The more lovely does Jesus appear!',

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The poor believer feels, "I continually find all kinds 
of evil working in my mind; every base corruption 
crawling in my heart; everything vile, sensual, and 
filthy rising up from its abominable deeps. Can I 
think that God can look down in love and mercy 
on such a wretch?" 

When we see . . .
our vileness,
our baseness, 
our carnality,
our sensuality,
how our souls cleave to dust, 
how we grovel in evil and hateful things, 
how dark our minds, 
how earthly our affections, 
how depraved our hearts, 
how strong our lusts, 
how raging our passions; 
we feel ourselves, at times, no more 
fit for God than Satan himself!

"You see, at just the right time, when we were 
utterly helpless, Christ died for the ungodly!"
Romans 5:6

Christ does not justify those who are naturally 
righteous, holy, and religious. 

But He takes the sinner as he is, in all his filth 
and guilt; washes him in the fountain opened 
for sin and uncleanness; and clothes the naked 
shivering wretch, who has nothing to cover him 
but filthy rags, in His own robe of righteousness!

The gospel of the grace of God brings glad tidings . . .
of pardon to the criminal,
of mercy to the guilty, and
of salvation to the lost!

That the holy God should look down in love on 
wretches that deserve the damnation of hell; that 
the pure and spotless Jehovah should pity, save, 
and bless enemies and rebels, and make them 
endless partakers of His own glory; this indeed 
is a mystery, the depth of which eternity itself 
will not fathom!

The deeper we sink in self-abasement under a 
sense of our vileness, the higher we rise in a 
knowledge of Christ. And the blacker we are 
in our own view, the more lovely does Jesus 
appear!

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