselves) than they do of Christ? If so, wouldn’t that be a sign of a person being part of the world rather than having the life of Christ in him or her?

We only have so many hours in a day when we are awake and are supposed to seek God with all of our beings. Do we take these things seriously in our day? Could it be that the world is so familiar to us that we no longer recognize that it is taken over and we spend hours each day in the world and of the world? How much of what we read and what we watch is of benefit to the soul and if seriously considered could be considered as being done out of love for God? I Corinthians 10:31 teaches us that whether it is eating or drinking or whatever we do we are to do it to the glory of God. Does this really sink in to the modern professing believer? If the believer can be seen by love for Christ and holiness (being set apart for Christ), are modern professing believers distinguished by true love for Christ and true holiness? It sure seems that there is a far greater love for the world than for Christ in modern professing Christendom, but that is making a judgment based on what people speak of and what people watch and read. Holiness, it seems, has been lost.

The issue of preaching and what it is remains an enormous problem in the world today, though it appears to be so bad in the United States. There is a lot of exposition, so to speak, but so little of Christ and of grace. There is a lot of yelling and ranting about sin, though there is so little preaching about sin of the heart. There is a fair amount of talk about Jesus in some circles, but there is no real preaching on who Christ really is and what He has really done. There are many who are liberal and do something they call preaching, but a true liberal cannot preach the true Gospel of the true Christ. There are many conservatives who are preaching doctrine, moralism, and perhaps things that are politically correct, but there is little of the true Gospel of the true Christ.

If the liberals cannot preach Christ in truth and cannot preach the Gospel in truth, then of course there they are not truly preaching. If the conservatives are focused on doctrine, moralism, and things that are politically correct then they are not preaching the true Christ or the true Gospel either. Christ came to save sinners to the glory of God and not make people more moral as such, though a person truly converted will become more moral, though not always in the politically correct way. It is possible to preach doctrine, even true doctrine, without preaching Christ. It is so possible to preach morality and not even mention Christ. The issue, then, is not whether one is liberal or conservative, but whether one preaches the true Christ and the true Gospel of the true Christ.

It appears to my aching ears and hungry soul that a person can be a preacher and be given to the exposition of Scripture and go through book after book verse by verse and miss the real message of that book. It appears that one can preach orthodox doctrine and still miss the point and heart of that doctrine. It certainly appears that one can even preach the external morality that Christ taught and still miss Christ Himself and the internal morality that He taught. One can even preach a certain internal morality and still miss the point that internal morality must come by grace alone. One can preach about anything that the Bible teaches and miss the Christ of the Bible.

Paul said he preached nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified and Jesus, while on the road to Emmaus, began “with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). The central message of the Scriptures is the glory of God manifested and declared by and in Jesus Christ. The central message of the Scriptures is not doctrine, morality, and politically correct thing, but instead it is Christ and that meaning the glory of God in Christ. True doctrine must point to the greatness and glory of God in Christ. We cannot just know the intellectually grasped propositions of the doctrine; we must see Christ in that doctrine. We cannot just know about morality, we must see how true morality is all about Christ from the beginning to the end.

The Gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus is perhaps the core of the core of the Bible. The Gospel is not just a little canned message that sinners are to be given in order to pray a prayer, but the Gospel is the good news of God on display in His majestic glory in Christ Jesus and how He delivers sinners from bondage to sin, the devil, and self to be His instruments of glory. The Gospel is not of what sinners can do for God, including being good little boys and girls, but it is all about the greatness and glory of God. Orthodox doctrine can be preached and miss the point of orthodox doctrine if it is not primarily about the glory of God in Christ. A “sermon” can be all about the text of Scripture and miss the primary point of all Scripture.

