That Christ may have Preeminence
Annotations prepared by Jay Wegter
Introduction, Looking unto Jesus, by Isaac Ambrose
pp. 10-11 – See these pages for biblical names of Christ that yield great comfort. pp. 12-13 – Our duty is to look off all other things and look to Christ. The Lord’s command to Lot was “look not behind thee” (Gen 19:17). What is the warning in Phil 3:18-19? Answer: “No earthly minded man enters here.” It is our duty and ability as believers to look at unseen things (2 Cor 4:18). When the soul comes to know what the eternal God is, and the eternal Christ is, and the design of Christ to save souls, and communicate Himself to poor creatures, this can take our desires off of temporal things and focus them on the eternal.
pp. 14-15 – Those who live for the sensual have not the spirit (Jude 19). Augustine had a great wrestling in his conversion. He halted temporarily when he realized repentance meant he could no longer fulfill his lusts. Sensual lusts wage war against the soul (1 Pet 2:11). There is great need for vigilance here for adulterous affections can be fed by as slight a thing as an unclean glance.
pp. 16-17 – Spiritual adultery is to prefer the world to Christ. Your object of trust will be revealed on the last day. Looking for the praise and honor of others is an inordinate desire. Look off all that diverts from Christ. No man can serve two masters (Mt 6:24). pp. 18-19 – Like Paul, true believers are willing to count all things as loss that they may gain Christ (Phil 3:7-11). The Lord betroths His own to Himself forever (Hos 2:19). Christ is jealous lover (Song of Sol 8:6; Ex 20:5). Ministers should plead with their hearers to look off of private earthly affections and look unto the Lord (Heb 12:1-2). In order to behold His glory, you must come out of self—in other words, come out of what normally occupies your thoughts, desires, and concerns.
pp. 20-21 – Ministers should persuade their hearers that all other things but Christ are vanity and emptiness (Prov 26:5; Ps 39:5). What a folly it is to not be rich toward God (Lu 12:21). There is joy and pleasure at His right hand for evermore (Ps 16:11). We have the riches of fellowship with the Trinity. Look off of your pomp, pleasures, and glory, and vain occupations in order to fellowship with the Trinity.
pp. 22-23 – Christ looked off heaven and heavenly things for you (2 Cor 8:9). Be frequently weighing the world against Christ for your time here is brief. And on Judgement Day the time will come when you must ‘cash out’ what you have invested in as treasure (Mt 16:26).
pp. 24-25 – What does your internal treasure conversation look like? What is the dialogue you have with yourself (Phil 3:8; Heb 11:13, 37-38). What the martyrs endured, described in Hebrews chapter 11 give us perspective on the value of true treasure. Your meditations fix afresh each day the eyes of your heart on the source of your delight. The more you meditate on heaven, the more your will identify the fooleries of the world. The more you acquaint yourself with the Lord and draw near to Him, the more tastes you will have of Him.
p. 26 – How do we halt a preoccupation with temporal things? Go mightily to the Lord to stop beholding vanity. Go mightily to Him with the purpose of beholding His glory (Ps 119:36-37; 2 Cor 3:18).
Ch. 1 The Nature of looking unto Christ opened & explained by Samuel Davies
p. 29 – Saving faith is a grateful acceptance and obedience with supreme love and dutiful submission as His subjects (not speculative and external).
p. 31 – The burdened are bidden to come to Christ the city of refuge.
p. 33 – The duty of looking unto Christ; make Him the object of your contemplation. Cry to Him, expect deliverance, depend on Him for deliverance, submit to Him in universal obedience, have a hearty love and approbation of Him, have joy and gratitude for deliverance.
p. 34 – We must know Redeemer as Immanuel, God and man, His sufficiency and willingness to pardon and save believing penitents. It is the highest wisdom to obtain a complete acquaintance with the method of salvation.
p. 35 – What is genuine conviction of sin? Ans. the dreadful threatenings of the Law in full force, setting forth that you are ripe for ruin. This reveals a deep need of Him. p. 37 – A deep sense of our inability sees no ground in our self-confidence. Saving faith is utterly self-renouncing. Trust in Christ alone as source of all that is needed.
p. 38 – We delight in Christ, not as our helper, but our all in all for salvation.
p. 39 – It is matchless joy to be delivered from the horrors of a guilty conscience and the dreadful displeasure of God. The believer possesses overflowing gratitude.
p. 40 – All persuasion, resolve, etc. is feeble and ineffectual apart from the effectual operations of God’s almighty grace. Look and live!
