Two Worshipers
95
But we must have a knowledge of ourselves, a knowledge that will
result in contrition, before we can find pardon and peace. The Pharisee
felt no conviction of sin. The Holy Spirit could not work with him. His
soul was encased in a self-righteous armor which the arrows of God,
barbed and true-aimed by angel hands, failed to penetrate. It is only
he who knows himself to be a sinner that Christ can save. He came
“to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”
Luke 4:18
. But “they that are whole need not a physician.”
Luke 5:31
.
We must know our real condition, or we shall not feel our need of
Christ’s help. We must understand our danger, or we shall not flee to
the refuge. We must feel the pain of our wounds, or we should not
desire healing.
The Lord says, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel
thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and
white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy
nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that
thou mayest see.”
Revelation 3:17, 18
. The gold tried in the fire is faith
that works by love. Only this can bring us into harmony with God. We
may be active, we may do much work; but without love, such love as
dwelt in the heart of Christ, we can never be numbered with the family
of heaven.
[159]
No man can of himself understand his errors. “The heart is de-
ceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
Jeremiah 17:9
. The lips may express a poverty of soul that the heart
does not acknowledge. While speaking to God of poverty of spirit, the
heart may be swelling with the conceit of its own superior humility and
exalted righteousness. In one way only can a true knowledge of self be
obtained. We must behold Christ. It is ignorance of Him that makes
men so uplifted in their own righteousness. When we contemplate His
purity and excellence, we shall see our own weakness and poverty and
defects as they really are. We shall see ourselves lost and hopeless,
clad in garments of self-righteousness, like every other sinner. We
shall see that if we are ever saved, it will not be through our own
goodness, but through God’s infinite grace.