To a certain mindset doctrine can be viewed as a wonderful system of philosophy. To another mindset the Bible can give a wonderful morality. This list can go on and on. But if we are to think the thoughts of God after Him and if we are to have the mind of Christ, then we must view the glory of God in the face of Christ as the point of all doctrine and morality. Apart from the glory of God in Jesus Christ there is no true preaching in line with Scripture. Apart from the glorious Gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus there is no true biblical preaching in line with Scripture even if a person gives wonderful expositions as such. Apart from the glorious Gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus there will never be an ounce of true morality. Apart from the glorious Gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus the point and beauty of true doctrine will not be preached. True preaching is virtually lost in America because we don’t know Christ Himself. There is a lot of knowledge about some facts of Christ, but where is knowledge of Christ Himself? Apart from knowing Christ Himself, there is no true preaching of Christ. Apart from the true preaching of Christ, there is no true preaching of the Gospel and no true preaching at all.

We would continually insist on the sinner’s helplessness to remedy his state by his own efforts: that he is bound hand and foot by the chains of disobedience: that he has no power to rectify his condition no prayer or penance will avail to atone for his past sins, or blot out one transgression: that all his works are nothing worth. The best obedience of his hands will not be accepted, because it is all tarnished with sin and pride: and, moreover, it comes short of God’s demands. He is a bankrupt debtor owing 10,000 talents, with nothing to pay with; therefore he is hopelessly involved, and can by no means extricate himself. This is discouraging to the guilty sinner, but it is the teaching he needs, for he wraps the flimsy rags of his own righteousness about him, and thinks they will prove a covering: he promises himself to repent and turn to God at a future time; he thinks he has the power to do so. We must show his error, strip him of his self-sufficiency, and cut the ground of his doings and willings from beneath his feet, and leave him without one refuge of his own to hide himself in; but stripped, helpless, bound, condemned, all exposed, with only one way of escape, and that not in himself at all.

Why is it so hard to come to the point of utter helplessness before God that we may receive all by grace? The power of sin in the heart and that continually is underestimated (greatly) if thought of at all. Man constantly thinks that he can remedy his state by various works and efforts, but in doing so he does not realize that he is bound in chains of darkness and is being led around in those chains by the evil one. How insidious it is of the evil one to put people in chains and then deceive them into thinking that those chains of sin are in fact true freedom and that a person in that freedom can cast them off as s/he pleases. The reason it is so hard for sinners to come to the point of utter helplessness before God is that they are in bondage to the pride of self and self-love. This means that sinners constantly think that they have the ability to overcome their sin by their own strength. But again, that is part of what it means to be in the bondage and chains of darkness.

It is part of the sinner’s pride that thinks that God will let him go as long as he starts doing morally good things, which the sinner will think of as true repentance. But true repentance never saved a soul and never contributed to the salvation of a soul. Doing good things never saved or contributed to the salvation of one soul. Sin is such that God must forgive each sin and Christ alone can suffer the penalty of the sin. The sinner has no power to make his situation any better in terms of salvation. The sinner cannot pray or repent for past sins as Christ alone can pay for those sins and true prayer and true repentance are gifts of God by grace and they cannot atone for one sin at all. The sinner is completely helpless in his own power to do anything about his past sin and he can do nothing to make up for sin or suffer for it. One transgression will sink the sinner and forever and put salvation totally out of the power and ability of the sinner, so who can know the guilt of a lifetime of sin? Christ alone can do this work.

Not only is a sinner completely unable to deal with his own sin, the sinner is completely unable to do one work that is worthy of any good in the presence of a holy God. All that the sinner does has no worth or value to God because it is not done while in Christ and as such is not done by grace and for the glory of God. These things cannot be stressed too strongly. No human being or all human beings together can make up for one sin against God. It is utterly impossible. No human being that has sinned (which means all but Christ) can do one good thing that is acceptable to God. This leaves all sinners in utter need of grace rather than in need of doing something for themselves. We can imagine that a sinner sins and so falls short of the glory of God, but how is that sinner going to pay for the shortcoming since the sinner owes God perfect obedience in all s/he does each moment? There is no way to make up for a past shortcoming, not to mention that nothing a sinner does is acceptable to God.

