God Loves… Himself

To believing, there must be a clear conviction of sin, and the merits of the blood of Christ, and of Christ’s willingness to save upon this consideration, namely, that you are a sinner; things all harder than to make a world. All the power in nature cannot get up so high in a storm of sin and guilt as really to believe there is any grace, any willingness in Christ to save. When Satan charges sin upon the conscience, then for the soul to charge it upon Christ, that is gospel-like; that is to make Him Christ. He serves for that use, to accept Christ’s righteousness alone. His blood alone for salvation, that is the sum of the gospel. When the soul, in all duties and distress, can say, “Nothing but Christ, Christ alone, for righteousness, justification, sanctification, redemption,” (I Cor 1:30); not humblings, not duties, not graces; that soul has got above the reach of the billows.         Thomas Willcox

A true belief in Christ alone by grace alone is something that cannot be worked up by human effort and human nature. It is completely beyond the powers and abilities of the natural man, though it seems so easy to the unsuspecting and the untaught in the modern day (and all other periods as well). It seems so easy to believe something as long as one has the facts and is willing to believe the facts, but that is because the darkened mind is unaware of the darkness it lives in not to mention the absolute inability it has in the spiritual realm. The Scripture sets out that faith is the work of God and is an incredible act of His power. If the human heart could grasp the fact that it takes the same strength to believe that it took to raise Christ from the dead, it would see its own inability to perform such a great act.

Ephesians 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.

One aspect of faith, or perhaps the way to clear the path to faith, is that of the conviction of sin. Christ came to save sinners and He is a Physician that will only deal with sinners. Until a person knows that s/he is a sinner, and even such a vile and helpless sinner that s/he cannot deal with sin in the power and strength of self, that person will not look to Christ alone as Savior. It is vital, then, for a person not just to be aware that s/he is a sinner and think of that as conviction, but for a person to know from the depths of the soul that s/he is a sinner and one that is a sinner by nature and that cannot be dealt with other than by Christ and Christ alone. Sinners must see that their sin is not just what they do, but what they are. Sinners must see that their sin is in their motives, desires, attitudes, loves, and intents. Sinners must see that they do nothing good and that the very best that they can do is evil. Sinners must see that they have no righteousness and nothing but unrighteousness. Sinners must see that sin has made them utterly unable to please God or do one thing that is anything less than sinful.

Part of the work of the Spirit in drawing sinners to Christ is to convince and convict them of sin (John 16:8). While anyone can see that certain things are wrong, it is the work of the Spirit to convince people of the sinfulness of sin in the spiritual realm. As one can do outward good works in the eyes of men and yet in the spiritual realm those things are nothing but sin and self-righteousness, so one can see sin only through external eyes but miss what they really are in the spiritual realm. The words of men in pointing out sin can only reach the externals and never open the eyes that are fast asleep in darkness, but the Holy Spirit can shine the Light into their eyes and make them see the true nature of sin. Until this happens, men will only see their need of a small savior rather than the Lord Jesus Christ as THE Savior of sinners.

It is not just that men must see that they do things that are wrong, but they need to see that THEY are wrong. It is not just that they need to see that they have done some bad things, but that nothing they do can be acceptable to a thrice holy God. It is not just that they need to see that they have some demerit and some merit, but that all they have is demerit. It is not just that they need to see that they cannot please God completely, but that they are totally unable to please God at all. This is to say that the Spirit alone can convince men and convict them that they need a real and complete Savior. Until then, men will continue to think of themselves as basically good and they only need a partial Savior.

