Dear Friends,
Every once in a while, you come across an individual who can say a lot in a very little space. I don’t possess that ability, but Thomas Wilcox (1621-1687) did. Below are some of his profound insights on the Gospel found in the only tract he wrote, originally entitled, “A Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ.”
And don’t think that because it’s about the Gospel, you can just brush it aside because you already know it. Jerry Bridges (one of my profs at seminary and a prolific author who passed in 2016) once played us a recording in class of the responses given by best-selling Christian authors at a Bookseller’s Conference in response to the question, “What is the Gospel?”
The responses were lacking at best and a couple of them made us wonder if could even be Christian at all. So, read these excerpts from his tract and see if you get what he means and if you agree. (I have updated the language where possible.) Enjoy.
“When you believe and come to Christ, you must leave behind your own righteousness, and bring nothing but your sin (Oh, that is hard!)… It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness. That is, to acknowledge Him Christ. Join anything to Him of your own, and you un-Christ Him. Whatever comes in when you go to God for acceptance besides Christ, call it anti-Christ; bid it be gone; make only Christ’s righteousness triumphant.”
“We must bring nothing but Christ with us. Any ingredients of our own will only poison and corrupt faith. The one that builds upon duties, graces, etc., knows not the merits of Christ. This makes believing so hard, so far above nature. If you believe, you must everyday renounce as dung and dross your privileges, your obedience, your baptism, your sanctification, your duties, your graces, your tears, your melting, your humbling – and nothing but Christ must be held up. You must take everything out of God’s hand.”
“Pride and unbelief will put you upon looking to something in yourself first, but faith will have to do with nothing but Christ, who is inexpressibly glorious, and must swallow up your sanctification as well as your sin. For God made Him to be both for us, and we must make Him both (I Cor. 1:30; II Cor. 5:21). He that sets up his sanctification to look at, to comfort him, sets up the greatest idol which will only strengthen his doubts and fears.”
“Make Christ your peace, not your duties and tears. Make Christ your righteousness, not the fruit of your graces. You may destroy Christ by duties, as well as by sins… Stand with all your weight upon Christ’s righteousness. Take heed of having one foot on your righteousness another on Christ’s. Till Christ come and sit high upon a throne in the conscience, there is nothing but guilt and terrors and secret suspicions; with the soul hanging between hope and fear, which is a very un-gospel-like state.”
“Christ drank up all God’s wrath against us in one draught, so there is none left to be poured out on us.”
“Keep not guilt in the conscience, but apply the blood of Christ immediately. God charges sin and guilt upon you to make you look to Christ, the brazen serpent.”
“Judge not Christ’s love by providence, but by promises.”
Love To Hear Your Thoughts! Pastor Jeff
Every once in a while, you come across an individual who can say a lot in a very little space. I don’t possess that ability, but Thomas Wilcox (1621-1687) did. Below are some of his profound insights on the Gospel found in the only tract he wrote, originally entitled, “A Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ.”
And don’t think that because it’s about the Gospel, you can just brush it aside because you already know it. Jerry Bridges (one of my profs at seminary and a prolific author who passed in 2016) once played us a recording in class of the responses given by best-selling Christian authors at a Bookseller’s Conference in response to the question, “What is the Gospel?”
The responses were lacking at best and a couple of them made us wonder if could even be Christian at all. So, read these excerpts from his tract and see if you get what he means and if you agree. (I have updated the language where possible.) Enjoy.
“When you believe and come to Christ, you must leave behind your own righteousness, and bring nothing but your sin (Oh, that is hard!)… It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness. That is, to acknowledge Him Christ. Join anything to Him of your own, and you un-Christ Him. Whatever comes in when you go to God for acceptance besides Christ, call it anti-Christ; bid it be gone; make only Christ’s righteousness triumphant.”
“We must bring nothing but Christ with us. Any ingredients of our own will only poison and corrupt faith. The one that builds upon duties, graces, etc., knows not the merits of Christ. This makes believing so hard, so far above nature. If you believe, you must everyday renounce as dung and dross your privileges, your obedience, your baptism, your sanctification, your duties, your graces, your tears, your melting, your humbling – and nothing but Christ must be held up. You must take everything out of God’s hand.”
“Pride and unbelief will put you upon looking to something in yourself first, but faith will have to do with nothing but Christ, who is inexpressibly glorious, and must swallow up your sanctification as well as your sin. For God made Him to be both for us, and we must make Him both (I Cor. 1:30; II Cor. 5:21). He that sets up his sanctification to look at, to comfort him, sets up the greatest idol which will only strengthen his doubts and fears.”
“Make Christ your peace, not your duties and tears. Make Christ your righteousness, not the fruit of your graces. You may destroy Christ by duties, as well as by sins… Stand with all your weight upon Christ’s righteousness. Take heed of having one foot on your righteousness another on Christ’s. Till Christ come and sit high upon a throne in the conscience, there is nothing but guilt and terrors and secret suspicions; with the soul hanging between hope and fear, which is a very un-gospel-like state.”
“Christ drank up all God’s wrath against us in one draught, so there is none left to be poured out on us.”
“Keep not guilt in the conscience, but apply the blood of Christ immediately. God charges sin and guilt upon you to make you look to Christ, the brazen serpent.”
“Judge not Christ’s love by providence, but by promises.”
Love To Hear Your Thoughts! Pastor Jeff
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