Are You Looking?
by J. C. Ryle
"Looking unto Jesus!" Hebrews 12:2
The question which heads this page may seem an odd one at
first sight. To whom or to what does it apply? The words of Paul, below it,
supply the key to its meaning. It is an inquiry concerning your soul and the
Lord Jesus Christ. It means neither more nor less than this- "Are you looking
unto Jesus?"
"Looking unto Jesus" is a very simple expression: it is
soon spoken and soon written; it contains no words hard to be understood. But
it is an expression rich in contents, and filled to the brim with food for
thought. Here is a brief account of the Christian's character: he is one who
"looks to Jesus." Here is the secret of running successfully the race that
leads toward heaven: we must he ever "looking to Jesus." This is the way to
begin well; this is the way to go on prosperously; this is the way to end in
peace. Here is the photograph of patriarchs and prophets, of apostles and
martyrs, of holy fathers and holy reformers, of holy saints, in every land and
age: they were all men who "looked to Jesus." Here is the marrow of all
creeds, and articles, and confessions of guilt: to "look to Jesus." Reader, if
you and I wish to be saved, let us begin by asking ourselves the simple
question, Am I looking to Jesus?
But how can you look to Jesus? He is not here. He has
ascended up into heaven in the body, and is there sitting at the right hand of
God. As God, no doubt, He is everywhere present, and fills heaven and earth:
as Man, He can only be in one place at once- and that place is the place of
honor at the Father's right hand. The notion that He is present in the bread
and wine in the Lord's Supper is a weak invention of man, and one that has led
to many superstitions: it is a notion flatly opposed to Scripture, and flatly
contradicted in the Prayer-book of the Church of England. You may look at the
bread and wine in the Lord's Supper, and as you look and eat and drink, your
memory may be quickened, your soul refreshed, and your faith increased. But
you cannot literally and corporally look at Jesus. His body and blood are in
heaven, and not there. How then are you to look at Him?
Reader, there is but one answer to this question. You must
look to Jesus by faith. True believing with the heart is the "looking"
of which Paul makes mention to the Hebrew Christians. Faith is the eye of
the Christian's soul. As Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the
wilderness, and the suffering Israelite who looked at it was immediately
healed, so must you look at Jesus Christ with trust, confidence, reliance, and
expectation. This is what Paul meant when he talked of "looking unto Jesus."
In what point of view ought you to look to Jesus, in order
to get full benefit from Him? This is a very important inquiry, and one which
I propose to answer in this tract. Vague, general, and indistinct notions in
religion are dangerous things, and do great harm. Thousands are continually
saying "they trust in Christ and no one else," and yet can hardly tell you
what they mean: no wonder they feel little comfort in their Christianity.
Weak, indistinct perceptions of Christ will always produce weak consolations.
Reader, let me try to put you in a right position of soul: let me show you
how to look to Jesus, so as to get the greatest amount of good from Him. It is
an old saying, that there is a right way and a wrong way of doing everything;
in nothing is that saying so true as in spiritual things, and specially in the
relations between Christ and the soul.
There are three points of view in which your soul should
look at Jesus Christ. Let me set them before you in order, and tell you what
they are.
I. You should look backward, to Jesus on the cross.
II. You should look upward, to Jesus at the right
hand of God.
III. You should look forward, to Jesus coming again
at the last day.
Happy is he who takes these three looks every day that he
lives! This is the man who will be found a peaceful, a strong, and a cheerful
Christian. Let me now explain fully what I mean.
I. In the first place, you should look BACKWARD, to Jesus
on the cross.
Let your faith's eye daily look on Christ crucified,
and rest in the sight.
What will you see, as you look at Jesus on the cross? You
will see the eternal Son of God suffering, bleeding, agonizing, dying, in
order to pay your soul's debt, and make satisfaction for your sins. You will
see the most wonderful transaction taking place that ever took place since the
foundation of the world. You will see a Divine Substitute suffering in your
stead, the Just for the unjust; bearing your sins, carrying your
transgressions, allowing Himself to be reckoned a curse and sin for you, in
order that you, sinner as you are, might be set free from all guilt, and
counted innocent before God.
