Never think that it is sufficient for you to hear the Gospel to be saved. It is not. Many are called, but few are chosen (Matt. 22:14). The preaching of the cross is to some a savor of life to life, but to others, a savor of death to death (2 Cor. 2:16). God Himself must effectually call us from death to life, and give us faith by the operation of His grace (Col. 2:12-13). I don't say this to intimidate you. I don't say it to appear superior. I say it because it is true, and because we must ever be directed away from men and from self-complacency to Christ. We must believe Him. We must go to Him. We must call upon Him. God always presents salvation as a work of His own alone. When we hear what God requires of us, we must learn that it is not in us. This is a hard lesson, often repeated. And we must be brought to see that all God requires and demands of sinners is in Christ! We must be brought to depend upon Him to do for us, and to give to us what we must have: perfect righteousness, life, faith to believe Him, and every grace. God declares to us what we are: by nature, enemies of God, willfully ignorant, woefully and justly condemned (Eph. 2:1-3; Titus 3:3). And He discovers to us what we are not: we are bankrupt, naked, blind, filthy and shameful, having no righteousness. He then shows us Christ and tells us that He is for sinners all that God requires and demands from them (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 10:4). He tells us to come to Him through the blood of Christ (Heb. 10:19). He tells us to come as sinners and depend on His sovereign mercy in Christ (Luke 18:13; 1 Tim. 1:15). When He thus teaches us to look to His Son, we come, and we see that salvation is in Christ alone (John 6:44-45; Acts 4:12). Yet even in this, we can only stop depending on ourselves when He persuades us that Christ is all of our salvation (1 Cor. 1:30-31; Jer. 9:23-24; 23:5-6; Col. 2:9-10). This is the ongoing, life-long experience of grace (Col. 2:6; Eph. 3:16-17; Php. 3:3-11).
And yet there are dangers. We are tempted to try to accomplish what God alone must do. We must abandon all trust in our will and our experiences. We must quit trying to work up in ourselves something we think is presentable to God. We must never perform a service or follow a ceremony to produce peace and joy that can only be known in believing Christ. Another danger is that our progress becomes our focus. We may grow vainly confident by progress we think we have made. Or we may despair over our lack of perceived progress. But these dangers are averted by hearing the Gospel again and again with God-given faith (1 John 5:4). Faith always find its all, and terminates on, the Lord Jesus Christ alone. God lifts our eyes outward and upward to Christ, away from all that we are in our sin and corruption, and away from all that we lack in spiritual graces. In so lifting our eyes to Him, we see that all Christ is in His person and work, He is to God for us as our Mediator. In the Gospel, we see that all God is to us, He is to us in Christ (Col. 2:9-10). We therefore rest in Him and what He has done as our all (Heb. 4:10). Christ and Him crucified becomes our boast and confidence and coming to God. We come to God through Christ and in Christ. We come by Christ. But never apart from His saving work. We come by His blood. We come in His righteousness. How? On discovery of our guilt and corruptions, and knowing our inability to produce or come up with one thing of all that we must have, when from this foulness and emptiness we are given a sight of what He has done by Himself to atone, to justify, to bring His people in reconciled peace to God by His own blood -- then we cease from our own strivings and rest and rejoice that we are not hindered by our foul, guilty self, because He has put away our sins as far as the east is from the west by His atoning blood (Ps. 103:10-12; Isa. 43:25). "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities" (Ps. 103:10). Why? Because, with regard to the sins of His people, Christ has propitiated God by the sacrifice of Himself. He has not only rendered full satisfaction, but by His perfect obedience has established our everlasting righteousness (Isa. 45:24-25; Dan. 9:24; 1 Cor. 1:30). In all of this, Christ becomes the object of our confidence, the ground of our coming, the boast of our joyous praise, because God has provided all for us in Him. And as sinners, we are called and given to come and to see and to find satisfaction in all that He is and has done (Rom. 15:9-13). Oh, wonderful God-wrought task! For me, what God's Son has earned! Washed in the precious blood of Christ, dressed in the righteousness of God's own dear Son, with God-given faith I look to Him, I come with borrowed words and live by a borrowed life, and lift my heart to Him in praise by unearnable grace (Ps. 107:2)!
And yet there are dangers. We are tempted to try to accomplish what God alone must do. We must abandon all trust in our will and our experiences. We must quit trying to work up in ourselves something we think is presentable to God. We must never perform a service or follow a ceremony to produce peace and joy that can only be known in believing Christ. Another danger is that our progress becomes our focus. We may grow vainly confident by progress we think we have made. Or we may despair over our lack of perceived progress. But these dangers are averted by hearing the Gospel again and again with God-given faith (1 John 5:4). Faith always find its all, and terminates on, the Lord Jesus Christ alone. God lifts our eyes outward and upward to Christ, away from all that we are in our sin and corruption, and away from all that we lack in spiritual graces. In so lifting our eyes to Him, we see that all Christ is in His person and work, He is to God for us as our Mediator. In the Gospel, we see that all God is to us, He is to us in Christ (Col. 2:9-10). We therefore rest in Him and what He has done as our all (Heb. 4:10). Christ and Him crucified becomes our boast and confidence and coming to God. We come to God through Christ and in Christ. We come by Christ. But never apart from His saving work. We come by His blood. We come in His righteousness. How? On discovery of our guilt and corruptions, and knowing our inability to produce or come up with one thing of all that we must have, when from this foulness and emptiness we are given a sight of what He has done by Himself to atone, to justify, to bring His people in reconciled peace to God by His own blood -- then we cease from our own strivings and rest and rejoice that we are not hindered by our foul, guilty self, because He has put away our sins as far as the east is from the west by His atoning blood (Ps. 103:10-12; Isa. 43:25). "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities" (Ps. 103:10). Why? Because, with regard to the sins of His people, Christ has propitiated God by the sacrifice of Himself. He has not only rendered full satisfaction, but by His perfect obedience has established our everlasting righteousness (Isa. 45:24-25; Dan. 9:24; 1 Cor. 1:30). In all of this, Christ becomes the object of our confidence, the ground of our coming, the boast of our joyous praise, because God has provided all for us in Him. And as sinners, we are called and given to come and to see and to find satisfaction in all that He is and has done (Rom. 15:9-13). Oh, wonderful God-wrought task! For me, what God's Son has earned! Washed in the precious blood of Christ, dressed in the righteousness of God's own dear Son, with God-given faith I look to Him, I come with borrowed words and live by a borrowed life, and lift my heart to Him in praise by unearnable grace (Ps. 107:2)!
Rick Warta
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