Grace Brings Transformation (1)

How can we know for certain that we see God in Christ and the glory of God in the gospel?
Does this sight have a transforming power in you, to make you like the image of Christ? If it does not, it is a barren, empty contemplation that has no efficacy at all. Insofar as the sight of God's love in Christ breeds conformity to Christ, it is gracious and comforting. No one ever sees the mercy of God in Christ by the eye of faith without being changed. Can you imagine that any soul can see itself in the glass of God's love in Jesus Christ, can see Christ in the gospel, and God reconciled to him in particular, and not love God in return and be altered? It is impossible. It works love, and love works of imitation. Love is full of invention and tries to please the person loved as much as it can in every way.
The adversaries of the grace of God quarrel with us because we preach justification by the free mercy and love of God in Christ. They say this is to deaden the spirits of men, so that they do not care about good works. But can there be any greater incentive and motive in the world to sanctification, to express Christ and to study Christ, than to consider what favour and mercy we have in Christ; how we are justified and freed by the glorious mercy of God in Christ? There cannot be any greater motivation?
The law is a glass too, but the sort of glass that James speaks of. When one looks into it and sees his duty, he goes away and forgets (James 1:23, 24). The law reveals our sin and misery. Indeed, it is a true glass, but this glass does not act upon us. When the gospel glass is held out by the ministers of the word, when people see the love of God in Christ, it changes and transforms them. Is there any study in the world more excellent than that of the gospel, which transforms and changes people from one degree of grace to another?

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 127-29 [139-40]
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