What will you get from the sight? Clear views of the way of
pardon and peace with God- clear knowledge of the true medicine for an aching
conscience- clear perception of the only plan of forgiveness- justification,
reconciliation, and acceptance with God. Nothing but Christ's atonement on the
cross can ever clear up these things. Christ's substitution, Christ's
satisfaction, Christ's atoning death, Christ's sacrifice for sin- this is the
grand secret of peace with God. To know that when we were guilty, One bore our
guilt- that when we were lost, One died that we might he saved- that when we
were ruined, One died that we might be redeemed and set free- to know this is
to know the foundation of all saving Christianity.
Reader, look steadily at Jesus on the cross, if you want to
feel inward peace. Look to anything of your own, and you will never feel
comfortable. Your own life and doings, your own repentance and amendment, your
own morality and regularity, your own church-going and Sacrament-receiving,
your own Bible-reading and your prayers, your own almsgiving and your
charities- what, what are they all but a huge mass of imperfection?
Rest not upon them for a moment, in the matter of your justification. As
evidences of your wishes, feelings, bias, tastes, habits, inclinations, they
may be useful helps occasionally. As grounds of acceptance with God they are
worthless rubbish. They cannot give you comfort; they cannot bear the weight
of your sins; they cannot stand the searching eye of God. Rest on nothing but
Christ crucified, and the atonement He made for you on Calvary. This, this
alone is the way of peace.
Look steadily to Jesus on the cross, and listen not to
those who would persuade you to look elsewhere. Thousands of people in the
present day are constantly looking to something else instead of Christ
crucified, and secretly wondering that they do not find rest and comfort. They
look to the Church, or the Sacraments, or the service- or the ministry, and
insensibly use them as ends, instead of using them as means. They must change
their plan, if they wish to find peace. It is the blood of Christ which alone
can purge the conscience, and take the burden off the soul.
This is the point to which I see many come at last, after
holding very different doctrine for many years. Nothing strikes me so much as
the fact that we often hear of some divine, high in office, who has spent all
his life in condemning what is called "Evangelical religion," clinging simply
to Christ crucified in his last moments! The favorite doctrines of "High
Churchmanship" seem to fail and break down in the valley of the shadow of
death. Nothing seems to cheer and support but the "precious blood of Christ,"
and simple faith in the atonement. Reader, you will never have cause to be
ashamed of the doctrine of the cross. Let the first look of your soul to
Jesus, be a look backward. Look at Him dying for your sins on the cross, and
as you look, say to yourself, "This was done for me."
II. In the second place you ought to look UPWARD, to Jesus
at the right hand of God.
Let your faith's eye see Jesus as your
Priest in heaven, and rejoice in the sight.
What will you see there? You will see the same Savior who
died for you exalted to the place of highest honor, and doing the work of an
intercessor and advocate for your soul. All was not done when He suffered for
your sins on Calvary. He rose again and ascended up to heaven, to carry on
there the work which He began on earth. There, as our Priest and
Representative, He ever lives to make intercession for us. He presents our
names before the Father; He continually pleads our cause. He obtains for us a
never-ending supply of mercy and grace; He watches over our interests with an
eye that never sleeps. He is ready, morning, noon, and night, to hear our
confessions, to grant us absolution, to strengthen us for duty, to comfort us
in trial, to guide us in perplexity, to hold us up in temptation, and to
preserve us safe on our journey heavenward until we reach home.
What will you get by looking upward to Jesus? Comfort and
strength in all the daily battle of life. What thought more cheering than the
thought that Jesus is ever looking at you and watching over you! What idea
more strengthening than the idea that you are never alone, never forgotten,
never neglected, never without a Friend who is "able to save to the uttermost
all them who come unto God by Him!" (Heb. vii. 25.)
