God Loves… Himself

If you have seen Christ truly, you have seen pure grace, pure righteousness in Him every way infinite, far exceeding all sin and misery. If you have seen Christ, you can trample upon all the righteousness of men and angels, so as to bring you into acceptance with God. If you have seen Christ, you would not do a duty without Him for ten thousand worlds (I Cor. 2:2).      Thomas Wilcox

It may be a rather puzzling comment to some to think of Wilcox’s horror of doing a duty without Christ. The glory of Christ is such that a thought of doing a work from the flesh and not from and to His glory is a terrible thought to those who have seen Christ to some degree. This is not a matter of justification as such, but it shows the love of the heart for Christ and for His glory. The Lord Jesus told His disciples that apart from Him they could do nothing, that is, they could do nothing spiritual and they could not do anything that would bring forth spiritual fruit. The only things that are done that are true spiritual fruit are the things done that come from Christ first. He is the vine and His true people are the branches, so any fruit that comes from the branch actually comes from Christ and through the branch. Any work done apart from Christ, then, is a work of the flesh and is a fleshly religion.

Romans 11:36 sets out a very basic truism for the whole of the Christian life: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” If the soul is going to do something for Him (for His glory), then the soul must receive it from Him first and it must be through Him as well. There is nothing that a soul can do for the glory of God if it comes from the flesh, but what the soul receives from God can be to the glory of God. If what the soul does is from the flesh, it is for the glory of the flesh and it is self-centered at its very core. What the soul does for the glory of God must (absolutely must) come from God who shines forth His glory in Christ and what is received from Him through Christ must also be sent back to Him with motives of love through Christ as well.

In John 17:1 the Son prayed for the Father to glorify Him that He (The Son) may glorify the Father. This is the pattern of the believer, though we must receive all from the Son and all that is returned must go through the Son too. But the only way a believer is able to glorify the Father is with the glory that the believer receives from the Father. There is no power and no glory in the human flesh that is able to manifest the glory of God and so a believer must receive from the Father the glory that the believer is to glorify the Father with. The soul has to come to the reality about itself that there is nothing that it can do to glorify God apart from God working this glory in the soul by His own hand and through Christ.

Another reason that the soul should be horrified to do a good work without Christ is because of the taint of sin in all we do. There is not a good work we do that does not need the blood of Christ to wash it and make it clean. There is not a good work we do that does not need the perfect righteousness of Christ as a basis for doing what we do as love for Him rather than a work for self-righteousness regardless of what we call it. If even our best works are as menstrual cloths before Him then surely it is obvious that we must have the blood and righteousness of Christ for even our very best. But if we need Christ for our very best, what of the things that are not our best and what of the things that are perhaps our worst?

The teaching of Holy Scripture as understand by those who have felt the weight of depravity, inability, and helplessness of sin are of great comfort. While they teach us that we must have Christ for our best and our worst and all things in between, they also teach us that Christ Jesus came to save sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ did not go to the cross and suffer and die for good men, but for the ungodly and the despised and the ignoble. The Lord Jesus Christ does not smile upon the nice, the civil, and the religious and send them on their way to do good works, but instead if He did not die for their good works those same “good works” would send them to a devil’s hell. Every sinner must have Christ Himself or s/he will perish. Every sinner must have Christ each moment of the day. Every unsaved sinner must have Christ or s/he will never have nothing but the wrath of God upon him or her forever. Every saved sinner must have Christ as His life or s/he will not truly live. Every saved sinner must have Christ or the hunger and thirst of their souls will not be satisfied. Every saved sinner must have Christ and to have Christ it must come by grace alone and not by Christ and one work or many works. Grace will stand in the soul alone or it will not stand at all. Poor sinner, do you live each moment by grace? Do you think that your morality, goodness, and perhaps works will please Him? Oh no, only Christ will please Him and only grace.