Whatever comes in when you go to God for acceptance, besides Christ, call it anti-Christ; bid it begone; make only Christ’s righteousness triumphant. All besides that is Babylon, which must fall if Christ stand, and you shall rejoice in the day of the fall thereof (Isa 14:4). Christ alone did tread the winepress, and there was none with Him (Isa 63:3). If you join anything to Christ, Christ will trample upon it in fury and anger, and stain His raiment with the blood of it. You think it easy to believe. Was ever your faith tried with an hour of temptation, and a thorough sight of sin? Was it ever put to grapple with Satan, and the wrath of God lying upon the conscience, when you were in the mouth of hell and the grave? Then did God show you Christ a ransom and a righteousness; then you could say, “Oh! I see grace enough in Christ.” You may say that which is the greatest word in the world, believe. Untried faith is uncertain faith. Thomas Willcox

The modern world and it appears as if virtually all involved in evangelism seem to think that it is easy to believe. People are told that all they have to do is exercise their free-will and believe that some facts (they are told) are true and they will be saved. Believers are told pretty much the same thing. Both positions, though it may not be in accord with the person’s creedal position, are far apart from the truth of Scripture that faith is a gift of God that comes on the basis of grace alone. In fact, apart from grace belief (faith) is impossible. A true faith is not something that can come from the flesh, but as a spiritual act or belief it must come from the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God must work it in heart of man and so it is a free gift of grace.

The idea that a person must believe of his or her own power is a terrible teaching of self-help and humanism, not to mention terrible theology. Faith is the instrument of God in uniting people to Christ, which is to say no one can be united to Christ simply because s/he decides to do so and then does it. God is sovereign, not the will of man. As Willcox points out, true faith will stand (though may appear to falter at times) through the times of temptation and thorough sights of sin. This is pointing out how hard it is to truly believe at all times and that true faith will be tested and tried by God. Jesus told us in the Parable of the Sower that the seed would land on different kinds of soil. It was the seed that landed in good soil and bore fruit that was the good seed. The other kinds of soil did not bear true and lasting fruit, though indeed it certainly appeared to do so at first.

The person that thinks it is easy to believe has yet to be severely tried in a time of temptation or perhaps a thorough sight of sin. When all the easy things about belief disappear and the flesh is stretched with desire or perhaps a sight of how sinful it really is, then faith in Christ is truly tested. When the soul is so sensible of its sin and of the wrath of God upon it, there is no easy faith at that time. When the soul sees the depths of its own sin and of how much it hurts to have the hand of God on the conscience, it feels like it is in hell and the worm is not dying at all. When the soul has lost all hope in the flesh and its own strength and even all hope in itself to believe, then and only then is the soul going to look to Christ alone and grace alone. It is one thing to believe the facts about Christ when one is at ease with self and the world, but it is quite another to believe when in the midst of a fiery trial. It is one thing to pray a prayer when someone is pressing you, but it is quite another to really believe when one has the devil pressing upon them with his deceptions and fiery darts of doubt.

The real issue is not always if a person believes the facts as such, but does the person after going through a searching trial and a work of humiliation in the soul look to Christ and His righteousness alone. Does the soul after having the weight of its sin put upon it and then tried by the devil and the hand of God look to the cross of Christ alone as the full satisfaction for all of its sins? Does the soul look to Christ alone for a full and complete righteousness and not try to add to it one bit? Does the soul understand at that point in more than just a theoretical level that all of its salvation and life from beginning to end is nothing but grace and grace alone? The soul that truly believes has Christ Himself and all of His spiritual blessings and this soul will persevere in trials and temptations. But the soul that believes because it was presented with some information and it believed from its own flesh, that soul will fall away. That is the kind of soul that does not look to grace and Christ in order to believe, but instead looks to itself to believe. The only true faith is that which is worked in the soul by Christ and is done so by grace. The soul that truly believes, though indeed as a mustard seed, has Christ Himself as his or her life. The untried faith and the faith of the easy life will always be weak at best.