p. 41—Damnation is a tormenting remorseful conscience amidst inextinguishable flames. Salvation contains the title to divine favor, to all the joys of heaven and deliverance from all the torments of hell.
p. 44 – Look and live is pushed aside and resisted when the world’s temporal offers are accepted, and not the friendship of the Heavenly King.
p. 46 – The voice of the Beloved is “Behold Me, behold Me,” it is a melting gracious invitation of love. He exhibits Himself to us in the gospel.
p. 47 – Look unto Me and you’ll see the glories of God.
pp. 48-49 – He calls to us from the agonies of Calvary (Ps 69:20), He possesses infinite dignity, yet retains His love for the lowly. He is the worthy Lamb.
p. 50 – Look unto Me and be saved (Is 45), I am God, your guilt is no obstacle. The blood of God can expiate it (Acts 20). Look past the obstructions in your way.
p. 53 – God will easier bear the abuse of any mercy than contempt for His Son. Therefore, look unto Him all the ends of the earth and be saved (Is 45:22).
Ch. 2 The happiness of drawing near to God, by Thomas Watson p. 56 – The wicked have sparing mercy, but the godly have saving mercy. In our fallen state we lost the true image of God and our communion with God. The sinner’s every step goes further from God. Unlike the redeemed, the ungodly love to wander, they do not have the desire to be near God.
p. 57 – The believer’s great incumbent duty is to draw near to God (Heb 10:22).
p. 58 – The nature of Christ’s mediation is a screen between us and divine justice. He veiled Himself in human nature that we may draw near to God and behold Him. p. 59 – The religious affections are the ‘feet of the soul’ they cause us to move toward God. There are eternal rivers of pleasure in Him (Ps 16).
pp. 60-61 – We draw near to converse with Him. It is folly to draw near to the world. pp. 62-63 – Your heart knows well what your first love is. It is our honor to draw near to God. David as a type of Christ drew to him the distressed, those in debt, and the discontent, they looked to David as their captain (1 Sam 22:2).
pp. 64-65 – His favor is better than life (Ps 63:3-5). You will regret having not drawn near to Him. How terrible to make distance from God a habit of life.
pp. 66-67 – God is triumphant in His acts of mercy. Study your own needs by thinking of your condition without Him. If God is your chief treasure, you will draw near in delight. The lame, the disenfranchised, and the poor in spirit flocked to Christ being sensible of their desperate need of grace. The poor in spirit review their need of grace, thus they supplicate for mercy, “I am damned without Christ.” Draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Heb 10:22).
Ch. 3 The loveliness of Christ, by Thomas Watson
p. 73 – In the Book of Revelation Christ is a Prophet (Lk 24:19). He reveals to His people the mysteries of salvation by unsealing the Book of God’s decrees (Rev 5:5). p. 76 – The brazen serpent was not a real snake but was made like a serpent. Christ is likened to a brazen serpent; He has no inherent sin but is made sin by imputation and substitution.
p. 78 – Christ as cornerstone cemented us to Himself by His blood. He is a Rock of offense (1 Cor 10:4). He is Rock for defense (Song of Songs 2:14). He is Rock for comfort (Deut 32:13; Is 25:4).
pp. 80-81 – Christ as Jacob’s ladder bridges heaven and earth, the vast gap between Holy God and sinful man. The top of the ladder is His deity, and the bottom of the ladder is His humanity.
pp. 82-82 – Christ is ready to greet the poor soul who goes to Him. Most bolt away from the Physician of their souls and perish in their sin sickness. Christ loveliness breaks our hearts with His tender mercies. In the Levitical system, Christ is typified as sacrifice and altar which speaks of His two natures, the wood and sacrifice burn (His humanity), but the metal of the altar does not burn (His deity). pp. 84-85 – Christ was arrested as if a dangerous thief, but all He had ever taken was people’s sins.
pp. 88-89 – A drop of Christ’s blood allays the fiery inflammation of conscience. Christ is our life, part with all if need be but never part with Him.
pp. 90-91 – Christ restores the backslidden and wandering sheep. The world is ignorant of Christ’s beauty and the infinite worth of His death. Bless God who has given you eyes to see the work of Christ’s death. Christ’s infinite value is set forth in the broad daylight of the gospel.
pp. 92-93 – Many have but a rational knowledge of Christ but not a spiritual knowledge; it is speculation without conviction. To know Him convincingly and savingly is to know in one’s conscience His excellence. Hypocrites have only a barren knowledge and lack filial love and affection for Him. The hypocrite’s knowledge is informing but not transforming.
pp. 94-95 – A converted sinner loathes himself for his own iniquities (Ezek 36:31). The Lamb will become the Lion and will avenge the honor of God. There is unspeakable horror in dying outside of Christ.
