We do not get spiritual life by feeling something about ourselves but by believing something about Jesus. Jesus Christ is both the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). When we have Him as our truth then we enjoy Him as our life.
But when do we begin to enjoy this life? We enjoy it when we believe. This is why we read, “...And that believing you might have life through his name” (John 20:31).
Too many times we occupy ourselves with our condition. But looking inwards cannot impart life. Constantly looking inwards is as useless as a rubber beak on a woodpecker and as dangerous as a concrete parachute.
Instead of looking inward, we must look outside ourselves to the Lord Jesus, to the one who accomplished our redemption. He is the one who imparts life. But we don’t enjoy that life by focusing on it. No indeed! It is as we occupy ourselves with the Lord Jesus, the more we relish the new life He gives us.
For example, when the stinging memory of ancient sins rises up to plague us, we learn not to dwell on them or even to focus on our repentance. We look instead to the Christ who once hung for us on that center cross and died for that particular sin(s).
The old maxim, ’Seeing is Believing’ does not hold true in the Gospel. In the Gospel,” Seeing is not believing, instead, believing is Seeing.’ As the old Hymn writer said of the cross, “It was there by faith I received my sight.” Believe, trust, rest on the fact that He, the Lord Jesus, has taken our punishment. He is the faithful One. As we focus on Jesus, Life with a capital L will be enjoyed immediately.
Look to Jesus! Look to Jesus!
Look away to Christ our God!
None but Jesus, none but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good
The more we cling to Jesus the more life we will enjoy. Again, we must be clear on this. The source of our life does not come from anything in us or from having had some new and wonderful experience. The source of our life comes from the Gospel, from the Person of Christ, His doing, dying and rising again.
Every claim which the eternal, righteous Judge held against us has been settled by the blood of Jesus. As we believe the Gospel, the more we will enjoy spiritual life. As we look away from ourselves, we see that God is just and the justifier of them that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:29). As we behold and confess these gospel truths, our hearts will be full of rejoicing.
It’s no wonder then that Paul wrote, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world (Galatians 6:14).
While the unsaved stay close to the world, we stay close to Jesus and his finished work. He is the center of our message and the center of our life. He is the one who accomplished everything the Father intended Him to finish.
Our life comes from Christ and His cross. In the shadow of the cross, sorrows cannot live and joy cannot die! In the shade of the cross, the attractions of the world perish.
Here it is we find our Heaven, While on the cross we gaze; Love we much? We’ve more forgiven, We are miracles of Grace
And that’s the Gospel Truth!