Whatever comes in when you go to God for acceptance, besides Christ, call it anti-Christ; bid it begone; make only Christ’s righteousness triumphant. All besides that is Babylon, which must fall if Christ stand, and you shall rejoice in the day of the fall thereof (Isa 14:4). Christ alone did tread the winepress, and there was none with Him (Isa 63:3). If you join anything to Christ, Christ will trample upon it in fury and anger, and stain His raiment with the blood of it. You think it easy to believe. Was ever your faith tried with an hour of temptation, and a thorough sight of sin? Was it ever put to grapple with Satan, and the wrath of God lying upon the conscience, when you were in the mouth of hell and the grave? Then did God show you Christ a ransom and a righteousness; then you could say, “Oh! I see grace enough in Christ.” You may say that which is the greatest word in the world, believe. Untried faith is uncertain faith.    Thomas Willcox

This is a glorious quote with the glory of God’s grace shining through it. For the new believer, learn to go to God based on Christ and Christ alone. For those who have been believers for years, learn to go to God based on Christ and Christ alone. For those who are not being tested in obviously hard ways, learn to go to God based on Christ and Christ alone. For those who are being eviscerated (what it feels like) by the inward fight with sin and with trials beyond your strength, don’t try to get better in order to go to God. Don’t try to win this fight with sin apart from grace. Don’t fight these trials in your own strength. Regardless of circumstances and regardless of the length of time one has been a believer or not, Christ is the only ground of acceptance with God. All have sinned and continue to fall short of the glory of God and all who the least sight of his or her own heart see more sin than the self-righteous can imagine. But the righteousness of Christ is the only righteousness acceptable with God. Flee from all hope in your holiness, your sanctification, your prayer of salvation, and all that you have done or thought you have done. But don’t just flee FROM those things, reject them all as a basis to stand on and flee TO Christ and the righteousness of Christ. Here is a solid footing that will last for eternity.

It is so common today to get people involved in professing churches with myriads of Bible studies, prayer meetings, and all sorts of outwardly good things. But Bible study and prayer can also be forms of self-righteousness and be a basis of confidence for a professing believer rather than Christ. This can be a form of hidden self-righteousness. Evangelism can become a hidden form of self-righteousness which people trust in and think that they are converted because they do those things, and yet a true believer can begin to have his eyes turned from Christ alone to trust in that ever deceptive self-righteousness. Building programs and giving money to those can give people a sense of self-righteousness. Large ministries can give people a sense of self-righteousness, but there is no righteousness apart from Christ.

The point is that there are so many ways and methods for proud hearts to find ways for self-righteousness, but the most deceitful of those is in the realm of religion. It appears at times that the closer something is to the truth without being the truth the easier it is to deceive with it. This is to say that when we go to God for acceptance, anything is anti-Christ if it is not truly Christ Himself and His righteousness. The rites of religion and the duties of religion will not enable us to obtain the least amount of righteousness, though if we look to them for the least amount of righteousness they will keep us from the righteousness of Christ.

If we look to anything but the cross of Christ to take care of the wrath of God, we will find that as something that incenses the wrath of God itself. Christ Himself is the only acceptable propitiation to God. We cannot suffer enough or pay for the least sin much less for some of them or all of them. Trying to pay for our own sin will bring the wrath of God. The Gospel of Christ alone is truly all of Christ and the glory of His grace in being the only sacrifice for sin and the only righteousness of God. The Gospel of grace alone is truly all about grace and the glory of Christ in being Grace Himself and in the Gospel leaving nothing but grace and Christ as what sinners need. Oh how many need to examine their hearts today. The libertines need to examine their hearts to see if there is  any amount of grace and any holiness at all. The conservatives and the active in church people need to examine their hearts to see if anything is there other than Christ and grace. Yes, sin is so very deceptive, but so is self-righteousness which is sin. The enmity man has toward God can be seen in open sin, but also in the professing churches where a lot of so-called “Christian” activity is taking place. Indeed, it is Christ ALONE and grace ALONE. It is not Christ plus one little thing or grace plus one little thing. Oh how the heart longs to rest in something of self and pride.