This daily upward look at Jesus is a most important point.
The life of Christ for His people in heaven is only second in importance to
His death for them on the cross. The blood, the sacrifice, the atonement, the
satisfaction for sin can never be too much prized or thought of. But the
session in heaven, the priestly intercession, the daily advocacy of Jesus
ought not to be forgotten. I sadly fear they are not so much considered in
this day as they ought to be.
It is a striking and painful fact that many English people
just now are hankering after that most dangerous invention of Popery, the
Confessional. Clergymen who ought to know better are constantly urging on
people the usefulness of private confession and private absolution. Men and
women in all directions are greedily drinking in the doctrine, and flattering
themselves that it is the way of peace. To kneel before God's ordained
minister, to confess our sins to him, to receive at his hand complete
absolution- all this is becoming most attractive to many consciences. Hundreds
are persuading themselves that it is a valuable medicine for laboring and
heavy laden souls.
To what may we trace the spread of this delusion? To
nothing, I believe, so much as to ignorance of the priestly office of Jesus
Christ. Men have lost sight of the fact that we have a Priest and confessional
provided for us in the Gospel, and that we need none beside. They have been
content with looking backward to the cross, and dwelling on Christ's death,
and have forgotten the resurrection, and Christ's life as an Advocate at the
right hand of God. They have confined their thoughts of Christ to the
atonement He made for sin when He died. They have not remembered that He rose
again, ascended up into heaven, and there acts as our Priest and Advocate when
we come unto God by Him. In a word, they have looked backward to Christ's
crucifixion, but they have not looked upward to Christ's priesthood and
intercession.
Reader, beware of falling into this mistake. Beware of
leaving out any part of the truth concerning Jesus. That great divine, John
Owen, declared, two hundred years ago, that there was no office of Christ
which Satan hated so much as the priestly one, and none which he labored so
incessantly to obscure and bring into contempt. Understand that office
thoroughly, and cling to it firmly. No earthly priest can be so wise, so
sympathizing, so trustworthy, so able to help, as Jesus, the Son of God. From
no confessional will you go away so light-hearted, so cheerful, so satisfied,
as from the throne of grace, and from communion with Christ. Look up to Him
daily, if you would be a happy Christian; pour out your heart before Him, if
you would enjoy the consolations of the Gospel. This daily look to a living
interceding Jesus is one great secret of strength and comfort in religion.
III. In the last place, you ought to look FORWARD to Jesus
coming again.
Let the eye of your faith look onward to the day when
Christ shall come again the second time.
What will you see when that great event takes place? You
will see the eternal Son of God return in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory. He will come to raise the dead saints and to change the living
ones, to punish the wicked and to reward the godly, to summon every one before
His bar, and to give to every one according to His works. He will come to bind
Satan, and deprive him of his usurped dominion, to deliver the earth from the
curse, and to purify it as the eternal dwelling-place of a holy nation; to
cast out sin, and all its accursed consequences- disease, death, sorrow, wars,
poverty, injustice, and oppression. You see the world defiled now by the
presence of evil. You will see it at length restored to its former state, and
the days of paradise before the fall brought back again.
What will you get by looking forward to Jesus coming again?
You will get that which is the best remedy against disquiet and depression-
hope shed abroad in your heart about things to come. When the minds of
others are cast down with perplexity, you will feel able to lift up your head
and rejoice; when all around seems dark and gloomy, you will see light, and be
able to wait patiently for better days.
Few things are so remarkable in the present time as the
universal anxiety and suspense about the future. On all sides, and among all
classes, you hear of lack of confidence and gloomy forebodings of coming evil;
Church and State alike seem shaken to their foundations: no one seems to know
what to expect next. On one thing alone men seem agreed: they look forward
with more fear than hope to the future. Governments seem afraid of their
subjects, and subjects seem to have no confidence in their Governments; the
rich seem unable to satisfy the poor, and the poor seem unable to trust the
rich.
