Chalmers: The Treacherous Quicksand of Helping Out God’s Opinion of Us

The following post comes from Dane Ortlund’s blog, Strawberry-Rhubarb.  This is one of the best things I’ve ever read.  I hope that you agree.

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Thomas Chalmers is quoted in a footnote by the editor of Calvin’s commentary on Romans, during the course of Calvin’s discussion of Rom 3:21 (‘But now apart from law . . .’), about which Calvin writes:

. . . the consciences of men will never be tranquilized until they recumb on the mercy of God alone. (p. 135)

Chalmers is then quoted (without reference) as saying:

The foundation of your trust before God must be either your own righteousness out and out, or the righteousness of Christ out and out. . . . If you are to lean upon you own merit, lean upon it wholly–if you are to lean upon Christ, lean upon him wholly. The two will not amalgamate together; and it is the attempt to do so, which keeps many a weary and heavy-laden inquirer at a distance from rest, and at a distance from the truth of the gospel. Maintain a clear and consistent posture. Stand not before God with one foot upon a rock and the other upon a treacherous quicksand. . . . We call upon you not to lean so much as the weight of one grain or scruple of your confidence upon your own doings–to leave the ground entirely, and to come over entirely to the ground of a Redeemer’s blood and a Redeemer’s righteousness. (135 n. 2)

Something I forget every day–and even the forgetfulness is forgiven.