For those looking to Christ
how should they see themselves
in light of the cross?
As we said Sunday in the message, The Profoundly Easy Gospel (Romans 10:5-8), the testimony of Charles Spurgeon concerning his conversion to Christ in a Primitive Methodist Church as a searching teenager highlights the truth that we are saved simply by looking outside of ourselves to Jesus Christ and what He has done for us.
"The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed; but this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was,—
"LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH."
"He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus—"My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, 'Look.' Now lookin' don't take a deal of pains. It ain't liftin' your foot or your finger; it is just, 'Look.' Well, a man needn't go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn't be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. But then the text says, 'Look unto Me.' Ay!" said he, in broad Essex, "many on ye are lookin' to yourselves, but it's no use lookin' there. You'll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, 'Look unto Me.' Some on ye say, 'We must wait for the Spirit's workin'.' You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says, 'Look unto Me.'"
"Then the good man followed up his text in this way:—"Look unto Me; I am sweatin' great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hangin' on the cross. Look unto Me; I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven. Look unto Me; I am sittin' at the Father's right hand. O poor sinner, look unto Me! look unto Me!
"When he had gone to about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, "Young man, you look very miserable." Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, "and you always will be miserable—miserable in life, and miserable in death,—if you don't obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved." Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin' to do but to look and live." I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said,—I did not take much notice of it,—I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, "Look!" what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me this before, "Trust Christ, and you shall be saved."
"In my conversion, the very point lay in making the discovery that I had nothing to do but to look to Christ, and I should be saved. I believe that I had been a very good, attentive hearer; my own impression about myself was that nobody ever listened much better than I did. For years, as a child, I tried to learn the way of salvation; and either I did not hear it set forth, which I think cannot quite have been the case, or else I was spiritually blind and deaf, and could not see it and could not hear it; but the good news that I was, as a sinner, to look away from myself to Christ, as much startled me, and came as fresh to me, as any news ever heard in my life. (The Great Change)
As Spurgeon learned, by God’s grace, all we must do to be saved is to look to the Lord Jesus in simple faith. And yet, as believers, we are to continue to look to the Lord Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2; Colossians 2:6-7) and we are to see ourselves as we are in union with Him and what He has done for us. To speak of ourselves as we are because of what He has done for us and because of our union with Him is to honor Christ and His cross and all that He accomplished. To speak and think and believe otherwise is to dishonor what He has done. May God give us greater grace to boldly speak what the Word says is true of us in Christ in each and every situation and relationship. These confessions are true of believers in Jesus simply because of what Jesus has done, not because of anything that we do.
Simply because of a trusting look at Jesus, I can say and should say in my heart each day, all day:
1. I am forgiven: I am forgiven by God for all my sins, yesterday and today and forever. (Colossians 1:13-14)
2. I am righteous: I have been declared righteous by God through the imputed righteousness of Christ Himself and will never be condemned. (Romans 5:17)
3. I have peace with God: I have peace with God and am reconciled to Him so that I can know Him intimately as my Father. (Romans 5:1-2)
4. I am accepted: I am accepted and rejoiced over by God just as He rejoices over His Son, Jesus, and He will never reject me, no matter what. (Romans 15:7)
5. I am loved perfectly: I am loved perfectly and continually by God, even when I give in to temptation and when I face the most difficult and confusing of trials. (1 John 4:16-18)
6. I am a new person: I am a new creation in Christ and I can live differently so that my past of sin need never be my future. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
7. I have a purpose for living: I have been called to follow Christ to the glory of God and I am to help others to do the same. (Mark 8:34-38)
8. I have all I need: I have all I need in Christ for this life so that I need not fear. (2 Peter 1:2-4)
9. I can handle any situation: I have the strength I need in Christ to live to please God in every situation. (Philippians 4:11-13)
10. I can boldly ask for whatever I need: I can approach God boldly and confidently at all times as my Father and can expect Him to answer as I call on Him for what I need, according to His timing, His glory and my good. (Hebrews 4:14-16)
11. I have the happiness my heart longs for: I have true happiness in Christ that is a full and forever joy, tasted here and completely experienced in the life to come. (Psalm 16:11)
12. I can be confident in the face of sin and suffering: I can be confident of all these things, even when I sin and suffer greatly, because of the finished work of Christ and God’s sovereign grace that has enabled me to trust in Christ alone for His righteousness which leads to eternal life. (Romans 8:28)
So even as saved believers, we are to look to Jesus and live!