On all sides you hear of restlessness, anarchy,
lawlessness, disquiet, envy, jealousy, distrust, suspicion, and discontent.
The cement seems to have fallen out of the walls of society: the bands which
kept nations together seem to be decaying, snapping, and giving way. One might
think that the devil was putting forth special efforts, and allowed to have
special power. Never, to my mind, was there such a striking fulfilment of the
words of our Lord in Luke: "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon,
and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the
sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking
after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven
shall be shaken." (Luke xxi. 25, 26.) Which ever way I turn my eyes, I see
something very like an accomplishment of these words. Whether I look to Europe
or to America- whether I look to the Continent or my own country- whether I
look to England or to Ireland- whether I look to political matters or to
ecclesiastical- from every quarter I get the same report. Every where I see
men looking forward with alarm.
In a day like this there is no comfort like that of looking
forward to Christ coming again. The Christian who reads his Bible, and
believes what it contains, can behold the shaking of all things round him
unmoved. He, at any rate, is not uncertain about the future: he, at least, can
explain to any one the nature of his expectations. He expects nothing from the
rulers of this world: he knows that their boasted laws and reforms will never
satisfy mankind, or give peace and freedom to the earth. He expects nothing
from the Churches and ecclesiastical systems of Christendom: he knows that
they are all breaking down, going to pieces, and melting away. He expects but
little from missions, either at home or abroad: he knows that they will call
out an elect people for the glory of God: but he looks for little more. His
expectation is wholly fixed on Christ's second coming and reign. This is the
great event to which he is continually looking forward; this is "the blessed
hope" that sustains him, and makes him calm amid confusion. His eye is
steadily fixed on his Savior's return. In the darkest hour he does not
despair: "Yet a little time," he says, "He that shall come will come, and will
not tarry." (Heb. x. 37.)
From the bottom of my soul I pity those who look for the
perfecting of the Church or the world by any existing agencies. I pity
politicians who dream that any reforms will ever pacify and content mankind; I
pity Christians who dream that missionary societies will gradually regenerate
the nations, and fill the earth with true religion, until it silently and
gently blooms into a state of perfection. Both parties are sowing for
themselves bitter disappointment: they might as well expect grapes from thorns
or figs from thistles. The only comfortable stand-point in looking into the
future, is that which is occupied by the Christian who fixes his hope on the
second advent of Jesus Christ.
Does false doctrine rise and spread among professing
Christians? Are many falling away on the right hand and left, some going
towards Rome, and others leaning towards infidelity? Are myriads bowing down
before such idols as the Church, the priesthood, the sacraments, intellect,
reason, liberality, charity, earnestness, and the like? The courage of the
believer in a personal advent and reign of Christ will not fail. He falls back
on the thought that all is ordered for good: all is permitted for wise ends,
for the purification of Christians and the exercise of their graces. There is
a good time coming: the Lord of the harvest shall soon appear, and send forth
His angels to separate the wheat and the tares; then shall the righteous shine
forth like the sun. The time is short, the Lord is at hand.
Do kings and rulers throw the nations of the earth into
confusion, changing, pulling down, mismanaging disestablishing, rearranging,
in their feverish anxiety to make everything work smoothly? Does everything in
society gradually become more disorderly, more out of joint, and more full of
confusion? Does a grand crash seem impending, when the whole machine of
government shall break down and come to a standstill? The believer in Christ's
second advent and reign, can view it all without dismay. He knows who has
said, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, until He comes, whose right it
is." (Ezek. xxi. 27.) He expects no perfect peace or rest until the Prince of
Peace comes, and the King's Son has His own kingdom again, and the prince of
this world is cast out. He believes that all shall end well: "The kingdoms of
this world shall become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ." (Rev. xi.
15.)