pp. 96-97 – To face Christ as Lion is to face Him as Judge. Christian’s walk the bridge of Christ trusting in Him for safety as He leads them over the devouring sea of hell. Get a saving interest in Christ, rely on Him by faith, and resign yourself up to Him by service. Christ says to a believer, “With my body and my blood I endow you.” The believer says to Christ, “With my soul, I worship you”.
pp. 98-99 – When Christ is your first love, you will desire communion with Him. You will not tolerate sin and heresy, knowing that toleration of either opens the door to hypocrisy, and hypocrisy can open the door to apostasy.
pp. 100-101 – In our loyalty to Christ, we do not give sin a second glance. We have no room for idols. Say to temptation, “All the rooms in the temple of my soul are taken up for Christ.” There is no better guest. Those who love Christ speak of Him that others may come to love Him, and the match may be made. We adorn the gospel by walking worthy of Him.
p. 102 – Those who name the name of Christ must depart from iniquity. As we remember the value of our union with Christ, we dwell on the great hope of being like Him. You who mourn your sins now will someday rejoice in being clothed in your glorious raiment.
Ch. 4 The preciousness of Christ, by Octavius Winslow
p. 103 – The central question is, what is your experience of the worth of the Savior? This question encompasses the whole matter of your salvation.
pp. 104-105 – Only deep conviction of sin sees the deep worth of the Savior. Don’t exalt the work of Christ above the Person of Christ.
p. 107 – Put the entire weight of your soul on the atonement of Jesus. p. 109 – Christ is most exalted when He stoops so low, most glorious when His brilliant majesty is eclipsed in His passion.
pp. 110-111 – The cross is a revelation of God. What God would do in giving His Son was promised before the world began. Christ’s offering is able to quell every fear, annihilate every doubt, and fill you with peace and joy.
pp. 112-113 – Christ is the friend whose love is boundless. Is He precious to you? Faith is that spirit-enabled faculty that sees Christ’s loveliness.
pp. 114-115 – Christ is perfectly adapted to the necessities of the soul. Those who value Christ the most, appropriate Him the most. His blood subdues our sins. Here is faith’s sequence: know Him, admire Him, love Him, serve Him. Even if your faith is weak, the whole Christ is fully yours believer. He is personally with you. He recovers and restores you in your backslidings. You can take heart when you are brought low. Realize that there is a stage when He is dealing with His own in which the dear Son of God is built up on the ruin and wreckage of your merit, strength, and sufficiency.
pp. 116-117 – Christ protective eye is on you always. He spoils the devil’s accusations and insinuations so that they don’t stick. He quenches fiery darts by His blood. He knows how to deliver the godly from temptation. His sympathetic heart is for you. He shows us His pierced heart amidst our losses. He causes seasons of suffering to purify us and to make Himself known. He wants us to grow up spiritually, for timid believers are slow to see His love in their afflictions.
pp. 118-119 – Christ draws us nearer in the world’s disappointments. To have Him as our first love is to love Him supremely. Growth toward spiritual maturity is development to that end loving Him more. He will be more precious to your soul each day and you will become more acquainted with Him.
pp. 120-121 – Have direct communication with Christ so that you have close dealings with Him. Watch out by being carried away by lows and highs which tend to eclipse the Savior. Direct your thoughts to Him who has clothed you and adorned you. Look to Christ who gave you your graces. His correction, training and discipline is given in love.
p. 122 – The true believer says, “Christ is precious to my soul.” He commands me to fear not because He is with me. He Has replaced my dread with His faith, hope, and love.
Ch. 5 The excellency of Christ, by Jonathon Edwards
p. 123 – The Book of Revelation is the book of God’s decrees, the events that were foreordained to unfold.
pp.126-127 – Christ is the Lion and the lamb. He is possessor of heaven and earth and yet condescends to look to base creatures who are despised.
pp. 128-129 – He condescends to become our friend. He goes even so low as to wash our feet. He endures wrath in answering for our sins. In His one Person infinite glory meets infinite humility. He spans the gap between God and sinner. pp. 130-131 – He submitted to the Law, the Rabbis, the family of Joseph, and ultimately to death itself. Though He commands the forces of nature in His majesty, He is able to forgive the rage and blasphemy hurled against Himself.
pp. 132-133 – His two natures comprise a great mystery, for He has great reverence for God and has equality with God. No one ever faced a more difficult command than to die under divine wrath on a Roman cross.
