by Thomas Brooks
He can never take up his full and everlasting rest, satisfaction, and content in the person of Christ, in the merits of Christ, in the enjoyment of Christ alone. No hypocrite did ever long and mourn after the enjoyment of Christ, as the best thing in all the world. No hypocrite did ever prize Christ for a Sanctifier as well as a Savior. No hypocrite did ever look upon Christ, or long for Christ to deliver him from the power of his sins, as much or as well as to deliver him from wrath to come. No hypocrite can really love the person of Christ, or take the satisfaction in the person of Christ. The rays and beams of Christ’s glory have never warmed his heart; he never knew what bosom communion with Christ meant. A hypocrite may love to be healed by Christ and to be pardoned by Christ, and to be saved by Christ, etc., but he can never take any complacency in the person of Christ; his heart never seriously works after union with Christ. The love of a sincere Christian runs much out to the person of Christ. Heaven itself without Christ would be to such a soul but a poor thing, a low thing, a little thing, an uncomfortable thing, an empty thing. It is the person of Christ that is the sparkling diamond in the ring of glory.
No hypocrite in the world is sincerely willing to receive Christ in all his offices, and to close with him upon gospel terms. The terms upon which God offers Christ in the gospel are these, viz., that we shall accept of a whole Christ with a whole heart. Now, mark, a whole Christ includes all his offices, and a whole heart includes all our faculties. Christ as mediator is king, priest, and prophet; and so God the Father in the gospel offers him. Salvation was too great and too glorious a work to be perfected and completed by any one office of Christ.
Christ as a prophet instructs us, and as a priest he redeems us and intercedes for us, and as king he sanctifies and saves us. The apostle hit it when he said, “He is made unto us of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption” (1Co 1:30). Consider Christ as our prophet, and so he is made wisdom to us; consider him as our priest, and so he is made righteousness and redemption to us; consider him as our king, and so he is made sanctification and holiness to us. A hypocrite may be willing to embrace Christ as a priest to save him from wrath, from the curse, from hell, from everlasting burning, but he is never sincerely willing to embrace Christ as a prophet to teach and instruct him, and as a king to rule and reign over him. Many hypocrites may be willing to receive a Lord Jesus; they may be willing to embrace a saving Christ, but they are not willing to embrace a ruling Christ, a commanding Christ: “This man shall not rule over us” (Luk 19:27). “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Mat 23:37). “And ye will not come to me that ye might have life” (Joh 5:40). “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (Joh 1:11).
A hypocrite is willing to receive Christ in one office, but not in every office; and this is that stumbling-stone at which hypocrites stumble and fall, and are broken in pieces. Certainly Christ is as lovely and as comely, as desirable and delightful, as eminent and excellent in one office as he is in another; and therefore it is a just and righteous thing with God, that hypocrites that won’t receive him in every office, should have no benefit by any one of his offices.
Christ and his offices may be distinguished, but Christ and his offices can never be divided. While many have been laboring to divide one office of Christ from another, they have wholly stripped themselves of any advantage or benefit by Christ. Hypocrites love to share with Christ in his happiness, but they don’t love to share with Christ in his holiness. They are willing to be redeemed by Christ, but they are not cordially willing to submit to the laws and government of Christ; they are willing to be saved by his book, but they are not willing to submit to his scepter. Hypocrites love the privileges of the gospel, but they don’t love the services of the gospel, especially those that are most inward and spiritual. But a sincere Christian owns Christ in all his offices, he receives Christ in all his offices, and he closes with Christ in all his offices. He accepts of him, not only as a Christ Jesus, but also as a ruling Christ. The Colossians received him as Christ Jesus the Lord; they received a Lord Christ as well as a saving Christ; they received Christ as a king upon his throne, as well as a sacrifice upon his cross.
God the Father in the gospel tenders a whole Christ. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord, and accordingly a sincere Christian receives a whole Christ, he receives Christ Jesus the Lord; he says with Thomas, “My Lord and my God,” John 20:28; he takes Christ for his wisdom as well as for his righteousness, and he takes him for his sanctification as well as for his redemption. A hypocrite is all for a saving Christ, for a sin-pardoning Christ, for a soul-glorifying Christ, but regards not a ruling Christ, a reigning Christ, a commanding Christ, a sanctifying Christ, and this at last will prove his damning sin.
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Excerpt from Touchstone of Sincerity by Thomas Books (eBook)