Christ Jesus is everything, and you are nothing. If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. If any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Pride is the vaunting and worship of yourself. Human pride is the religion of hell. An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
Every man is very fond of himself, so that means he is completely empty. But Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." God became a sinless Jewish man - His name was Jesus of Nazareth. God in human flesh bled and died on Calvary's Cross to save lost sinners, especially you. Christ Jesus was buried, and then He resurrected from the dead three days later. He is now alive for evermore and able to save any sinner to the uttermost that comes unto God by Him. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and sinners, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all sinners.
You can't try a man twice for the same offense, Christ Jesus was tried for my sins and found guilty, although He was perfectly Innocent. My sins were placed on Him, though I was guilty. And when I place my faith in the Savior, God judged me, tried me, He found me guilty, and then He set me loose all for Jesus' sake. And now I can never be tried twice for the same offense. I came into God's court as guilty as Sin, God puts the sentence on me, and then God in the person of His Son pays my death sentence, and I go scot free through Jesus' Precious Blood.
You have no goodness in your heart, only badness. You can't please God with your works, and you cannot earn heaven through your own efforts, because you're a sinner to the bone marrow. You must first Believe on who Christ IS, and come to Christ Himself, and rest on what Jesus Christ did for you by simple faith in His sinless blood that was shed for sinners. The moment you believe on Christ wholeheartedly, God takes your sins and imputes all of them to Christ, and then God takes Christ's Righteousness and imputes it to your soul. Christ Himself must make you righteous in God's sight, not your works.
This is the Grand Exchange that must occur for you to be forgiven - Christ's Righteousness goes on the sinner, and the sinner's sin goes on Christ. If you will take Christ, Christ will take you. Receiving and trusting who Christ is, and implicitly relying on what He did to save sinners is the way to Heaven. Flee to Christ now for refuge from God's justice and wrath.
Now remember - You can't take even a little bit of credit for being saved from your sin. Human nature always wants to have a finger in its own salvation, this is called self-righteousness. Human nature is always sticking its dirty finger in this pie, and human nature thinks that surely Christ cannot do the whole work of salvation without some help from a sinner. This is the very rankest pride in the world, to think and try to do something to save yourself.
Human nature thinks it can earn a little bit of salvation, so it can get a little bit of credit and glory. But that's not how Biblical Salvation works. Salvation (the forgiveness of all your sins) is completely free to sinners, because Jesus paid it all and does it all. Rest both your feet on Christ's Finished Work alone, that is genuine Faith. God for Christ’s sake alone forgives sinners simply because of their trusting Christ's finished work. Salvation is so simple, but it so hard because human nature is so proud and refuses to receive anything free from God. It is hard for self-righteous men to trust Christ, because they want to have a finger in their own salvation. It's kind of like wanting to play a part in your own open heart surgery. If you tried this, the surgeon would absolutely refuse to operate on you at all. Likewise, if you try to play a part in your own salvation, Christ will refuse to help you at all. The Spirit of God must first cut the self-righteous man down to the ground like a tall rotten tree, and take away all his power, strength, merit, boasting, and glorying. This is a painful process sometimes.
If you're ever going to be saved, you must be saved as a sinner, or not at all, for Christ has not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. You must be saved through the merits of Another, and washed from your sins in the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ; your own works cannot have a finger in your salvation. A sinner's salvation must be by God's grace, and by His grace alone. The only words that can bless you and be a seed in your lost soul is the living and incorruptible word of the eternal Holy Spirit. This is the incorruptible word, that “God was made flesh and dwelt among us;” that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” This is the incorruptible word of truth, that “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” He that believeth on the name and blood of Jesus Christ is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” The seed of the Gospel must be implanted in your soul by the Spirit of God, or it will never grow. Believe the Gospel, grasp it, and lay hold on Christ! On the incarnate God, Jesus of Nazareth, I fix all my hope for time and Eternity; the substitutionary bloody Sacrifice, the complete Atonement of Christ is all my confidence; I am fully and forever reconciled to God now by the precious blood of Jesus.
