You must prove to God that you're a sinner, not a good person; for Jesus gave Himself for our sins, not for our merits. You must sense your emptiness, before Jesus will give a drink. Your character is as bad as it can be. Plead for mercy. You are in awful need, for you need Righteousness, a new heart, a right spirit, a total change within, the New Birth. You need everything, for you have nothing but sin and misery. Faith is trusting wholly upon the person, work, merit, and power of the Son of God. You can rest assured on the Finished Work of Jesus Christ.
The ground of my salvation is the grace of God. I am not saved by any natural goodness, or because of anything that I have done, or ever shall do. The reason for divine love is only because God is gracious. It is best and safest to trust alone in the merits and sufferings of Jesus Christ. This is God's solemn pledge - whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Believe in Jesus Christ, and rest on Him alone. The immutability of God, the unchanging power and merit of His blood, the infallibility of Scripture. Religion shoots at the head; the Gospel shoots at the heart. Men want to drink pure water, and breath pure air, but they don't want a pure heart. *Matthew 5:8; II Timothy 2:22; I Peter 1:22*
Beware of conceit, religious conceit is a dangerous thing. Beware of this thought - Now I am somebody. A vain notion that you are no longer sinful. Only the Holy Ghost can burst the balloon of human conceit. The least sin ought to humble you. Human nature arrogantly puts human doing in the place of Christ. Free grace which is in Christ's blood is received by Faith. Faith is the root, feelings are like the leaves, which may be taken away, yet the tree will survive. Cling to the Promiser and His Promises. Rest you on Christ now.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners. Your first business must be this - He that believeth in Him is not condemned. He that believeth in Jesus hath Everlasting Life. Human intellect refuses the wisdom of God. Instead of Faith, human nature would rather have presumption; instead of Regeneration, reformation; instead of Holiness, morality; instead of Purity, convictions; instead of Zeal, fanaticism; for Grace, fancy; for Christ and the Cross, human works and merit.
The merits of the Cross must be imputed into your soul; the Spirit of the Cross must be infused into your nature. Salvation is a miracle from God, not a work of man. Trust the Lord Jesus Christ with your soul. God's grace, or man's merit; faith in Christ, or faith in self. Leave sin, quit self, trust in Christ's blood - this is the way. Plead not merit, but Mercy. God will provide the grace, if you will provide the sinner. Not merit, but demerit is the qualification for God's divine Mercy. God will only give His salvation to ungodly men who have no merits. Come not in your own righteousness, for you have none. It is impossible for you to be saved by your own goodness, for you have broken the Law already, and any future obedience of yours cannot make up for your past defects. Your past sins and future sins make it impossible for you to save yourself.
Faith disowns all ideas of human merit. He that is penniless inwardly is the man for Christ's mercy. He that is shivering in his nakedness is the man for Christ's Robe of Righteousness. If you have no good works, no merits, nothing to recommend you, Jesus is precious to you. A man will never have Christ while he has enough of his own self. Jesus bore our sins and became Sin for us, so we could be made righteous in Him. Self-righteousness kicks at the idea that human works cannot help save. The most moral and excellent man needs Jesus Christ as much as the depraved and debauched man.
The self-righteous man cannot endure the fact that he must be saved merely by grace through faith in Jesus' atoning blood. The carnal man wants to be a great man, and he would have God to be a little god, for he is satisfied with himself. But if Christ is set on high, then the carnal man is offended. Look only to the merits of God's Son. God is now able to be Just, and yet deal with sinful men in pure Mercy, apart from their works, because all their sins were laid upon Jesus Christ, who offered complete satisfaction (Atonement) to divine justice, so that God is glorious in Holiness, and yet rich in Mercy.
Rest both your feet on the Rock. The Rock of Ages never fails. He that relies in the least degree upon any merit of his own cannot be saved. Now understand - An inheritance never comes by works. The wise man is more afraid of his own righteousness than his unrighteousness. You are without merit of any sort. Poverty leads us to Christ's riches. Human goodness is a vile odor in the nostrils of God. God can have no dealing with a sinful man at all except through the blood and merits of Jesus Christ.
The short cut of the whole matter is just to cry - God be merciful to me a sinner for Jesus' sake! God will only bless you through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Stop sinning away the precious years of your short life. It would be foolish to boast of merit before God, for you have no merit. He who pleads his own merit is a fool. Self-righteousness flies in the face of God. Have done with your own righteousness. God gives His Son to sinners without money and without price. Your so-called good works are evil and dead works, because you are doing them to set aside the finished work of Jesus Christ. Human nature labors to manufacture a righteousness of its own. But you must receive the Righteousness of Another freely. Worthy is the Lamb!
