All that we see within is foul, ugly and grim!

All that we see within is foul, ugly, and grim!

(Frank Hall)

“You are complete in Him!” Colossians 2:10 

Oh desponding Christian, is not your grief caused by looking within yourself? Is not that miserable feeling of failure and disappointment, caused by your strange fixation upon your hollow heart of iniquity? You look within, hoping to find something good, something pure, something precious, something clean–but what do you see? Nothing but sin! To stare into one’s self–is to stare into a bottomless pit of despair and hopelessness! “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked!” Jeremiah 17:9

Will we ever learn this? There is nothing within us to give us hope, rest, or peace. Have we ever found anything within us that gave us joy? Of course not! Then why do we continue to stare into the darkness? All that we see within is foul, ugly, and grim! One glance within ought to sicken us. We would sooner find diamonds in a dunghill or roses growing in a sewer–than find goodness dwelling within!

In ourselves we are sinful, guilty, and vile! But bless God forever! 
Our standing before God is not in ourselves; it’s in Christ! He is . . .
  our Salvation,
  our Righteousness, 
  our Hope,
  our Holiness, and
  our Acceptance with God! 

Change the direction of your gaze–and look up! Stop staring into the empty void of your heart–and fix your eyes upon Jesus your Lord, in whom all fullness dwells. Our hope is not within, but without, seated at the right hand of the Father! Lift up your head that is bowed down with guilt and shame! Behold Christ your Savior! Behold your glorious Redeemer! Bid sorrow goodbye and fear depart! Rejoice, for “You are complete in Him!” 

Believers are perfect in Christ. To be complete in Christ is to be perfect in Christ. Perfect is not something that we will be, or strive to be–but something that we are right now, by virtue of our eternal union with God’s darling Son. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are, by the free grace of God, complete in Christ our Savior! 
We lack nothing! 
All that He is–we are in Him! 
All that He has–we have in Him!
All that He has done–we’ve done in Him! 
We possess the infinite fullness of eternal life and everlasting salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord!

We are completely righteous in Him!
We are completely holy in Him!
We are completely forgiven in Him!
We are completely accepted in Him! 
We are completely, everlastingly, perfectly sinless in Him!

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus!” Hebrews 12:2 

“For every look at SELF–take ten looks at CHRIST!” – Robert Murray M’Cheyne