But of course the proud man cannot believe that; he turns his back upon the Free Gospel of Christ in scorn. Why will he not believe the Gospel? Because human nature loves sin and will not believe the Pure Gospel. Human nature is so egotistical and proud so the Gospel offends man. The Gospel goes completely against the grain of self-righteous human nature, and the natural man cannot endure it. Unregenerate man refuses to be saved by divine Charity, he will not accept a handout from his Maker. With awful desperation man trusts in himself. Carnal confidence is the god of human nature. Human nature clings to its own self-righteousness with a death grip. The natural pride of the human heart does not like the Gospel, because it doesn't leave human nature any room to stow away its own pride and vain glory. Proud man cannot endure to be saved by God's free mercy for Jesus' sake; he refuses to plead Guilty and throw himself on the Mercy of Jesus Christ. Man cannot deal with being treated as a begging pauper before God. The lost man desires to have a finger is his own salvation, and claim at least a little credit for it. Proud man will not have heaven on God's free terms. As long as a man can, he will set up one excuse after another, and hold on to his own righteousness as though it were his life. The self-righteous man is like a shiny apple which is rotten at the core. If you reject Christ, you're going to die in your sins, and go to Hell forever where you belong.
If any part of your salvation were of your own working, you could praise yourself once you made it to heaven. If you had a finger in it, you might justly praise that finger. and if you reach heaven by your own might and merits, you could justly throw up your hat in the golden streets before the angels, and shout, "Glory to be myself, I made it!"
If you think that you can do anything towards saving yourself, go ahead and do it; but Christ Jesus will never have nothing to do with you on those terms. The Holy Spirit must first bring you to realize that, you are helpless, hopeless, lost, ruined, and undone, and that you cannot even lift a finger to save yourself; but that the grace and blood of God must do everything for you, from the first to the last; and unless you are emptied and humbled, and laid low in the dust at the foot of the Cross before Christ Himself, you are lost for sure. Look now to Christ Jesus alone, and be saved from the love of sin.
The poor bankrupt sinner must commit himself completely to Christ's riches. It is a very easy thing for a debtor to commit all his debts to his Surety, for anyone to commit his case to his Lawyer, for a patient to trust himself to his Physician, and for a blind man to trust in his Guide. All this is very simple and easy. It does not need much explanation, and faith in Jesus is just as simple and just as easy as that. So why is it so difficult for lost men to trust in Christ? It is because human nature is too proud to believe in Jesus. We cannot see ourselves as we really are. If we did, we would be willing to trust the Savior without hesitation. But proud Self does not like going to heaven like blind people who need a guide, or like debtors who cannot pay a penny. We want to have a finger in the pie, we want to do something towards our own salvation, we want to have some of the praise and glory of it. God help you to resist this evil spirit of self-righteousness. Only the working of the Holy Spirit, and faith in the substitutionary sinless bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ Himself can save a real sinner. Be wise - accept free salvation on God's terms. Be still, stop trying and doing, and simply receive the full and free salvation Christ has already finished. All attempts to save yourself by your own works is nothing but a sinful bargaining with God for eternal life, but God will never give away His eternal life at a price, or sell it to a sinner who can't earn it.
Human nature cannot lift a finger to aid in its own salvation. Human nature thinks it can do it all, but it can't. Human nature is so arrogant that it would, if it could, be its own savior. The spiritually poor must commit themselves wholly to Christ. This act greatly glorifies God. Christ is honored when the bankrupt lost soul trusts in Him; it is a joy to Christ's heart to be trusted. When the lost soul clings to CHRIST, He feels the same joy that a mother feels when her helpless little baby cling to her. Christ is glad when poor sin-sick souls come and trust in HIM. It was for this very purpose that Christ Jesus came into this world, to meet the deep needs of guilty sinners.