If you have seen Christ truly, you have seen pure grace, pure righteousness in Him every way infinite, far exceeding all sin and misery. If you have seen Christ, you can trample upon all the righteousness of men and angels, so as to bring you into acceptance with God. If you have seen Christ, you would not do a duty without Him for ten thousand worlds (I Cor. 2:2).          Thomas Wilcox

It is a very important to ask ourselves and our own hearts if we have seen Christ truly. It is one thing to talk about it as a theory or a doctrine, but it is quite another to see Christ truly. It is one thing to discuss Christ as a doctrine, but it is quite another to examine our hearts to see if we take pleasure in talking about a doctrine or if our joy is in Christ Himself. It is also true that there are many sensitive or tender hearts that feel the weight of their depravity and inability and so think they have not seen Christ truly, but one can see Christ truly and not have the experience of the writer of the quote (just above) in its fullness.

The heart that has seen or beheld Christ is not satisfied with anything but grace and grace alone. Indeed the souls of men are not made perfect and there will be desires for sin, but the point is that a person who understands and feels the weight of his or her sin (to any degree) will know that there is no work that can make up for the least sin and therefore can heal a wounded conscience. Beholding Christ in His glory is in some way also to see the heart of self in its sin. The light of Christ reveals sin which shows us that those who are given light and so see Christ see themselves as sinful and even disgusting in the filth of sin. The soul that has seen the greatness of Christ and the greatness of sin will have nothing to do with works to do away with sin, but instead that soul wants nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? The only answer is nothing but the blood of Jesus.

The soul must examine itself and ask itself if it sees its sin but if it sees and knows that the grace of Christ far exceeds all of its own sin. This soul must learn by experience to rest in the finished work of Christ rather than its own sanctification. In one sense it is growth in sanctification to rest in the work of Christ rather than the sanctification of the soul. The soul will be trained by God in going through afflictions, sorrows, and dry periods where it doubts if it has grace or not. However, as the soul grows in dying to self and resting in and trusting in the grace of Christ and His blood and righteousness alone that soul will begin to have hope in Christ more and more during those afflictions, sorrows, and dry periods. The soul begins to look more and more from self and its sin, filth, and misery to see more of Christ, His righteousness, and His purity.

When a soul is in the midst of a sore trial, it may want to flee to the worth or merit of its sufferings, but it cannot. It will realize that all the suffering it can do has no merit or value to God for the least sin and cannot obtain one ounce of righteousness. The soul will learn that all of those hard things are not intended to torment it, though indeed there will be torment, but the greatest goal is to make the soul like Christ. Jesus Himself learned obedience by suffering and so His people will only learn obedience to the degree that they suffer. This does not mean the utter agony (necessarily) that Christ suffered on the cross, but also the suffering that He endured throughout His life on this planet. The soul will suffer because of its own sin and the sin of others. The soul will suffer pain in this life both inwardly and outwardly. The soul will suffer the abuse of others. In all of this, however, the soul must not look to any value or merit it can obtain by those sufferings, but to the value of the righteousness of Christ alone and know that it can receive no good but by grace.

The soul must learn to despise anything it can do or the honors of men in order that it may trample upon the temptation to trust in a self-righteousness that those things can bring. The soul must not just be made acceptable to God once, but must be acceptable to God in fellowship at all times. This is not to say that there should not be a supreme place given to justification, but simply to say that the soul must trample on all things for righteousness during its life in order to walk by grace alone and Christ alone. As justified sinners live, they sin. But justified sinners must look and rest in Christ and His righteousness alone as they live. It is, in a very imprecise way of putting it, living in light of justification and the righteousness of Christ alone that justifies. In the same way the justified sinner walks in light of the blood of Christ knowing that there is no satisfaction before God but by the blood of Christ alone and that comes to the sinner by grace alone. This is to say that God is only pleased with Christ and so sinners should live in Christ and by His cross and righteousness alone, which is by grace alone.