Do the best believers seem to die off and leave the Church
below? Are the gaps in families and congregations apparently increasing, which
nothing seems to fill up? Do the friends ahead in the voyage of life, who have
crossed over and got home before us, begin to seem far more numerous than the
friends astern? Does heaven seem to become every year more full, and earth
more empty, the Church above more rich, and the Church below more poor? The
man who believes in the speedy coming and kingdom of Christ can bear it all
without despair. He sorrows not, as those who have no hope; he believes that
the parting is only for a small moment, and the meeting shall be forever; he
believes that the time is short, the fashion of this world passing away, the
first resurrection drawing near, the Conqueror of death about to return. He
knows that he shall soon see all the saints again; the whole family shall be
reassembled: those who sleep in Jesus shall God bring with Him. Happy is he
who believes Christ's second personal advent. Happy is that man who can look
forward.
Reader, remember these three looks at Jesus, backward,
upward, forward; and make use of them every day. The first is the secret of
peace of conscience: no peace unless we look backward at the cross of
Christ! The second is the secret of real daily strength and comfort in
our walk with God: little solid comfort unless we look upward to Christ's
intercession! The third is the secret of bright and cheerful hope in a
dark world: no bright prospect unless we look forward to Christ coming again!
Backward, upward, forward- these are the three ways in which we should look at
Jesus. He that looks at the cross is a wise man; he that looks at the cross
and the intercession also, is wiser still; but he that looks at all three- the
cross, the intercession, and the coming of Jesus- he is the wisest of all.
(1) Come, now, my reader, and let me wind up all this tract
by asking you a friendly question. Let me ask you what you are looking to for
your soul's salvation?
You have a soul, you know full well: there is something
within that bears witness to that. That there is a world to come, and a
judgment too- that there is a life to come for which this life is only a
preparatory school- that you were not sent into the world to live the life of
a beast, to eat and drink and sleep and care for nothing but your body- all
this your conscience testifies. You may not live, perhaps, as if you believed
all this- a man might often do you think did not believe it; but for all this,
you do believe it. In your heart of hearts, you know that what I say is true.
Once more, then, I ask, what are you looking to for your
soul's salvation? Anything or nothing? Something solid and substantial, or
something weak and infirm? Reader, for your soul's sake, and as one that must
die one day, I charge you to give an answer.
Will you tell me, "You don't know: you hope it will be all
right: at any rate you don't pretend to make any profession." You cannot
surely think that excuses like these are reasonable, or satisfactory, or
sensible, or wise. To leave that uncertain on which your eternal happiness
depends- to make no insurance against the future necessities of the only part
of you that never dies- to float down the current towards the fall, and yet
make no provision for your safety- to muddle away life in meaning, and hoping,
and intending, and resolving, and yet never really prepare to meet God- to
know that death and judgment are every day drawing nearer, and yet never to
make up your mind how you are going to meet them- this, this is not the
conduct of a wise man. This is the conduct of a simpleton, an idiot, a madman,
or a child.
Oh, "awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and
Christ shall give you light." "Repent and be converted, that your sins may be
blotted out." "Strive to enter in at the strait gate," before the Master arise
and bar that gate forever. "Labor for the food which endures unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man is ready to give you." "Seek the Lord while He may
be found, call upon Him while He is near." "Come to the waters," while the
fountain is yet open, "and buy wine and milk without money and without price."
"Come to the throne of grace, that you may obtain mercy and find grace." "The
Spirit and the Bride say, Come." "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be made white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." "What do you mean, oh sleeper? arise and call upon your God." "Come
unto Christ, and He will give you rest." "Ask, and you shall receive. Seek,
and you shall find." "Him that comes unto Christ, He will in nowise cast out."
"The blood of Christ can cleanse you from all sin."
Oh, rest not, rest not, rest not, until you know what you
are looking to for your soul! Make use of the beautiful passages of Scripture
here just put before you. Look to Christ, and you shall live.
(2) Reader, if you know anything of looking unto Jesus, I
have only one piece of advice to give you. That advice is, to keep on looking
unto Jesus to the end.
