Trust Wholly in Christ

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: – Colossians 1:27

Whatever there is in us that is not of Christ and the work of His Spirit, will have to come out of us, and blessed be the day in which it is ejected…Wood, hay, stubble, are quick building, but they are also quick burning; only that which belongs to “Christ formed in me the hope of glory,” will prove to be gold, silver, precious stones, this may seem slow building, but it will abide the fire. O Christian, pray much and labor much to have Christ in thee, for He is all that is worth having in thee. He is only the husk of a Christian who has not the precious kernel of Christ in his heart. Christ on the cross saves us by becoming Christ in the heart. Jesus is indeed all for us, all to us, all in us…We trust wholly in Him. I often question myself upon many Christian graces, but there is one thing I never can doubt about, and that is I know I have no other hope but in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. If a soul can perish relying with all its power upon the finished work of the Savior, then I shall perish; but if saving faith be an entire reliance upon Him whom God hath sent forth to be a propitiation for sin, then I can never perish until God’s word be broken. Can you not say that, dear brethren, and will it not yield you comfort? Have you anything else you could trust to? Have you one good work that you could rely upon? Is there a prayer you have ever offered, an emotion you have ever felt, that you would dare to use as a buttress, or as in some degree a prop, to your hope of salvation? I know you reply, “I have nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing; but Christ my Savior is all my salvation and all my desire, and I abhor the very idea of putting anything side by side with Him as a ground of my dependence before God.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1006.cfm

Christ is All for Us Before God

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus – 1 Timothy 2:5

Happy art thou, O child of God, that in all thy relationships to the Great Judge of all the earth, Christ is all in all to thee. Thou needest a mediator to stand between thee and God; Christ is that. Thou wantest a high Priest to present with His own sacrifice thy prayers and praises; Christ is that. Thou wantest a representative to stand at all times before God, an intercessor to plead for thee, one who shall be a daysman akin to thee and akin to God, who can put His hand upon both; Christ is that to thee. Whenever God looks upon thee in Christ, He sees in thee all that ought to be there… “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” Without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, is the entire church as seen in the person of Christ Jesus, her representative and head. Christ is all for us before the throne of God.

But, alas! we need some one to stand between us and our enemies. There is Satan; how shall I meet him? He will accuse me; Who shall plead my case? Christ is all in all for that. Whatever fiery darts Satan may shoot, Christ is the shield that can quench those darts. If Satan tempt me, Christ shall plead for me before the temptation comes. Whenever I have to contend with Satan, this is the weapon with which I should arm myself: If I reason with him, if I bring forward any strength of my own to oppose him, he may well say to me: “Jesus I know; but who art thou?” But if I bring Jesus into the conflict, and wield the merit of His blood, and the faithfulness of His promise, the destroying angel cannot overcome the sprinkled blood. We overcome through the blood of the Lamb. Christ Jesus is both shield and sword to us, armor and weapons of war. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1006.cfm

“Christianus sum”

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. – Colossians 3:15

The Greek said, “The Hellenes are a race of heroes; remember Sparta and Athens. Are we not foremost in civilisation, and were we not chief in war? Who set bounds to the Persian tyrant, and bade the boastful monarch bite the dust? We hold our heads erect when we think of Marathon and Salamis.” But when the Greek joined the Christian church, he forgot his national boastings, and henceforth gloried only in the cross of Him whose single arm defeated the hosts of Satan, and led captivity captive. The Jew when despised returned scorn for scorn, and said to Greek and Roman, “You may speak of Marathon, but I sing of the Red Sea; you may boast of Persia broken, but I tell of Egypt vanquished, mine are the glories of the Lord of hosts in the far off ages. We were a people when you were as yet unknown, and we are the chosen favourites of Jehovah.” The moment the Jew sat down at the gospel supper, he laid aside his hereditary pride and bigotry, and recognised the fact that the Greek was as much a brother as the believing Hebrew at his side. So the Sythian, when he came into the Christian church, was no longer a Barbarian; he spoke the language of Canaan as correctly as his Grecian fellow Christian. The slave no sooner breathed the air of the Christian church than his shackles fell from him. He might be a slave at home with his master, but he was no slave there. While the freeman, though he had been born free, or with a great price had obtained his freedom, never in the Christian church looked down upon the slave. Bond and free were one in Christ Jesus. Nobody had any personal ground for glory; neither race, nor pedigree, nor rank, nor position, were of any account, but Christ was all. “Christianus sum, I am a Christian,” was and is the universal glorying of all saints.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1006.cfm