If you have seen Christ truly, you have seen pure grace, pure righteousness in Him every way infinite, far exceeding all sin and misery. If you have seen Christ, you can trample upon all the righteousness of men and angels, so as to bring you into acceptance with God. If you have seen Christ, you would not do a duty without Him for ten thousand worlds (I Cor. 2:2).      Thomas Wilcox

The righteousness of Christ can be thought of as a proposition within a doctrinal statement, or it can be something of the depths of the soul that a person lives by and is at the core of the life. We are told that we must believe in Christ, though rarely that part of what it means to believe in Christ is to trust in His imputed righteousness alone. The righteousness of Christ is infinite in all directions and as such it far exceeds all sin and misery that the elect can do. This righteousness of Christ is a pure righteousness and is without the slightest taint of any impurity at all. This is the righteousness that a sinner needs and must have if the sinner will enter the gates of heaven.

For a man or woman to be declared just or righteous in the sight of God, that person must have no sin to his or her account and a perfect righteousness in that account. It is not good enough for a person to have no sin to his or her account as that would leave a person without a negative on the account but also without anything positive. A sinner must have a perfect record in terms of sin, that is, either not have sinned at all or have his or her sins washed away by a perfect sacrifice in his or her place. The sinner must also have a perfect record in terms of righteousness toward God and His perfect law. That perfect record must either come from the sinner living a perfect life in terms of loving God and doing all for His glory or having a perfect substitute who imputes to the account of the sinner a perfect life of loving God and doing all for His glory. To have seen Christ is to see the glory and beauty of a perfect righteousness and it is to see that righteousness credited to “my” account.

The Lord Jesus Christ has from all eternity lived in the bosom of the Father and has lived in perfect love and righteousness. When the Lord Jesus (second Person of the Trinity) took human flesh to Himself, He did nothing but what was perfectly righteous and nothing but what was out of love for the Father and what glorified the Father. All that the Lord Jesus did was from the perfect righteousness of God, according to the perfect standard of righteousness of God, and as such out the perfect righteousness of God on display.

Romans 3:24 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.

Christ Jesus was displayed as a propitiation (removal of the wrath of God by His suffering on the cross)? Why was that the case? It was in order to demonstrate the righteousness of God. All the sinners in the Old Testament that God did not pour out His wrath on and send to hell stood against the account of God until the cross of Christ, but then it could be seen that He was perfectly righteous and just. The same thing has been true since that time as well. In Christ God can be perfectly righteous in declaring sinners righteous in Christ. In Christ sinners are declared just and God is both the one who justifies and is perfectly just in declaring them just as well. In this the righteousness of God is displayed and manifested by and in Christ.

If the righteousness of every man could be gathered together and added to all the righteousness of the angels none of that would be worth anything but something to trample on in order to have Christ and His righteousness. No man has a shred of righteousness, though some might argue that angels have some. I would rather argue that the angels are upheld by Christ and do all they do by the power and righteousness He works in them. It is also true that no angel could take the nature of man in such a way to be a substitute for man. This shows us that all the righteousness of men and angels of all time when put together amount to nothing but what we should trample on in order to seek the perfect righteousness of Christ. If that is true, then we should flee from all self-righteousness as from a viper. There is nothing but the righteousness of Christ that should be acceptable to a soul that longs to stand before God in a perfect righteousness. Oh that we would long to repent of self and pride and humbly look to Christ

If you have seen Christ truly, you have seen pure grace, pure righteousness in Him every way infinite, far exceeding all sin and misery. If you have seen Christ, you can trample upon all the righteousness of men and angels, so as to bring you into acceptance with God. If you have seen Christ, you would not do a duty without Him for ten thousand worlds (I Cor. 2:2).     Thomas Wilcox

The wonder and the glory of Christ is not something that many people actually behold. They see Christ as subservient to them and all the glory they see is a Christ who serves them and is focused on them. In other words, the glory that they think they see of Christ is really their own glory in one sense. But to see Christ as He is and in His pure glory, it is to see pure grace. Christ did not take human flesh to Himself because human beings had a shred of goodness in them, but He did so to save sinners for the glory of God. Christ did not go to the cross in that human flesh because there was any merit or value in human beings, but because He loved the Father and His glory. It was because God loved Himself within the Trinity that sinners are saved and it is in that love within the Trinity that we behold sheer and utter grace.

