Chapter XX · Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots — J. C. Ryle
Christ is all.”—Colossians iii. 11.
THE words of the text which heads this page are few, short, and soon spoken; but they contain great things. Like those golden sayings, “To me to live is Christ”—“I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me “—they are singularly rich and suggestive. (Phil. i. 21; Gal. ii. 20.)
These three words are the essence and substance of Christianity. If our hearts can really go along with them, it is well with our souls. If not, we may be sure we have yet much to learn.
Let me try to set before my readers in what sense “Christ is all”; and let me ask them, as they read, to judge themselves honestly, that they may not make shipwreck in the judgment of the last day.
I purposely close this volume with a paper on this remarkable text. Christ is the mainspring both of doctrinal and practical Christianity. A right knowledge of Christ is essential to a right knowledge of sanctification as well as justification. He that follows after holiness will make no progress unless he gives to Christ His rightful place. I began the volume with a plain statement about sin. Let me end it with an equally plain statement about Christ.
I. First of all, let us understand that Christ is all, in all the counsels of God concerning man.
(a) There was a time when this earth had no being. Solid as the mountains look, boundless as the sea appears, high as the stars in heaven look—they once did not exist. And man, with all the high thoughts he now has of himself, was a creature unknown.
And where was Christ then?
Even then Christ was “with God “—and “was God”—and was “equal with God.” (John i. 1; Phil. ii. 6.) Even then He was the beloved Son of the Father: “Thou lovedst Me,” He says, “before the foundation of the world.”—“I had glory with Thee before the world began.”—“I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” (John xvii. 5, 24; Prov. viii. 23.) Even then He was the Saviour “foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter i. 20), and believers were “chosen in Him.” (Ephes. i. 4.)
(b) There came a time when this earth was created in its present order. Sun, moon and stars—sea, land and all their inhabitants, were called into being and made out of chaos and confusion. And, last of all, man was formed out of the dust of the ground.
And where was Christ then?
Hear what the Scripture says: “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” (John i. 3.) “By Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth.” (Colos. i. 16.) “And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands.” (Heb. i. 10.) “When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the depth: when He established the clouds above: when He strengthened the foundations of the deep: when He gave to the sea His decree, that the water should not pass His commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him.” (Prov. viii. 27-30.) Can we wonder that the Lord Jesus, in His preaching, should continually draw lessons from the book of nature? When He spoke of the sheep, the fish, the ravens, the corn, the lilies, the fig-tree, the vine—He spoke of things which He Himself had made.
(c) There came a day when sin entered the world.—Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and fell. They lost that holy nature in which they were first formed. They forfeited the friendship and favour of God and became guilty, corrupt, helpless, hopeless sinners. Sin came as a barrier between themselves and their holy Father in heaven. Had He dealt with them according to their deserts, there had been nothing before them but death, hell, and everlasting ruin.
And where was Christ then?
In that very day He was revealed to our trembling parents, as the only hope of salvation. The very day they fell, they were told that “the seed of the woman should yet bruise the serpent’s head,”—that a Saviour born of a woman should overcome the devil and win for sinful man an entrance to eternal life. (Gen. iii. 15.) Christ was held up as the true light of the world, in the very day of the fall; and never has any name been made known from that day by which souls could be saved, excepting His. By Him all saved souls have entered heaven, from Adam downwards; and without Him none have ever escaped hell.