Men talk bravely of believing whilst whole and sound; few know it. Christ is the mystery of the Scripture; grace the mystery of Christ. Believing is the most wonderful thing in the world. Put any thing of your own to it, and you spoil it. Christ will not so much as look at it for believing. When you believe and come to Christ, you must leave behind you your own righteousness, and bring nothing but your sin: (Oh, that is hard!) leave behind all your holiness, sanctification, duties, humblings, and so on; and bring nothing but your wants [lacks] and your miseries, or else Christ is not fit for you, nor you for Christ. Christ will be a pure Redeemer and Mediator, and you must be an undone sinner, or Christ and you will never agree. It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness; that is to acknowledge Him Christ. Join anything to Him of your own, and you un-Christ Him.      Thomas Willcox

The biblical teaching concerning the righteousness of Christ is that His righteousness and His righteousness alone is accepted before God. The only way for a person to obtain that righteousness is for grace to give this to the sinner. The Gospel is of the free-grace of the sovereign God and it can only be obtained by receiving it by faith, which is not the same thing as receiving because we have come up with faith. If we receive Christ and His righteousness because we have come up with faith on our own, then we have joined something to Him and His righteousness and so our faith has become a work. If faith is a work of the human flesh, then receiving Christ by faith is to receive Christ by a work and so the Gospel is mostly grace plus one human work. Romans 11:6 is quite clear that to add a work to grace is to make “grace no longer grace.”

For grace to be grace it must be grace and grace alone. For grace to be grace it cannot be given to sinners who do one work or many, but instead it must be given by a sovereign God who gives according to His will and not according to the will of sinners or a work or works of sinners. The worst of sinners who obtains a free-grace is counted righteous in Christ while the best of men who trust in anything of themselves are counted as having no righteousness at all. Oh how sinners need to examine themselves and their hearts to see what they go to God on the basis of. When a sinner tries to add one work or any element of his own righteousness that sinner shows Christ not to be a complete and perfect Redeemer or Messiah. Sinners should and must flee from anything they have done or can do as the worst of poisons and seek Christ alone by His grace alone. How sinners (believing and unbelieving alike) should flee from any hint or taint of self-righteousness and look to the righteousness of Christ alone.

The Gospel is of free and sovereign grace and sinners have a great reason to look to that. Christ came to save the vile and the worthless, so real sinners have hope in grace alone. All those who are outwardly righteousness in their own eyes are disqualified because they are in reality the worst of sinners who would trust in their own righteousness as if it is superior to that of Christ. What a wicked act it is for a sinner to trust in his own righteousness rather than to look to grace alone for righteousness, yet that is precisely what is taught to so many in evangelism and to those who want to grow in the faith. It is and will always be Christ and Christ alone and grace and grace alone as opposed to anything the sinner can do.

Oh how sinners must be instructed and pled with to examine their hearts to see how much of self, pride, and self-righteousness they are trusting in. How sinners must know that this self-righteousness is sneaky and hides behind pride and self. A proud person who is orthodox will refuse to think that s/he is trusting in self-righteousness because that is not orthodox, but that person may be trusting in his or her belief in orthodoxy rather than Christ alone. Poor sinners who are true believers and God has opened their eyes to see the depths of their own hearts may not recognize that this is a mercy of God to push them to glory in free grace and His perfect gift of righteousness in Christ. It is a glorious thing for sinners to recognize and see themselves as completely undone if this drives them to stop resting and trusting in self and anything else in or about self. It is a glorious thing when believing sinners are delivered from a vile self-righteousness that has been hidden under the cloak of sanctification and God opens their eyes to show them how utterly undone they are but then shows them the perfect righteousness of Christ that He gives by grace alone. Oh sinner, look to Christ and not to yourself, your repenting, your works, or your believing. Look to Christ and ask God to give you grace for the sake of His name because there is nothing in you worth saving your for. Don’t un-Christ the Lord Jesus, bow in utter nothingness and being completely undone look to Him, His righteousness, and His grace. There is nothing else.