God the Father sent the Son to actually save sinners, but not because sinners had anything they could offer the Father and not because of anything within them. But the Father sent the Beloved Son and in that we see the glory of grace shining forth. We behold how God can save sinners because of Himself rather than because of anything that sinners have done and apart from any merit they have come up with or can come up with. Sinners are saved by Christ alone and grace alone. The glory of this grace shines forth from the Father, though the Son, and by the Spirit to those who have eyes to see. In this glorious Gospel we see Christ and yet when we behold Christ in truth we see the shining forth of pure grace.

There is not the slightest bit of grace in the world that has not come to human beings apart from Christ. As the Scripture teaches us that all spiritual blessings are in Christ, so all grace is in Christ and all of Christ is grace to His people. For poor sinners who have reached an end to all their works for merit and all their attempts to work up some value in themselves, Christ is set forth to them as grace Himself. For those poor sinners who have no hope in religion or in their own free-will or anything else, Christ tells them to come to Him. It is in Christ that sinners see and will find grace. It is in Christ that sinners find a real grace rather than the watered down type that is preached today. Broken and contrite sinners will want nothing but Christ and nothing but grace. Broken sinners don’t want anything to do with their own will because it is polluted, has no power, and can do nothing to earn or bring grace. Broken sinners want nothing but grace and that alone will satisfy their souls.

Those sinners who are poor, naked, and wretched in their own sight will not look to anything they are or anything they can do. Those type of sinners have reached an end to themselves and they want a pure grace and not the diluted stuff that modern preachers try to dispense out. In reality the type of grace that modern preachers (for the most part) try to sell is in reality adding a work here or a work there to grace, and the Scriptures (Rom 11:6) say quite clearly that to add a work to grace is to make grace no longer grace. The poor and wretched sinner sees that and knows that the proffered grace that is not pure grace will not suit his or her need, but in fact will do nothing but delude the soul. Only a pure grace will suit the taste of the soul that has finished with self and finds all works for salvation as bitter to the taste. This soul wants Christ and Christ alone. This soul wants grace and grace alone. Away with all of the modern thoughts of grace that is not grace. Away with the thoughts of a will that is free enough to do what only a sovereign God can do. Away with the teaching that grace is something less than completely and utterly sovereign because there is no other kind of grace and the broken heart wants nothing but a pure grace. For all eternity the soul that has acquired a taste for pure grace will want nothing else.

You are known as a Christian person, and go on hearing, praying, and receiving, yet miserable you may be. Look about you; did you ever yet see Christ to this day, in distinction from all other excellencies and righteousness in the world, and all of them falling before the majesty of His love and grace? Isaiah 2:17         Thomas Wilcox

Each person must examine his or her own heart as Paul said in II Corinthians 13:5. It is not enough to hear, pray, and receive, but it is vital to search the heart to know if we see Christ in what we are doing. Our hearts are deceptive, the devil is the deceiver, and sin is deceptive. On top of that, God judges the wicked and hardens their hearts and blinds them. While that may seem like insurmountable obstacles, grace can overcome any and all obstacles. But all should examine their hearts.

We must ask ourselves questions in helping to examine our hearts. One, you must ask yourself what is your deepest motive in what you am doing. While you may know the right answers to the questions, that is a different thing than actually having that as your deepest motive. Two, you must ask yourself what is your deepest motive and desire in what you am doing. These questions must be put to the heart in terms of all religious activities, including prayer, Bible study, the sacraments, and hearing Scripture. Three, you must ask yourself why you refrain from sin. The soul can refrain from sin not because it desires Christ more than the world, but because it is the religious thing to do in which the soul takes pride in. It is also a sneaky way for self-righteousness to enter in. Four, we must ask ourselves why we do good works. We can do good works in order to see ourselves as righteous or perhaps for others to think of us as righteous rather than out of love for the Christ of glory.