King Jesus is Lord of All

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free… – Colossians 3:11

Observe, “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free,” in the new creation, but “Christ is all, and in all.” In the new world there is no difference between Jew and Gentile; Barbarian simplicity and Greek cultivation are as nothing. I suppose as long as we are in the flesh we shall set some store by our nationality, and like Paul shall somewhat glory that we were free born: but surely the less of this the better. Within the gates of the Christian church we are cosmopolitan, or rather we are citizens of the New Jerusalem only. As a man, I rejoice that I am an Englishman, but not with the same holy joy which fills me when I remember that I am a Christian. When I meet another man who fears God, I do not want him to think me an Englishman, nor do I desire to regard him as an American, a Frenchman, or a Dutchman; for we are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow-citizens. If any man be a Christian and a foreigner after the flesh, he is yet in spirit ten thousand times more allied to me than if he were an Englishman and an unbeliever. Greatly is it to be deplored whenever the convulsions of nations drag Christian men into opposition to one another on the ground of politics. One part of the body of Christ cannot be at war with another. It is a shameful thing whenever we suffer our earthly nationality to dominate over our heavenly citizenship. Queen Victoria and President Grant are well enough in their places, but King Jesus is Lord of all; we are above all things subjects of His Imperial Highness, the Prince of Peace. Nobody comes into the church as a Jew or a Gentile, nor does he remain there as a Greek or a Scythian, whatever he may have been before; when he becomes a Christian, Christ is all. Earthly distinctions of rank, if they still exist, as they must while we are in this world, are brought to a minimum within the church, they are almost obliterated, and what remains is sanctified to sacred ends.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1006.cfm

Complete in Christ

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— – 1 Corinthians 1:30

We are saved in Christ. We are complete in Him. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus: “And He is made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” Christ is all, not in my justification only, but in my sanctification too. He is all, not only in the first steps of my faith, but in the last. “He is Alpha and Omega; He is the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord.” There is no point between the gates of hell and the gates of heaven where a believer shall have to say, “Christ fails me here, and I must rely upon my own endeavors. From the dunghill of our corruption up to the throne of our perfection there is no point left to hazard, or set aside for us to supply; our salvation has Christ to begin with, Christ to go on with, and Christ to finish with, and that in all points, at all times, for every man of woman born that ever shall be saved. There is no point in which the creature comes in to claim merit, or to bring strength, or to make up for that which was lacking. “Christ is all, and in all.” The saints are “perfect in Christ Jesus.” He said, “it is finished,” and finished it is. He is not the author of our faith only, but the finisher of it too. He is all in all, and man is nothing at all.

This is a truth which every believer has recognised. There are a great many differences among believers, but there is no difference as to this essential point. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1006.cfm

Christ the Fullness

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. – Acts 4:12

Christ is all in all. – Colossians 3:11

There are many who, unconsciously to themselves, think Jesus Christ to be much, but yet they do not understand that He is all in all. I allude to many seeking souls, who say, “I would put my trust in Jesus this morning, but I do not feel as I ought.” I see, thou thinkest that there is at least a little of thy feeling to be added to the Savior’s work ere it can avail for thee. “But I am not as penitent as I should be, and, therefore, I cannot rest in Jesus.” I see, thy penitence is to add the topstone to the Savior’s yet unfinished work. Perhaps it is one of the hardest works in the world, so hard as to be impossible except to the Holy Spirit Himself, to drive a man away from the idea that he is to do something, or to be something, in order to his own salvation. Sinner, thou art the emptiness, and Christ the fullness; thou art the filthiness, and He the cleansing; thou art nothing, and He is all in all; and the sooner thou consentest to this the better. Have done with saying, “I would come to the Savior if this, and if that,” for this quibbling will delude, delay, and destroy thee. Come as thou art, just now, even at this moment, for Christ is not almost all, but all in all.

“True belief, and true repentance
Every grace that brings us nigh,
Without money
Come to Jesus Christ and buy.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1006.cfm

Christ is All or Nothing

Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: Thy blessing is upon Thy people. Selah. – Psalm 3:8

There are (those) in this world to whom Christ is something, but not much. They are anxious to save themselves, but since they must confess some imperfections they use the merits of Christ as a sort of makeweight for their slight deficiencies. Their robe is almost long enough, and by adding a little fringe of the Redeemer’s grace it becomes all they can wish. To say prayers, to go to church, to take the sacrament to observe Good Friday, these are the main reliances of many a religionist, and then if the coach sticks a little in a deeper rut than usual they call in the help of the Lord Jesus, and hope that He will put His shoulder to the wheel. They commonly say, “Well, we must do our best, then Christ will be our Savior, and God is very merciful.” They allow the blessed and all-sufficient work and sacrifice of the Savior to fill up their failures; and imagine that they are extremely humble in allowing so much as that. Jesus is to them a stopgap, and nothing more. I know not whether the condition of such people is one whit more desirable than that of those to whom Jesus is nothing at all, for this is a vile contempt and despising of Christ indeed, to think that He came to help you to save yourselves, to dream that He is a part Savior, and will divide the world and honor of salvation with the sinner. Those who yoke the sinner and the Savior together as each doing a part rob Christ of all His glory; and this is robbery indeed, to pilfer from the bleeding Lamb of God the due reward of His agonies. “He trod the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Him.” In the work of salvation Jesus stands alone. Salvation is of the Lord. If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Savior of men. If He be something He must be everything, and if He be not everything He is nothing to you.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1006.cfm