How these great doctrines of man’s sinfulness before God and his complete inability to make up for any past sins and in fact all the supposed good he does is just more sin because they are from pride and self. One cannot make up for sin with more sin. Even more, the very nature of man is sinful and all that comes from that sinful nature is sin. Oh how sinners need grace and nothing but grace to give them Christ and Christ alone. Oh how sinners need to quit trying to work for salvation and making up for past sins and look to Christ alone. Christ came to save sinners and God justifies the ungodly. How our hearts must give up our pretence of good from self and look to grace alone.

Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

Col 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens & on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him.

When one considers differing aspects of creation and the purpose of creation, it is clear that God created all things for His own glory. In some ways, however, that does not say that much if we just leave the words as is. From Scripture we know that God has created all things for His own glory and that includes human beings, though again this needs a lot of explaining in order to get at what that means. Scripture commands us to do all we do to the glory of God, yet without a lot of care and grace living to the glory of God and doing all to the glory of God will become a system of works. If a person lives in such a way that s/he says it is to the glory of God and yet that is in his or her own strength, clearly that is nothing more than the works of the flesh.

The main point of this particular musing, however, is to consider the nature of the world and the nature of man. God did not just create a world that is how it is in order to make Him look good, but He created a world with the particular purpose of manifesting His glory in and through that world. God did not create man with a static method of glorifying Him from his own strength and wisdom, but God created the world and man with the purpose of glorifying Himself on a continual basis. The world may indeed glorify God in a sense simply by being here, but that is not the highest intent in creating the world. God created the world that it may continually manifest His glory and man was created with the intent and purpose of continually glorifying God in and through that world.

The world was not created just for the pleasure and joy of man, but it was created for the pleasure and joy of God in manifesting His glory in and through the world. The pleasure and joy of man in the world is to be the pleasure and joy of God in His creation. What could possibly be the greatest pleasure of God in creating the world and man in the world? It must be that since the world was created for Christ, then this must be the means that God glorifies Himself supremely. Since the world was created through and for Christ, that must be the reason that the world was created. God created the world and man as a means through which He would delight Himself in glorifying Himself in and through Christ. God created the world for Christ or as a way that Christ would declare and manifest the glory of God. The world and humanity were created as a way for the Father to manifest Himself in and through Christ and for Christ to manifest the Father.

The ramifications of this for science, work, and theology are enormous. This would mean that science, though indeed those doing science may not always intend that, are involved in the study of things that truly reveal the glory of God. This means that all the labor that people do is part of the plan of God to manifest His glory. Theology, while it seems to be more of an intellectual pursuit to many, is the study of how God has glorified Himself in Christ but also how He is glorifying Himself in Christ at the present time as well. The purpose of preaching cannot be just to inform people of things about the Bible, but instead it is to be a demonstration of how God glorifies Himself in Christ and by the Spirit. Preaching must be more than just setting out the doctrine in an intellectual way, but it should be how God glorifies Himself in Christ and how this is by the Spirit.

The whole world and all things in it were created and have the purpose of being a way for God to manifest His glory through. This is perhaps one of the most important but neglected teachings of the Church. People are not just supposed to be good to go to heaven and the doctrine of justification is not just a way for people to be saved from hell, but the purpose of the world and of the Gospel is for the glory of God. People are not just saved in order to keep them from torment, but they are saved from living for self to being instruments of the glory of God both now and in eternity. This should be deeply humbling to human pride when people see that the purpose of their whole being and the world is for God. This should drive man into the dust when he sees how self-absorbed he has been instead of absorbed and focused on God, which is in reality nothing less than idolatry. But Christ takes idolatrous sinners and makes them lovers of God. What a Gospel of glory the true Gospel really is.

1 Timothy 1:15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

Matthew 9:13 “But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Mark 2:17 And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

If it is part of our theological statement or creed, we will say that we believe that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. But it is to be wondered just how far that statement has sunk into our hearts. It is far more important to us in the modern day that people be respectable and have the right morality. It is far more important for us to have those who have the same creed we do and believe it to the letter than it is to deal with each other as sinners or to understand that sinners need Christ. It is far easier to just accept the fact that all men are sinners, though maybe not all that bad, than it is to really accept the fact that I am a really bad sinner, my children are really bad sinners, and that all my relatives are really bad sinners.