That old way, in which saints have now walked for eighteen
hundred years, is the only way of safety and the only path of peace. All the
wit and wisdom of man will never discern a better way to heaven, and a surer
way to keep our souls in comfort. All the Councils that have ever met
together- from that true one which met at Jerusalem under James, down to that
sham one which met in Rome under Pope Pius IX.- all, all together can never
frame a better answer than Paul gives to the question, "What must I do to be
saved?" They cannot add one jot or tittle or grain to the Apostle's
prescription: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." In
other words, that prescription means, "Look to Jesus Christ." Reader, stick to
that prescription until you die. Add nothing to it, and take nothing away. You
cannot mend or improve it. The least addition or subtraction spoils it
altogether.
We hear much in these latter days of the vast progress of
intellect, and the enormous results of deep learning. Men tell us complacently
that a free handling of Scripture, and a closer critical study of its
contents, will give quite a new color to Christianity. I do not believe it for
one moment. I believe that all the intellectual power of England, Scotland,
Germany, and America will never add one word to "the faith of the saints," or
one article to the substance of the Eunuch's confession- "I believe on Jesus
Christ as the Son of God."
Reader, beware of novelties. Never leave the old paths.
They are marked with the footsteps of myriads of old pilgrims. Not one ever
found the old paths lead him wrong. The footsteps are all in one direction.
Beware of short-cut paths, however speciously they may be recommended.
Priestly absolution, confessionals, human absolutions, may be pressed on your
attention as useful helps towards heaven. Beware of them all: they have not
profited those that have been occupied therein. They have proved opiates to
drug and deaden conscience, but not healing medicine to cure its wounds; they
have healed the diseases of the soul slightly, and made them in the end
nothing better, but rather worse. Nothing will ever prove better than the old
Gospel plan of looking by faith to Jesus Christ. Visible sacrifices will never
fill the place of the one true Sacrifice. Visible priests will never prove
substitutes for the great High Priest in heaven.
Keep on simply looking to Jesus. Other plans of religion
look well in the days of health and prosperity, but break down entirely in the
hour of death, and on the bed of sickness. Faith in Jesus will be found
better, more useful, more cheering, more comforting, the more it is used.
Keep on looking unto Jesus. Faith shall soon be changed to
sight, and hope to certainty. Looking to Jesus on earth by faith, you shall
end with seeing Jesus eye to eye in heaven. Those eyes of yours shall look on
the head that was crowned with thorns, the hands and feet that were pierced
with nails, and the side that was pierced with a spear. You shall find that
seeing is the blessed consequence of believing, and that looking at Jesus by
faith, ends with seeing Jesus in glory, and living with Jesus for evermore.
When you awake up after His likeness, you shall be satisfied.
Oh, eyes that are weary,
And hearts that are sore,
Look off unto Jesus,
And sorrow no more!
The light of His countenance
Shines so bright,
That on earth, as in heaven,
There need be no night.
Looking off unto Jesus
My eyes cannot see
The troubles and dangers
That throng around me.
They cannot be blinded
With sorrowful tears.
They cannot be shadowed
With unbelief fears.
Looking off unto Jesus.
My spirit is blest,
In the world I have turmoil,
In Him I have rest.
The sea of my life
All about me may roar
When I look unto Jesus
I hear it no more.
Looking off unto Jesus,
I go not astray;
My eyes are on Him.
And He shows me the way.
The path may seem dark
As He leads me along,
But following Jesus
I cannot go wrong.
Looking off unto Jesus,
My heart cannot fear:
its trembling is still
When I see Jesus near.
I know that His power
My safeguard will be.
For, "Why are you troubled?"
He says unto me.
Looking off unto Jesus,
Oh, may I be found,
When the waters of Jordan
Encompass me round!
Let them bear me away
In His presence to be:
It is but seeing him nearer
Whom always I see.
Then, then shall I know
The full beauty and grace
Of Jesus, my Lord,
When I stand face to face:
I shall know how His love
Went before me each day,
And wonder that ever
My eyes turned away.