Examine Yourselves—with Christ

It is the duty of every Christian to routinely consider the state of their own lives and souls. 

As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5). Likewise, the Apostle Peter called upon God’s people to be diligent in making their calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10). 

And so each Lord’s Day, we go before God to confess our sins both corporately and individually. And as you have heard before, this is a good practice to be doing daily. There is no need to save up your sins to confess them on Sunday morning—that is not necessary or helpful. You should take inventory consistently. You should be active in knowing yourselves, and holding your lives up to the mirror of God’s Word. Like David, you should be praying, “Search me, O God, and know my heart!” (Ps. 139).

But in all of this self-examination, you must not abandon the good news of the gospel. You must not lose sight of Christ. For to go on a search inside without Christ, without the gospel at hand, is to do the work of the devil—the accuser of the brethren. To find fault, to find sin, but to do so without the remedy ready is to only come under further condemnation.

When you examine yourselves, when you peer into that murky and dark cavern of your own heart—and see that remaining sin we all have and must fight until the final Day—you must be sure to have the light of the gospel in hand. It is only that light of hope that can vanquish the dark. And without it, you will only stumble further into despair. 

The great Methodist circuit rider Francis Asbury put it this way. He wrote that you should be “daily employed in the duty of self-examination… but at the same time, your soul should steadily fix the eye of faith on the blessed Jesus, your Mediator and Advocate at the right hand of the Father.” And so the exhortation is to look inward, examine yourselves—and find Christ there.