As long as people will go along with certain statements in Romans 9 and Ephesians 1-2, we will account them orthodox and accepted into our fellowship. But Jesus Christ came to save sinners and not those who can articulate a sound belief about Romans 9 and Ephesians 1-2. It is the spiritually dead that He will raise to spiritual life rather than those who are know a lot about Romans 9 and Ephesians 1-2. It is one thing to know that God makes people alive in Christ, but it is quite another to be raised to life by God. It is one thing to know about the facts that people are dead in their sins and trespasses, but it is quite another to come to a soul-wrenching knowledge that I am dead in sins and trespasses. It is even more to understand that each member of my family is dead in sins and trespasses and there is nothing I can do to raise them from that spiritual death. God alone can do that and He only does so by grace alone.

In the I Timothy passage about it tells us that the statement “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” deserves “full acceptance.” This seems to intimate at the very least that there are levels of how we accept that statement. We can hear it with the ears or we can understand in the depths of our souls that Jesus Christ did not come to save/call the righteous, but sinners. This teaches us at the very least that we must not have confidence in our own salvation or anyone else’s regarding their external righteousness. This teaches us not to trust in anything but Christ alone and His grace alone. This teaches us God alone can save sinners and He must do it by grace rather than by our theological and biblical understandings.

Rather than churches being the place where the nice people, the moral people, and the well-dressed people meet; they are to be places where the worst of sinners (in their own eyes) gather. It is hard to be among those who are full of themselves and their own self-righteousness as they walk around smiling and seeming to be without a hard thing in life when you are wrestling with the horror and misery of your own wicked heart. Attending “church” where people are positive and glib about how God works things for the positive in all instances and hearing the testimonies of how God has blessed people with this and that by the happy people can make one who is sick at heart over his or her bondage to sin rather nauseated.

There are people “in the pews” who are sick of their sin but they never receive the message of the true Healer of sin. They don’t know that there is anyone else in the world that wrestles with sin and a hard heart. They hear positive messages about how nice God is to the moral or perhaps some exposition of a verse or a passage that feeds the intellect but leaves the soul on ice. Oh, the poor sinners cries, where is God? Oh how poor and broken sinners long to have a few crumbs from the Bread of Life and yet all they hear is teaching to inform the brain. How these foremost of sinners in their own feelings and hearts long to hear of a Savior who can deal with their own misery, but they get nothing but intellectual information. Christ did not come to save us from our ignorance as such, but He came to save sinners from their sin. How sinners need to hear more of Christ saving sinners rather than theological dry bread, though theology is deeper when it is focused on Christ and His saving sinners.

Matthew 21:31 “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. 32 “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

Attending church while dressed well and appearing respectable may be a dangerous thing. Attending church with a solid creed and having the good people in town attending may be a dangerous thing as well. The Pharisees were very religious, had the educated clergy, and all the respectable people in town would meet with them. Jesus, however, would preach to the common people and in ways that they could understand. Jesus preached to sinners. The very religious Pharisees would look down their noses at people because the common people would gladly hear Him. The very people the Pharisees seemed to despise the most Jesus said were entering the kingdom of God before the Pharisees themselves. Do people take that seriously today? Really?

Jesus Christ did not come to save the righteous, but instead sinners and the worst of sinners. He saved and continues to save the worst of sinners and people who are not respectable in their own eyes and perhaps the eyes of others. However, we continue to try to have a respectable version of Christianity. As has been noted before, church starts seem to be aimed at the upper middle class, which is to say that it is aimed at those with a fair amount of money and respectability. Some in seeing that have tried to start churches in other places. The problem, however, is that Jesus the Christ came to save sinners and not just people of a particular economic group. Whether or not people are rich or poor or something in between, the real issue is whether they are broken sinners.