Another way to ask the questions or perhaps another angle from which to view these questions is from the angle of righteousness. In our religious actions and in fleeing from sin we can simply examine our hearts to see if we are looking to our own righteousness when we do what we do and when we don’t do what we don’t do or if we are looking to the majesty, glory, grace, and righteousness of Christ. Is it from an attraction to His beauty and a love for His grace that we pursue Him in prayer or is it from a desire for self-righteousness that we do so? Is it from the fact that free-grace has provided a perfect righteousness that we may approach Him and from that free-grace we may do all out of love for Him and His glory or is it self-righteousness that we do what we do?

The heart that loves Christ and does all through Him and by the strength of His grace and love is the one that is doing all for Him and fleeing sin for His sake. But again, our hearts will tell us that we are doing those things out of love for Him simply because we know that we should love Him and so we tell ourselves that we do. However, we can know that we are to do all through Him and by the strength of His grace and still do things by the power and love of self. Knowing about something is far different than being moved by the power of the reality of it in the depths of our souls.

We can pray because we are supposed to and we can pray out of love for self. We can pray because we want others to be healed and we can pray because we want things for self. We can pray with words for the glory of God while our hearts are satisfied with our self-righteousness because we are praying for the glory of God. But the truth of the matter is that we are to pray for the glory and honor of God out of a true love for the glory and honor of God, but that true love for God will never come from the power of the flesh, human nature, and self-love. The work of Christ on the cross has freed us from the wrath of God so that we may love Him and serve Him without fear of wrath. The righteousness of Christ has freed us from the need to obtain righteousness so that we may be instruments of His glory without the need to do what we do and not do what we don’t do for self-righteousness. The grace of God in Christ has given us all the strength that is needed in Christ that we may bear the fruit of grace and holiness for His glory rather than seeking our own glory. All spiritual blessings are in Christ and come from Christ while there are no spiritual blessings in the flesh and that can come from the flesh. Let us behold the Lord Jesus in His glory and fall before Him and His majesty and grace in awe. He is worthy to have all done from His grace and for His glory.

You are known as a Christian person, and go on hearing, praying, and receiving, yet miserable you may be. Look about you; did you ever yet see Christ to this day, in distinction from all other excellencies and righteousness in the world, and all of them falling before the majesty of His love and grace? Isaiah 2:17            Thomas Wilcox

In reading the writings of men in the past there appear to have been many who professed Christianity and yet did not have Christ in truth. Not only were there those who professed Christ but did not do even the externals of Christianity, there were many who professed Christ and went to hear preaching, prayed a lot, and did the external things that Christians do. The same thing is true today, though it would appear that there are far more today that do those things. It is (once again) possible to do all the external things that Christians are supposed to do and yet not have life in the soul. Not only is it possible to do those things, it is possible that those things will be used by the evil one and our own wicked hearts to build self-righteousness and so deception.

The goal of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is His own glory and not so that men may boast in their own righteousness and efforts. The goal of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to manifest the glory of God in and through Christ and to debase the proud hearts of men. This should make it self-evident that men who preach and those who go to hear preaching should seek Christ by the preaching and the hearing of the preaching rather than use that as an opportunity to exalt self. In prayer the goal must not be for the things of self and for the benefits of self (at least primarily), but the primary goal of prayer should be to seek God and His glory. The primary reason God gives things to people is for His own glory which shows us that we should receive all things for that goal. The goal must not be the self-righteousness, pride, and seeking of honor for self; but the glory of God.

It is a terrible deception when people are told and taught to hear, pray, study the Bible and so on and yet not taught the real goal of doing those things. When those things (means of grace) are not taught to people as ways to seek Christ and to behold Him in His glory, they will become means of self-righteousness and means for pride and self-deception. Again, this is a terrible deception and it is carried out across the world in so many places. Yes, Christians are to pray, but it is not doing what people think of as prayer, but rather it is to behold His glory and then seek God in prayer.