pp. 134-135 – In Him absolute sovereignty meets perfect resignation; He resigns Himself to the baptism He must undergo and the cup He must drink. In Him divine self-sufficiency (as Ruler of the cosmos) meets trust and reliance upon God.
pp. 136-137 – In the exercise of judgment, He is the agent of the threatenings of the Law. Yet in redemption, He is the target of the threatenings of the Law. His ransom grants perfect deliverance from the penalty of the Law. His infinite condescension was necessary to restore peace on earth and to manifest God’s goodwill toward men. In the war of the ages, God wins by bringing a baby to the battle (Is 9).
pp. 138-139 – His majesty is veiled, the vastness of His deity concealed behind His mortal humanity, and yet beams of His divinity shine through in His miracles.
pp. 140-141 – The majesty of His deity is met by the meekness of a lamb. In His passion His perfections are revealed, for there is matchless glory in His humiliation. The heavenly citizens will sing worthy is the Lamb who was slain.
pp. 142-143 – In His agony His blood was shed from love to God’s enemies, and love to His own enemies. He is the champion of divine justice, and He suffers under the divine justice which wracked His soul. His holiness is manifested in His perfect obedience in His sufferings. He honors God even under agony.
pp. 144-145 – The greatest obedience every paid to God takes on the dishonor done to God. Christ becomes subject to God’s hatred of sin. His worthiness of exaltation is because He was willing to have our demerits laid on Him. The highest love conceivable is manifest in His sufferings. He was delivered up to His enemies, and what He suffered defeats His enemies.
Pp, 146-147 – His suffering and death conquered all His enemies, He vanquished them with their own weapons. Edwards states the devil is still heartsick today that he so eagerly swallowed what he thought was his prey. Christ is the true Samson who tore open the lion of death and extracted honey from it. Christ brought everlasting confusion to His enemies; gained victory over them by their weapons.
148-149 – The lamb-like imagery in Revelation is reserved for the people of God toward whom Christ is lamb-like in His tender, mild love to His friends and brethren.
Ch. 6 A description of Christ, by Richard Sibbes
p. 151 – God fulfills all His promises in Christ.
pp. 152-153 – By the Messiah, God will deliver His people from another type of Babylon (this world of enslaving sin). Though Israel was unworthy, God will send them Messiah. And because God delights in Him (Messiah), He will delight in you. Because His soul is well-pleased in Messiah, He will be well-pleased in you.
pp. 154-155 – Don’t stay dwelling on your unworthiness and sin. Raise your mind to behold and admire God’s servant in making satisfaction for your sins that you might receive satisfaction in your soul. Christ’s work is a masterpiece of service, bringing God and man together again. He is the remedy for what sickened our race.
pp. 156-157 – He came to do the work on our behalf. He became a servant to expiate our pride in Adam. His mercy will triumph over the basest estate where He will show mercy. He was abased for our sakes. We ought to abase ourselves.
pp. 159-159 – God chose His servant to cleanse our conscience. God must look on the Son to look favorably on us. Christ is called and appointed to His office of Redeemer. It is a marvel that God choses Christ’s human nature to knit its creaturehood to the second Person of the Godhead.
pp. 160-161 – God chose the Savior of the church. God chose a perfect Husband for the church, do not refuse Him. People reject Christ the chosen cornerstone because they will not be laid low enough to build on Him. To be built on Him, we must be made and shaped like Him which means having our lusts pared away to fit with Him. In this paring, note the place of repentance and mortification of sin.
pp. 162-163 – God has immeasurable delight in Christ. When the Father loves Him, He loves Himself in Him. So, He loves Him as God, as the second Person of the Trinity, as the perfect representation of His own image and character (Heb 1:1-3).
pp. 164-165 – What it means to be accepted in the Beloved is to mystically be made one with Him. God delights in us in Him. God delights that we should be saved because Christ poured out His soul to death (Is 53:12). God delights in Him for this very work of giving Himself for us because He wrought reconciliation. We have a perfect Friend in court who intercedes for us. We dare not go naked to God, for He is a consuming fire. But we go to Him in the mediation of Him whom He loves and in Whom His soul delights.
pp. 166-167 – God loves and delights in Him for shedding His blood for us. In Him there is mutual indwelling, we are in Christ, and His renewing, sanctifying Spirit is dwelling in us.
pp. 168-169 – We see the love of God in the gospel and the love of Christ giving Himself to us which will transform us to love God. Those who lack this disposition of love, humility, and obedience in some comfortable measure, do not have yet the eyes (or disposition) the Holy Spirit requires. Consider that when called to a very great place, there is a setting apart from others.
