WARNING AGAINST SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. – John Bunyan

THE FIRST USE. Is justifying righteousness to be found in the person of Christ only? Then this should admonish us to take heed of seeking it in ourselves — that is, of working righteousness, thereby to appease the justice of God, lest by so doing we affront and blaspheme the righteousness of Christ. He that shall go about to establish his own righteousness, he, as yet, doth defiance to that which is of God, of God’s appointing, of God’s providing; and that only wherewith the justice of the law must be well pleased. Wherefore take heed, I say, of doing such a thing, lest it provoke the eyes of the Lord’s glory — “When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it,” Ezekiel 33:13.

Mark, though he be righteous, yea, though he have a promise of life, yet he shall die. But why? Because he sinned against the Lord by trusting to his own righteousness, therefore he must die for it.

There are some things that will preserve a man from splitting upon this rock. As, 1. Get good acquaintance with the covenant of grace, and of the persons concerned in the conditions of that covenant. The conditions of that covenant are, that a righteousness shall be brought into the world that shall please the justice of God and answer (and so remove the curse of) the law.

Now he that doth perform this condition is Christ; therefore the covenant is not immediately with man, but with him that will be the Mediator betwixt God and man; “As for thee, by the blood of thy covenant,” Zechariah 9:11, speaking of Christ. So, then, Christ, the Man — Christ, is be who was to bring in these conditions — to wit, everlasting righteousness. And hence it is that God hath said, “Christ shall be the covenant of the people” — that is, he shall be our conditions to Godward, Daniel 9:23,24. He therefore is all our righteousness as to the point of our justification before God; he is the covenant of the people, as well as the light of the Gentiles; for as no man can see but in the light of his Spirit, so no man can stand but in and by him — he is the covenant of the people, the conditions and qualifications of the people, Isaiah 52:6. So that to Godward Christ is all in all, and no man anything at all. “He hath made with me an everlasting covenant;” with me, as I stand in my head Christ, who, because he hath brought in everlasting righteousness, therefore hath removed the curse of the law; wherefore he adds, this covenant “is ordered in all things, and sure,” 2 Samuel 23:5; because all points that concern me as to redemption from the curse are taken away by Christ, as before is discoursed. Look, then, upon Christ as the man, the mediator, undertaker, and accomplisher of that righteousness in himself, wherein thou must stand just before God; and that he is the covenant or conditions of the people to God-ward, always having in himself the righteousness that the law is well pleased with, and always presenting himself before God as our only righteousness. 2. That this truth may be the more heartily inquired into by thee, consider thine own perfections; I say, study how polluted thou art, even from the heart throughout. No man hath a high esteem of the Lord Jesus that is a stranger to his own sore. Christ’s church is an hospital of sick, wounded, and afflicted people; even as when he was in the world, the afflicted and distressed set the highest price upon Jesus Christ. Why? They were sick, and he was the Physician; but the whole had no need of him. And just thus it is now: Christ is offered to the world to be the righteousness and life of sinners, but no man will regard him save he that seeth his own pollution; he that seeth he cannot answer the demands of the law, he that sees himself from top to toe polluted, and that therefore his service cannot be clean as to justify him from the curse before God, he is the man that must needs die in despair and be damned, or must trust in Jesus Christ for life.

Further, This rule I would have all receive that come to Jesus Christ for life and salvation. 1. Not to stick at the acknowledgment of sin, but to make that of it which the law makes of it: “Acknowledge thine iniquity,” saith the Lord, Jeremiah 3:13. This is a hard pinch (I know what I say) for a man to fall down under the sense of sins by acknowledging them to be what the Lord saith they are; to acknowledge them, I Say, in their own defiling and polluting nature; to acknowledge them in their unreasonable and aggravating circumstances; to acknowledge them in their God-offending and soul-destroying nature, especially when the conscience is burdened with the guilt of them. Yet this is duty — “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive,” 1 John 1:9; yea, to this is annexed the promise, “He that confesseth, and forsaketh them, shall find mercy.” This made David, as it were, lay claim to the mercy of God — “Wash me thoroughly (said he) from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin; for I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.” Though, then, thou art to blush and be ashamed when thou rememberest thy sins and iniquities, yet do not hide them — “He that hideth his sins shall not prosper.” Do not lessen them; do not speak of them before God after a mincing way — “Acknowledge thine iniquities, that thou hast sinned against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree; and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord,” Jeremiah 3:13. 2. If we would come to Christ aright, we must only acknowledge our sins; we must only acknowledge them, and there stop; stop, I say, from attempting to do aught to present us good before God, but only to receive the mercy offered. “Only acknowledge thine iniquities.” Men are subject to two extremes, either to confess sins notionally and by the halves, or else, together with the confession of them, to labor to do some holy work, thereby to ease their burdened conscience, and beget faith in the mercy of God, Hosea 5:14,15. Now both these are dangerous, and very ungodly, — dangerous, because the wound is healed falsely; and ungodly, because the command is transgressed: “Only acknowledge thy sin,” and there stand (as David) “till thy guilt is taken away.” Joshua stood before the angel, from top to toe in filthy garments, till the Lord put other clothes upon him, Zechariah 3:3.

In the matter of thy justification thou must know nothing, see nothing, hear nothing, but thine own sins and Christ’s righteousness — “Only acknowledge thine iniquities.” Now the Savior and the soul comes rightly together; the Savior to do his work, which is to spread his skirt over the sinner; and the sinner to receive, by believing this blessed imputed righteousness. And hence the church, when she came to God, lieth down in her shame, and her confusion covereth her; and so lieth till pardon comes, Jeremiah 3:25.