While our creed says that God saves by grace alone and it would appear that people intellectually believe that, it is also true that people seem much more comfortable attending “church” in a plush building with people who don’t have problems or at least don’t appear to do so. But again, despite what the creed says and despite the fact that we say that we agree with it, do we really believe that Christ saves really bad sinners and does so by grace alone? Do we think that sinners must become well-behaved and well-dressed before Christ will save them? Though we may not admit that in word, isn’t that what our actions declare?

Now all people who have studies the history of the Church know that church discipline is a sign of a true church. But has it devolved to where church discipline is really a means of doing other things? Could it be a means of getting rid of sinners rather than really dealing with them about their souls? Indeed our creeds inform our minds of what we should believe, but how deep that belief goes is another issue. It is easy enough to want to be one of the crowd and be respectable in believing that creed, but do we really understand that Jesus Christ came to save sinners? He came to save the most vile sinners and not necessarily those who wear expensive suits and give large amounts of money to the church. Does Jesus need large amounts of money?

Perhaps it has been made too much of to note that Jesus was impoverished in many ways and used a rock for a pillow. He was supported by others and was what we would call homeless in our day. Would Jesus be allowed in our churches today? He was, after all, rather outspoken. He had harsh words for the most religious and most scholarly people of His time on earth. Jesus welcomed sinners and did not live in a sanitized churchy atmosphere. He came to suffer and die for the worst sinners. Where are the worst sinners in our day? Would we hang out with Paul who thought of himself as the worst of sinners? Would we hand out with Paul who wanted to preach the Gospel to all kinds of people?

Once again, it is important to note that it is not the economic status of the people that is the real point. It has to do with the kind of people that Jesus came to save. He came to save the broken, the poor in spirit, which is to say people who are really bad sinners. Some seem to think that only those who are very poor should be preached to while others only want to hang around the rich. It is not whether a person is externally rich or poor, but whether that person is one who sees that s/he is a vile sinner or not. It is not whether a person is dressed in rags or expensive clothing, but whether that person is groaning under a burden of sin. Jesus Christ came to save sinners and He only does so by grace alone. Those who are saved by grace need to remember this.

Romans 3:21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 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.

There are some passages in the Scriptures that just stand out because they are dripping of a special kind of spiritual honey. This is one of those passages. This is one passage that those who are weighed down with their sin should turn to, whether converted or not. The honey of this passage is so sweet in that the focus is not on my righteousness, but the righteousness of God. This passage is not about how much sinners should suffer for their sin, but it sets forth how Christ has fully satisfied the wrath of God for the sins of sinners. This passage does not put a huge burden on me to do and do some more, but it sets out the glory of God in doing all that needs to be done. This passage does not tell me that I must do one thing in order to be saved from my own strength, but instead it tells me of a God who saves by grace apart from what I have done, am doing, or will do.

It has been said that one of the greatest questions that can be asked by a sinner is how can a man be just before God. This passage, then, is one of the greatest answers to that question. On the one hand it tells us that all have sinned (I would argue that the past tense refers to our sin in Adam and so sinful nature) and that we continue to sin by falling short of the glory of God. The perfect law has been broken and the perfect Judge demands a perfect satisfaction for breaking that law. When the sinner feels the weight of that upon his or her conscience, it is simply unbearable as the sinner knows that s/he cannot satisfy God for one sin much less for all the sins committed. Oh how sinners should be brought to know that this is what it means to be guilty before the living God. How sinners should be taught to pray for God to show them their guilt before Him.