Men talk bravely of believing whilst whole and sound; few know it. Christ is the mystery of the Scripture; grace the mystery of Christ. Believing is the most wonderful thing in the world. Put any thing of your own to it, and you spoil it. Christ will not so much as look at it for believing. When you believe and come to Christ, you must leave behind you your own righteousness, and bring nothing but your sin: (Oh, that is hard!) leave behind all your holiness, sanctification, duties, humblings, and so on; and bring nothing but your wants [lacks] and your miseries, or else Christ is not fit for you, nor you for Christ. Christ will be a pure Redeemer and Mediator, and you must be an undone sinner, or Christ and you will never agree. It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness; that is to acknowledge Him Christ. Join anything to Him of your own, and you un-Christ Him.    Thomas Willcox

Coming to Christ alone for righteousness is the hardest thing in the world. This is beyond the power of a proud heart that is always looking to self for something and is always looking to some form of self-righteousness to lean on. No amount of words can describe the difficulty of this, but those who have seen something of their own hearts and know how impossible it is to look to Christ alone rather than something of self other than by grace alone know something of what is being spoken of here. The heart naturally gravitates toward the self and trust in self for something, even if it is just a little something. The believer that has fought with his or her own heart knows that the heart will turn to self and pride over and over again and that there is no relaxing the guard over the heart. But the unbeliever, who simply has no real battle between the flesh and the Spirit, has no idea of the impossibility of winning this battle other than by grace alone.

It seems as if the whole world has gone after the great goddess of free-will and the strength of self. In modern evangelism, whether one thinks one is Reformed or other, it appears that the goal is to get someone to pray a prayer of faith or make an act of the will. The idea of teaching the sinner that s/he must go to God and take Christ alone for righteousness appears foreign to them. The idea of teaching sinners that they must come to Christ as Redeemer as an undone sinner is foreign to them. They may say that they don’t want to put anything between the sinner and Christ, but what they are really doing is ignoring what is already between the sinner and Christ. There is an insurmountable wall of pride, self, and self-righteousness. The sinner must come to Christ undone and with nothing in his hand or heart to trust in and ask for grace alone. For the modern evangelists, however, the goal is to argue the person into making a decision of the so-called ‘free-will’ though they don’t call it that.

In evangelism the focus is either on the ability of God or the ability of man. If we don’t stress the inability of man and the ability of God in saving by grace alone, we are stressing the ability of man because that is all that man will hear. If we are not crystal clear about the inability of man to save himself and the nature of sovereign grace which saves by grace alone to the glory of God alone, man will think he can contribute something himself and will trust in what he is doing. That little something that the man thinks he can do and perhaps has done is a form of self-righteousness regardless of what term it falls under. Of necessity that little something is something man thinks that he has done and that God has accepted. This is ever so dangerous as it keeps men from coming to Christ naked and undone in themselves and looking to grace alone to do the work of salvation.

But this is also true for believers who are growing in their knowledge of sin and have a defective view of sanctification. Sinners are saved by the blood and righteousness of Christ alone by grace alone. Oh how poor sinners need to see that it is faith in Christ that they must have which also comes by grace alone. While it is no excuse for sinners to immerse themselves into sin and it is not a reason to sin because sinners are under grace, yet sinners need to grasp the fact that in this life they will never be other than vile and wretched sinners. The more they grow in true holiness the more sin and wretchedness they will see in their own hearts. These believing sinners must see that instead of trying to come to God based on their own supposed self-righteousness and perhaps being free (more or less) from outward sin, they are to come naked and undone to the living God because Christ is accepted and all who are in Him are accepted on His account. It is correct that true believers will have good works and they must grow in holiness, but we must not confuse good works and true holiness with the basis we come to God on. We must also not get the idea that good works and holiness somehow make us holy. No, we are utterly dependent on Christ and His righteousness alone. Sinners who are weighed down and stricken need to behold Christ!

