Preaching the Gospel to Yourself

I am going to try very hard to make the posts on this blog original. There are already plenty of excellent Christian blogs dedicated to bringing together all the best posts and internet resources available (my top two: Justin Taylor "Between Two Worlds" and Tim Challies "Challies Dot Com") so I would be both unwilling and unable to try to fill that niche.

That being said, I realize that many readers of this blog do not consider themselves "into blogging". (If that is you, please visit and bookmark Justin Taylor's blog. I promise you, you will not be disappointed.) Therefore I would like to break my own rule today and pass along a nugget from Justin Childers blog that really ministered to my soul.

I am always talking to HHBC about "preaching the Gospel to yourself" (a phrase that Jerry Bridges actually coined). I realize that this is one of those things that sounds easy to understand but hard to actually carry out. What does it mean to "preach the Gospel to yourself"? What does it look like? How do you do it? Well, let my good friend Charles Spurgeon point you in the right direction...

Again looking at Jesus in the garden, we learn the excellence and completeness of the atonement. How black I am, how filthy, how loathsome in the sight of God, — I feel myself only fit to be cast into the lowest hell, and I wonder that God has not long ago cast me there; but I go into Gethsemane, and I peer under those gnarled olive trees, and I see my Saviour.

Yes, I see Him wallowing on the ground in anguish, and hear such groans come from Him as never came from human breast before. I look upon the earth and see it red with His blood, while His face is smeared with gory sweat, and I say to myself, “My God, my Saviour, what aileth Thee?”

I hear Him reply, “I am suffering for thy sin,” and then I take comfort, for while I fain would have spared my Lord such an anguish, now that the anguish is over I can understand how Jehovah can spare me, because He smote His Son in my stead.

Now I have hope of justification, for I bring before the justice of God and my own conscience the remembrance of my bleeding Saviour, and I say, Canst Thou twice demand payment, first at the hand of Thy agonizing Son and then again at mine? Sinner as I am, I stand before the burning throne of the severity of God, and am not afraid of it. Canst thou scorch me, O consuming fire, when Thou hast not only scorche but utterly consumed my substitute?

Nay, by faith, my soul sees justice satisfied, the law honoured, the moral government of God established and yet my once guilty soul absolved and set free. The fire of avenging justice has spent itself, and the law has exhausted its most rigorous demands upon the person of Him who was made a curse for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Oh the sweetness of the comfort which flows from the atoning blood! Obtain that comfort, my brethren, and never leave it. Cling to you Lord’s bleeding heart, and drink in abundant consolation.

(This beautiful citation is from Spurgeon's sermon "The Agony in Gethsemane" available here. Paragraph breaks and emphasis mine.)

Comments

[Jessica]

That is a really good Spurgeon quote. It seems so wrong that the perfect Savior suffered and died in my place. But knowing that God's wrath against me has already been poured out on Christ is such a great hope and comfort! God will not punish me as my sins deserve! The price has already been paid. It is good to meditate on this truth and I pray that it will make me more zealous to live for him! I think considering the price Jesus paid for my sin will make me hate sin even more and strive harder after godliness specifically by trying to store up God's Word in my heart so that I can counsel myself with the Word.