The verses before the passage (same chapter) above are very somber in that they tell us that no one is righteous and that no one seeks God. But glory be to God that out of His mercy and grace rather than our righteousness and goodness He seeks to save man. Indeed no one is righteous if you are talking about human beings, but in the verses above the righteousness of God is declared four times. It is a terrible fact that there is no one righteous when we are speaking of the human race, but it is a glorious fact that God is perfectly righteous. This perfectly righteous God sent His Son who came and took a body to go to the cross and be a propitiation (removal of wrath) for the sins of sinners. In that suffering for the sins of sinners the wrath of God was perfectly satisfied and so His righteousness was manifested and glorified in the cross and at the cross. The righteousness of God was displayed and it declares to all sinful men that there is a perfectly righteous God and He will not declare sinners just because of themselves but only because of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This righteous God declares sinners just by grace alone. To the sinner it is nothing but grace and more glorious grace, but to the Lord Jesus Christ it was suffering the wrath of God for those who had nothing in them worth dying for. But oh the good news in that is that Christ died in order to manifest the righteousness of God rather than anything good about me. Christ died to satisfy the wrath of the Father in order that God could be both just and the one that justifies sinners. What a glorious sweetness there is in the passage of Scripture for hungry souls and sinners who are not looking for anything in themselves worthy to be saved. What they see is the glory of grace and a God who demonstrates His righteousness in Christ. What they see is that they have nothing in themselves to boast of but they have the Lord Jesus and His cross to boast of. For poor sinners there is hope set before them in this text. God does not save those who become good enough or work hard enough. God does not save because people are smart or good looking or any other physical or spiritual reason found in sinners. God saves to the glory of His own name. When God beholds a saved sinner, He sees Himself and His glory shining in the salvation of that person. All praise is His, but for the poor sinner it is all grace. How sweet that grace is.

1 Timothy 1:15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us

The Scriptures are full of precious truths regarding the Lord Jesus Christ, but some seem to have extra degrees of preciousness to them, especially when the weight of sin is upon the conscience. For those who struggle with sin in their hearts and know that their intents and motives are never pure, they have no hope of anything or anyone but Christ. There are those who follow a legal path in some way and find some hope in Christ and some hope in their goodness, self-righteousness, and keeping the law; but folks like that are lost as lost can be. But for those people, perhaps even despised by the churches and the world, who know that they are sinners and that they are unable to save themselves or obtain the least bit of righteousness on their own, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners like that.

The apostle Paul did not look to his training in the law and he did not look to his time as a Pharisee. He did not look to his duties as an apostle or as a missionary, evangelist, or preacher. Paul looked to the grace of God in Christ Jesus and knew that he had no hope but in Christ and His grace. When Paul looked at himself, he looked at himself as the chief of sinners or the foremost of all sinners and he knew that Christ was the only One who could save sinners. There is no hope for any sinner on this planet at any time in all history that has any well-grounded hope at all for salvation or sanctification but Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners and no one else. There is hope for sinners, but only when the eyes of sinners are opened by grace and they lay down all other hopes and righteousness and rest on and in Christ alone. Really bad sinners, which humanity is made up of nothing but really bad sinners, if they could but see it, don’t look to their faith either. These really bad sinners don’t look to their repentance. Really bad sinners look to Christ for faith and repentance.

The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to save sinners who can come up with faith and repentance on their own, but He came to save sinners from their unbelief and unrepentant hearts and grant them faith and repentance. God demonstrated His love toward sinners while they were yet sinners in that He gave Christ to die for them, that is, to die in their place by suffering the wrath that they so richly deserved. God did not send Christ to suffer wrath in the place of those who would come up with faith and repentance on their own, but He sent Christ to suffer wrath in their place so that they would have faith and repentance given to them by grace and grace alone. The Lord Jesus Christ saves sinners, and that being even the worst of sinners, not for anything found in them or anything they can do, but because He was sent to save sinners and no one else.

While some say that this is grace is too free, I would argue that true grace must be free and is the only kind of grace. Some may argue that people need to become better in order to be saved, but I would argue that they must become worse (in their own eyes) in order to be saved. Christ did not come to save those who become better in their own eyes and in their own strength, but He came to save those like the publican who cried out for God to have mercy on him, the sinner. The hope of the Gospel is not in becoming more moral or more active in the churches. The hope of the Gospel is not to become cleaned up so God will have mercy on you. The hope of the Gospel is grace, grace, and nothing but grace as is found in Christ, Christ, and no one but Christ.

