One of the things I love to do is find people who say the exact same theological things that I say and cherish, but say it so much better. Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) is one of my heroes of the faith. He was an English preacher, and was powerfully used of God to draw thousands and thousands of people to faith in Jesus Christ. He was a brilliant man, not formally trained, and was a bit “rough around the edges” on a variety of fronts. I like him!
One of my favorite things to say at Hope is, “The most graceful thing I can tell you is how sinful you really are - that way you will so know your NEED for a Savior!” Listen to how my friend, Charles Spurgeon also said this:
If I be self-righteous, I need no Christ to save me in my own opinion. How, then, can I come with such a confession as this, “Nothing in my hands I bring,” when I have got my hands full. How can I say, “Wash me,” when I believe myself white? How can I say “Heal me,” when I think that I never was sick? How can I cry, “Give me freedom, give me liberty,” when I believe I never was a slave, and “never in bondage to any man?” It is only the man who knows his slavery by reason of the bondage of sin, and the man who knows himself to be sick even unto death by reason of the sense of guilt: it is only the man who feels he cannot save himself, who can with faith rely upon the Saviour. Nor can the self-righteous man renounce himself, and lay hold of Christ; because in the renunciation of himself he would at once become the very character whom Christ says he will receive. He would then put himself in the place of the sinner, when he cast away his own righteousness. Why, sirs, coming to Christ implies the taking off the polluted robe of our own righteousness, and putting on Christ’s. How can I do that, if I wittingly wrap my own garment about me? and if in order to come to Christ I must forsake my own refuge and all my own hope, how can I do it, if I believe my hope to be good, and my refuge to be secure; and if I suppose that already I am clothed sufficiently to enter into the marriage supper of the Lamb? Nay, beloved, it is the sinner, and the sinner only, who can come to Christ; the self-righteous man cannot do it; it is quite out of his way—he would not do it if he could. His very self-righteousness fetters his foot, so that he cannot come; palsies his arm, so that he cannot take hold of Christ; and blinds his eye, so that be cannot see the Saviour."
