J.C. Ryle on Christ as Our All in All

"Is Christ all?  Then let all His converted people deal with Him as if they really believed it.  Let them lean on Him and trust Him far more than they have ever done yet.  Alas, there are many of the Lord's people who live far below their privileges!  There are many truly Christian souls who rob themselves of their own peace and forsake their own mercies.  There are many who insensibly join their own faith, or the work of the Spirit in their own hearts, to Christ, and so miss the fullness of gospel peace. There are many who make little progress in their pursuit of holiness and shine with a very dim light.  And why is all this?  Simply because in nineteen cases out of twenty men do not make Christ all in all.

"Now I call on every reader of this message who is a believer, I beseech them for his own sake, to make sure that Christ is really and thoroughly his all in all.  Beware of allowing yourself to mingle anything of your own with Christ.

"Have you faith?  It is a priceless blessing.  Happy indeed are they who are willing and ready to trust Jesus.  But take heed you do not make a Christ of your faith.  Rest not on your own faith, but on Christ.

"Is the work of the Spirit in your soul?  Thank God for it.  It is a work that shall never be overthrown.  But oh, beware lest, unawares to yourself, you make a Christ of the work of the Spirit!  Rest not on the work of the Spirit, but on Christ.

"Have you any inward feelings of religion, and experience of grace?  Thank God for it.  Thousands have no more religious feeling than a cat or dog.  But oh, beware lest you make a Christ of your feelings and sensations!  They are poor, uncertain things and sadly dependent on our bodies and outward circumstances.  Rest not a grain of weight on your feelings.  Rest only on Christ.

"Learn, I entreat you, to look more and more at the great object of faith, Jesus Christ and to keep your mind dwelling on Him.  So doing you would find faith and all the other graces grow, though the growth at the time might be imperceptible to yourself.  He that would prove a skillful archer must look not at the arrow, but at the mark" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).