It is true that when Christ and His grace dwell in sinners they will become more outwardly moral, but it is also the case that they will begin to see more and more sin in their own hearts. Sinners must never have any foundation for forgiveness other than Christ and His grace or they will always be wavering on the sandy soil of their own obedience and righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners and He does so to the praise of the glory of His grace. We must learn that we are sinners and we are not to share in any of the glory. We must learn to look to Christ when we are weak and when we think we are strong. We must learn to look to Christ for faith and repentance as unconverted sinners and converted sinners alike. Anything less is our effort to contribute to the work of Christ. This is nothing but sheer wickedness and we must repent of that by looking to Christ to grant it.

Look on Jesus, in whom all the glories of the Godhead shine forth. In Him the glories, the titles, word, and works of God shine forth, and are displayed. Jesus Christ is the great Days-man between God and us. As one says; “He is the miracle of wonders! the marrow of our love! life of our joys! fountain of all our comforts! and center of our hearts!” In Him we have all our souls can possibly desire. He is our Head, our Brother, our righteousness, our sanctification who has obtained for us eternal redemption. Who is now at His Father’s right hand, as our representative, and glorious fore-runner, and has assured us, “that were He is, we shall be also, to behold His glory,” and to be like Him, by seeing Him as He is.
Letters of Samuel Eyles Pierce

As the applications of this quote settle into the soul, differing things begin to be seen. It shows how it is Christ who has put God on display in so many ways. It is Christ who is all that the human soul needs. It is Christ who alone can be the God-man and stand for both God and man. It is Christ that we are to wonder at and see how it is in Him that we behold and taste the glory of God and of His love because He prayed that the very love with which the Father loved Him would be in them (His people). It is Christ who is the very life of our joy because He prayed (as Mediator) for His people and asked that they would have His joy in them. It is in Christ that we find all real comfort, though there are many comforts that one can find that is not from Christ the real comfort.

Christ should be the center of our hearts because it is Christ who is worthy and it is Christ who is the life of all His people. It is Christ Himself that can give the soul all it desires as well as give the desires to the soul. It is not that Christ makes life a little better, but He is life itself. It is not that Christ is one part of life, but He is life itself. It is not that Christ should be our greatest desire, but He should be the One that all that we desire we desire for His sake. Many seem to forget the centrality of Christ to Christianity in all of its parts, but it seems that few realize that Christ is central to every aspect of the believer’s life. It is not that all things relate to Christ in some distant way, but all things hold together for His sake.

As the Head of the Church Christ Himself is the source of all things for the Church and the defender of His Bride. As the Head of the Church all the members are to follow Christ the Head and nothing else. Christ is also Brother in the sense that He is the Son of the living God and yet He took human flesh to Himself and so there is a sense where all the sons of God are brothers to Christ. While it is so hard for self-sufficient sinners to think of the wonder of having the perfect and imputed righteousness of Christ, it is hard for all to rest in His righteousness alone and seek none for themselves. It is Christ alone who is the righteousness of His people and they are not to seek righteousness for themselves in any way, but instead look to Him. It is one thing to say we believe that Christ is our righteousness, but it is quite another to live on His righteousness alone and be emptied of self-righteousness.

It is hard for legal minds to think of Christ as the sanctification of His people, yet Hebrews 12:10 says quite clearly that believers share in His holiness. We can never obtain holiness by following the law or by doing anything of ourselves, but instead we must share in His holiness as He works it in us and then through us. Sinners are never holy in what they do, but instead they are holy in a positional sense in what Christ has done by cleansing them by His blood and presenting them perfect and holy to the Father. But it is also true that in daily life we have no more holiness than what we die to self and have the life of Christ in us.

True Christianity is centered upon Christ because God is centered upon Christ and the Church is to be for Him and His glory. There is no redemption but what Christ has earned. There is no Gospel but the Gospel of the glory of Christ. There is no eternal life but the life that Christ Himself is. There is no love but the love that comes through Christ by His Spirit. There is no reconciliation with God but through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no justification but by the blood and imputed righteousness of Christ. There is no glory of God on display in nature or in Christianity but through Christ. The soul should for eternity dwell and delight in Christ. When it does not in this life, it should look to Him alone regardless.

