I’ve been meditating on the all-sufficiency of Christ lately. Desperately, we try to atone over and over again for our sins, don’t we? We just want to “do better”. There are countless reasons why we want to do better, ranging from satisfying God to looking good to others. But, in this despair we forget that Christ has paid it all. Our merit is secured by His perfect life and perfect death in our place. Let’s not wallow in a place of insecurity; our Father loves us because His Son ransomed us! When we grasp this, we can move forward confidently in the good works that God has prepared for us to do.
Let me share with you a poem from The Valley of Vision that beautifully captures this truth.
Love, Wendy
Reliance
My Father,
When thou art angry towards me for my wrongs
I try to pacify Thee by abstaining from future sin;
But teach me that I cannot satisfy thy law,
that this effort is a resting in my righteousness,
that only Christ’s righteousness,
ready made, already finished,
is fit for that purpose;
that Thy chastising me for my sin
is not that I should try to reform,
but only that I may be more humbled,
afflicted, and separated from sin,
by being reconciled,
and made righteousness in Christ by faith;
that a sense of my sufficiency and ability in Him
is one means of my being immovable;
that I can never be so by resting on my own faith,
but by trusting in Thee
as my only support, by faith;
that if I cast away my faith I cast away Thee,
for by faith I apprehend Thee,
and as Thou art very precious,
so is my faith very precious to me;
that I fall short of the purity Thou requirest,
because in thinking I am holy
I do not seek holiness,
or, believing I am impotent, I do no more.
Humble me for not being as holy as I should be,
or as holy as I might be through Christ,
for Thou art all, and to possess Thee is to possess all.
But to make the creature something
is to make it stand between Thee and me,
so that I do not walk humbly and holily.
Lord, forgive me for this.