Men talk bravely of believing whilst whole and sound; few know it. Christ is the mystery of the Scripture; grace the mystery of Christ. Believing is the most wonderful thing in the world. Put any thing of your own to it, and you spoil it. Christ will not so much as look at it for believing. When you believe and come to Christ, you must leave behind you your own righteousness, and bring nothing but your sin: (Oh, that is hard!) leave behind all your holiness, sanctification, duties, humblings, and so on; and bring nothing but your wants [lacks] and your miseries, or else Christ is not fit for you, nor you for Christ. Christ will be a pure Redeemer and Mediator, and you must be an undone sinner, or Christ and you will never agree. It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness; that is to acknowledge Him Christ. Join anything to Him of your own, and you un-Christ Him.             Thomas Willcox

The heart of man is horribly deceived by self, the devil, and sin. There is deception all around man and it seems that man wants to be deceived on a constant basis rather than bow in utter humility and inability before God as undone and in utter need of a Savior for justification and in living the life of grace after that. Christ is perfectly holy and will not do one thing that is unholy, which is to say He will not do one thing that is not out of perfect love for His Father and that is not for His glory. Christ is a pure and perfect Redeemer, which means there is nothing that can be added to what He has done as a Redeemer since all He did was to the glory of God. Christ is a pure and perfect Mediator, which means that there is nothing that can be added to His perfect work to the glory of God. Believing (faith) the Gospel of grace alone, then, means that all must come from grace or it is an attack on what Christ has accomplished. Believing in a grand sanctification means, then, that all must only come by Christ alone and grace alone. The denial of that in theory or practice is an attack upon Christ has accomplished.

What must be said is that the work of Christ is perfect and what men must have is Christ in order to have a perfect righteousness. Men must not work for righteousness as that is impossible, but instead they are to look to Christ alone for righteousness. Christ is given as a Head for His people and all things come from the Head. In Christ all grace and spiritual blessings are stored and there is no other location for them to be found. When people set out to work in order to obtain a righteousness, whether it be to obtain righteousness in the flesh by duties or simply to make it more likely to obtain some, they are not looking in the place where the only acceptable righteousness is found, which is to say it is the only real righteousness at all.

If there is only one real righteousness and location where that righteousness is found, sinners must come completely undone or it is like they are coming with a false righteousness to the wrong place and demanding a real righteousness for themselves. One cannot come to the real Christ with false righteousness and expect that it will be acceptable. One cannot come to the one and only Redeemer which has been provided by grace alone and expect that one can do something to redeem self by works. The beauty and glory of Christ Jesus is infinite in the sight of God and far exceeds the power of any and all men to behold the depths of His beauty and glory, so no man should try to come to such holiness and beauty and try to sully that with an attempt to offer up his own righteousness which was worked up in his own putrid flesh. Sinners must come with empty hands and hearts in order to come to the Savior and Redeemer who is full of a perfect righteousness that only comes to sinners by grace alone. It is only when sinners stop trying to contribute to their salvation and sanctification that they give up on themselves and look to Christ alone for all and for that all to come by grace alone. It truly is a beautiful and glorious thing.

Willcox tells us (above) that it is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness. It is the hardest thing in the world because the proud heart of man finds it impossible. But it is necessary to take Christ alone for righteousness to take Him as Christ (Messiah). He did not come as the Beloved of the Father to live and die and be resurrected to provide part of a salvation for men, but in order to truly and fully save them. In brutal language Willcox tells us (in truth) that any attempt to add to Christ something of our own is to un-Christ Him, which is to say it is not to take Him as Christ (the Messiah) who is the perfect and full Redeemer of sinners. The glory of Christ is that He saves sinners completely and totally and does so by grace alone. It is not just that no help is wanted, but no help will be accepted. He will not give up His offices in order to accept the filthy menstrual cloths of the pride of men in offering up their idols of self-righteousness. However, here is hope for the sinner whether believer or unbeliever. Christ alone saves sinners by grace alone. Look to Christ completely and not self at all. Come undone or not at all.