The Best Subject for Contemplation

Of all contemplations under heaven, there is no contemplation so sweet and powerful as to see God in Christ and Christ first abased for us, and to see ourselves abased in Christ, and crucified in Christ. Then let us raise our thoughts a little higher, to see ourselves made little by little glorious in Christ; to see ourselves in him rising and ascending and sitting at the right hand of God in heavenly places; to see ourselves, by a spirit of faith, in heaven already with Christ. What a glorious sight and contemplation this is! If we first look upon ourselves as we are, we are as branches cut off from the tree, as a river cut off from the spring, that dies immediately. What is in us, except what we have derived from Christ, who is the first, the spring of all grace, the sum of all the beams that shine upon us? Now to see Christ, and ourselves in Christ, transforms us to be like his image.
We see that this change is brought about by beholding. Beholding the glory of God in the gospel is a powerful beholding. Is not the eye of faith stronger than natural imagination to alter and change? Certainly, the eye of faith, apprehending God's love and mercy in Christ, has a power to change. By it we partake of the divine nature.
This glass of the gospel is excellent and eminent above all other glasses. It is a mirror that changes us. When we see ourselves and our corruptions in the glass of the law, we see ourselves dead. But when we look into the gospel and see the glory of God, the mercy of God, and the gracious promises of the gospel, we are changed into the likeness of Christ. This excellent glass has a transforming power to make us beautiful. Such a glass should be much prized in this proud world; such a glass is the gospel.
Seeing ourselves in the love of God and Christ will naturally stir us up to be like so sweet, and gracious, and loving a Saviour.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 124-26 [135-37]
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