"LOOK TO ME AND BE SAVED" Is. 45:22
As long as we look to ourselves, there's no hope. What's important is not what we are, but what God is and what Jesus Christ is, that can save us. The most important thing is to look away from ourselves to Christ. Quite a number of people misunderstand the gospel; they think that something in themselves qualifies them to come to Christ; they think that if they're good enough, God will accept them. You know what the only qualification is for coming to Christ? Sin! He came to save sinners, no one else! The bigger our sins, the more disgusting, vile, and terrible they are, the more reason we have to come to Christ for mercy, and the more reason He has to show us mercy!
Look there, to the cross. Do you see Christ hanging there? Do you see His head drooping down in exhaustion and pain? Do you see the crown of thorns that makes blood trickle down His cheeks? Do you see His hands and feet with the nails in them that almost split them in two? Do you hear Him cry out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" and then, "It is finished." Do you see His head hanging down after He dies? Do you see His side pierced with the spear and His body taken down from the cross?
In your mind's eye, come close and look at these things. Those hands were nailed for you. Those feet shed blood for you. His side was pierced wide open for you. He wore the crown of thorns for you. You want to know how to find mercy and salvation; there it is. "Look! Look to ME and be saved!"
"I refuse to look at anything except this Christ. He should be such a treasure to me that in comparison with Him everything else is filthy. He should be such a light to me that when I take hold of Him by faith, I do not know whether there is such a thing as Law, sin, or unrighteousness in the world. For what is everything there is in heaven and on earth in comparison with the Son of God?" (Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 26, Lectures on Galatians, p. 182).
