A Christ in Fullness

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).

A full Christ is for an empty sinner, and an empty sinner for a full Christ. They are morally fitted to each other; and the more I expe­rience the emptiness, the more I shall enjoy the fullness. So long as I am full of trust in my morality, my benevolence, my amiabili­ty, my religiousness, my righteousness, I have no place for Christ.

All these things must be thrown overboard, before a full Christ can be apprehended. It cannot be partly self and partly Christ. It must be either one or the other; and one reason why so many are tossed up and down in dark uncertainty is because they are still cleaving to some little bit of self.

It may be a very little bit. They may not, perhaps, be trusting in any works of righteousness that they have done; but still there is something of self retained and trusted in. It may be the very smallest possible atom of the creature – its state, its feelings, its mode of appropriating, its experiences, something or other of the creature kept in which Christ keeps out.

In short, it must be so, for if a full Christ were received, a full peace would be enjoyed; and if a full peace be not enjoyed, it is only because a full Christ has not been received. (C.H. Mackintosh).

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