Look on Jesus, in whom all the glories of the Godhead shine forth. In Him the glories, the titles, word, and works of God shine forth, and are displayed. Jesus Christ is the great Days-man between God and us. As one says; “He is the miracle of wonders! the marrow of our love! life of our joys! fountain of all our comforts! and center of our hearts!” In Him we have all our souls can possibly desire. He is our Head, our Brother, our righteousness, our sanctification who has obtained for us eternal redemption. Who is now at His Father’s right hand, as our representative, and glorious fore-runner, and has assured us, “that were He is, we shall be also, to behold His glory,” and to be like Him, by seeing Him as He is.            Letters of Samuel Eyles Pierce

When Scripture tells us to behold Christ or look to Christ, we rarely give that much more than a thought. But we are not to just give Him a casual glance and think that we have done what is required, but instead we are to look and behold Him and look deeply and longingly. We are to look to Christ as the very display of the glory of God. God has manifested Himself in and through Christ. It is not just that Jesus came and lived, but His life was to manifest the truth and beauty (the glory) of God. Hebrews 1:3 sets forth Christ as the very shining forth of the glory of God and the exact representation of His nature. This tells us that if we truly long and desire to know God, we must do that through Christ.

The mind can have a philosophical bent or perhaps a theological bent and people with those bents can give themselves to deep speculations on the character of God, but God is revealed in Christ. As Christ is the shining forth (radiance) of the glory of God, so if we want to behold the glories of God we must behold those glories in Christ. We may see certain wonderful things thought intellectual speculation, but it is Christ who shines forth the glory of God in truth. It is in Christ that we behold the perfections and the dazzling beauties of His holiness and love. It is in the face of Christ that we behold the glory of God shining. It is in the Gospel of Christ in particular that we may see the utter majesty and glory of a sovereign grace. However, in the modern professing Church we are too busy with evangelistic programs, youth programs, building programs, and expositional preaching to give our time to meditation and prayer that we may behold Christ and His glory. After all, we are told, those things are about growing the kingdom.

When will preachers wake up and repent of all the busy things they do and humbly seek the glory of God that they may preach God to their people? Instead they preach steps to this and steps to that or some watered-down version of a so-called gospel in order to fill the buildings with the word “church” on the sign. When will preachers repent of their absorption with the growth in numbers and bow in humility before God in order to preach Christ and Him crucified? Our land is full of hirelings and most likely unconverted “ministers” who are religious but don’t know Christ! How can the God of glory be so ignored Sunday after Sunday? How can the Lord Jesus Christ be ignored Sunday after Sunday? Since the Church is His Bride, you would think that the Husband would be lauded. Since Christ has suffered and died for His Bride, you would think there would some interest in speaking of His glory. Since Christ is the perfect righteousness of His people one would think that His righteousness would be spoken of rather than beating the people into doing duties.

Where is the glory of the Gospel proclaimed in our day? It seems that the Gospel has become nothing more than a logical conclusion or a deduction from a text, though at times parts of it may be repeated in a creed. But where is the Gospel of the glory of God in our day? Why isn’t it being proclaimed as the most beautiful and most delightful “thing” in the entire universe? When Christ who is Light is not proclaimed in His beauty and glory in the Gospel, darkness has settled in as surely as darkness comes when the sun goes down at the end of the day. The professing Church is surely in great darkness in our day because it is not “turning on” the Light by proclaiming the Gospel of the glory of God. We hear much of many things, and some of those things are good in a sense, but where is the Gospel of grace alone heard today? Sure enough the words may be repeated, but where is it being taught as if the living Christ was alive and seated at the right hand of the Father? Where is it being taught that this Christ can save sinners to the glory of God and He does so by grace alone? Where is it being taught that if you need faith you need to obtain it from Christ by grace? Where is it being taught that if you need to repent you need Christ to grant you repentance by grace alone? The true Christ and the true Gospel are not being set forth in glory which means they are not being declared. A deep darkness has settled in over this land.