pp. 170-171 – What Christ did as man, He did by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit unifies believers with the Father and the Son. Christ was justified from sin by His resurrection, and we also were justified by that resurrection (Rom 4:25). Christ our federal Head and second Adam is a public Person, as our Representative He is the sphere in which our salvation occurs (see Col 2:8-16). pp. 172-173 – Christ is source Person who communicates His benefits to us through His Spirit. “He will take of mine,” He says of the Holy Spirit. Believers have an infinitely better status and standing than unfallen Adam did in his state of innocence, for Christ our ‘probationer’ has won a perfect standing for us.
pp. 174-175 – The graces we need and lack should send us to the wellhead of Christ for those graces (Jn 15; Gal 2:20). We commune with Him at the points of our spiritual poverty (Rev 3:18-22). We would do well to reckon that there is a constant flow of grace from Christ, our Source Person.
pp. 176-177 – Believers are complete in Christ (Col 2:10). We are to make use of our fulness in Christ. He is the true God and eternal life for us (1 Jn 4:9; 5:20-21). In His fulness He is Prophet, Priest, and King. Do not go outside of Him for anything. As our King, He subdues all our spiritual enemies, especially the fear of judgment and wrath of God. Yet, how few will come under His government!
pp. 178-179 – Make use of God’s consecration of Christ. ‘Bind God’ with His own Mediator. This is how we overcome God in His own things. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of union, knitting us to Christ. The Spirit excels at showing us our sin and showing us our good wealth in Christ. The Spirit is constantly at work in those He has given title to heaven.
pp. 180-181 – If Christ has worked for you, He will work in you. There will be evidence that He is your Prophet, Priest, and King. Cheerful obedience is stirred by the Spirit. Ministers must centrally display Christ and open up the riches of God in Christ. pp.182-183 – Whenever Christ’s fulness is hidden, i.e. as in the dark ages, ungodliness and worldly lusts and ignorance hold sway. Ministers should preach the way of salvation with great care and clarity. Moral preaching is not the same as displaying Christ. Christ did not begin His ministry with lightning and thunder but with the blessed promises of the be-attitudes.
pp. 184-185 – Christ’s majesty was veiled because He came as a meek and humble of heart servant. He came to save the world as Prophet, Priest, and King, which is how He served.
Ch. 7 Christ altogether lovely, by John Flavel
pp. 190-191 – All pleasures and true delights meet in Christ. There is nothing lovely without Him (Ps 45:2). It pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell (Col 1:19; 2:8-10).
pp. 198-199 – Devils and the damned will gnash their teeth in envy at the blessedness, joy, and everlasting advancement of believers. Every wound on the body of Christ is a mouth to plead on our behalf in heaven.
pp. 200-201 – Christ calls believers His friends and unlike earthly relations, His friendship is a constant and unchangeable one (Jn 13:1). pp. 202-203 – Believers are to exercise care to esteem nothing truly lovely except as it is enjoyed in Christ. An overestimation of created things is problematic because the excess of our affections bogs us down with inordinate affections.
p. 204 – Beauty and loveliness is stamped on our spirits the more we commune with Christ (2 Cor 3:18).
Ch. 8 Christ the desire of all nations, by John Flavel
pp. 210-211 – There is no remedy for evil but Christ. He is the fountain opened for the nations for sanctification and cleansing. He alone can pacify and purge the consciences of men from guilt and fear. Thus, all the ends of the earth are commanded to look to Him for righteousness and peace (Is 45:22).
pp. 212-213 – How vile a sin it is for any nation upon whom the light and the gospel has shown to reject Jesus Christ. It is reminiscent of our Lord’s words, “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Lk 19:14). “Depart from us, we do not desire the knowledge of your ways” (Job 21:14).
pp. 214-215 – Do you feel the need of Christ? A truly saved soul will only feel at rest when finally home with Christ (2 Cor 5:2). Bless the day when Christ became the desire of your soul. Your desire for Him is evidence of His desire for you (1 Jn 4:19). pp. 215-217 – Desire for the Lord is a continual spring producing diligence, industry, and duty, desire awakens the use of means. What a folly to feed desires without Christ. pp. 218-219 – How we should make Christ the desire and choice of our souls. He is perfectly suitable there unto. Well grounded hopes of glory are built upon your union with Him. There is value in thinking upon the wrath that sin deserves. The faculty of conscience ought to make us fear God. For even in this present life there are instances in which a tiny speck of wrath in the conscience can lead to suicide.
p. 220 – If you are unsure where you stand with God, get on your knees and beg the Lord for a new heart and a new state. If you are a believer, take care that by carelessness and scandal you quench the weak desires for God that began to kindle in the hearts of others.