The two goals of prayer and the rest of the means of grace are polar opposites in what they seek as a goal, but also the view of God that is behind and underneath them. God and His glory is the greatest good for God to seek and also for His people to seek. When people seek themselves in prayer or in the means of grace, they are committing the great evil of idolatry. When people think they are seeking God by their duties rather than by the power of grace seeking grace, they are looking to the arm of flesh and self to do what grace alone can do. In order to seek God by grace and for grace, it takes the glory of grace to shine in the eyes of the soul to see Christ as greater than all the excellencies of the world and His righteousness as the only true righteousness that there is. In the light of His excellencies all the things of the world appear as dust and ashes. In light of the glory of His righteousness, all the righteousness that self can raise up is seen as filthy rags. The soul must behold Christ or it will grind away in the dirt and mire of the world for its short pleasures and for muddy coverings rather than true righteousness.

Isaiah 2:17 The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, 18 But the idols will completely vanish. 19 Men will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD And the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble. 20 In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats Their idols of silver and their idols of gold, Which they made for themselves to worship, 21 In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs Before the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble. 22 Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; For why should he be esteemed?

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

The Scriptures are quite clear about the need for souls to be humbled and broken before the soul is ready to look to Christ alone and His grace alone. Wilcox puts it in an analogy of clothing and the picture is that of spinning which is how they made clothes in his day. The idea, then, is that men and women make their own clothes of righteousness (obtained by morality and works) by spinning rather than look to the righteousness of Christ alone to cover their nakedness. When a person comes to see that his own works in obtaining righteousness is nothing but filthy rags, that person should see that all of his own covering must be unraveled that s/he might not trust in the slightest or smallest thread of his own working. Grace alone must work in the heart of this person and show the person where the rags are and where the small threads are.

For a person to reach the point of recognizing his or her own utter lack of righteousness that person must seek the Lord for this, though once again the seeking of the Lord does not earn it in any way. As David cried out in Psalm 139, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way” (vv. 23-24). The soul is spiritually dead and cannot see these things, and even when the soul is alive there is remaining darkness and it must have light to see. The soul must cry out to God for grace to open its eyes to see and then for grace to give it the desire to flee from sin and especially the sin of self-righteousness. Only grace can reveal the depths of sin and the depths of self-righteousness that every human being has. Only grace can give a person the real desire to be holy and only grace can give a person the broken heart that is needed to quit defending self and seek to be broken from self-righteousness and pride. How powerful is pride in the heart when part of its work is blinding sinners to their sin and self-righteousness. How terrible it is when the disease itself tries to blind us to the disease in the guise of health.

Matthew 18:3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

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

The two passages of Scripture (one from each Testament) just above show us the necessity of this unraveling work of coming to and end of self and of self-righteousness. Can a person trust in the righteousness of Christ alone while trusting in self-righteousness to any point and degree? Can a person trust in grace alone to do the work while trusting in self-righteousness to any degree? The main point of Matthew 18:3 is that humility is the opposite of greatness and how very small children (even infants) are utterly dependant upon their parents. True conversion is when proud, self-righteous, and self-reliant sinners become like infants and receive all from Christ.

The passage in Isaiah shows the type of people that God dwells with. He does not dwell with the proud and the self-righteous, but He dwells with the contrite and lowly of spirit. This was the “spirit” that Christ had when He dealt with the Pharisees with strong words and yet had mercy upon the weak, helpless, and sinners. Self-righteousness is odious to God, yet those who have no righteousness of their own but know that they have nothing but their own sin and yet hold to the righteousness of Christ are the ones that Christ dwells with. God can behold the worst of sinners if they are in Christ and behold them in His love because of the perfect righteousness of Christ. On the other hand, God can look at the highest standard of human morality and religion and it will be an abomination to Him apart from Christ. We must seek for our own threads of self-righteousness to be unraveled and cast away from us as the worst of things. We should cry out in humility and brokenness for God to have mercy on our souls and grant Christ and His righteousness to us. Nothing else will save the soul and grant the soul the presence of the living God.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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