Brethren, have you ever given thought to how much we tend to inwardly examine? How often we look to our fruit, or our walk with Jesus? We are indeed called to examine ourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5), yet we often do so beyond the measure intended by Scripture. One of Satan’s subtle devices is to turn the Christian’s gaze inward until Christ Himself fades from view. To take your eyes off Christ even for a moment is to drop your shield in the midst of continual spiritual warfare.
There is a vast difference between biblical self-examination and spiritual introspection that becomes self-absorption. The former leads us to repentance and renewed faith in Christ; the latter always leaves us endlessly measuring our own pulse, wondering if our hearts beat strongly enough. Think of Peter and John, Peter had set his eyes upon John in comparison. He asks the Lord, “what about this man?” (John 21:21-22), to which the Lord responds to Peter with the command “You follow Me!”
To put your eyes on anything or anyone other than Jesus is exactly what Satan desires of the child of God. And how often we battle with this, it can be through looking to your brothers, and comparing walks. If they are running faster than we are, we despair, if we are running faster than they are, we swell up with pride. We are called to fix our eyes upon Christ, the author and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2). To fix your eyes upon Christ is more than to occasionally acknowledge Him. It is to deliberately turn your gaze away from everything that would compete for your confidence – whether your failures, your successes, your feelings, your circumstances, even your own spiritual progress – and to rest your sight upon Him. The Christian who constantly looks at himself will find either pride or despair. The Christian who looks to Christ will find grace.
Therefore the command is not to glance at Jesus while staring at ourselves. It is to look away from ourselves unto Him. Every inward look should only serve to drive us outward to Christ. I mean think of Peter, his eyes were fixed upon Christ during that storm, and something flowed from Jesus to Peter that allowed Peter to walk on the water, but as soon as he took his gaze off Christ and looked at his circumstances with the wind and the waves, fear overcame him and in an instant he fell. We ought not seek to fix the storm, but rather amidst the storm keep our eyes upon Christ the Lord.
The inward gaze to your faith is never going to gain you strength. The only way to be strengthened is by looking to the object of your faith. The believer’s assurance is not ultimately rooted in the perfection of his obedience but in the perfection of Christ’s obedience. Our fruit is evidence of His work, but it is not the foundation of our hope. if we seek peace by constantly inspecting the branches, we will miss the life flowing from the Vine. Jesus never commanded us to abide in our own performance, but to abide in Him.
When conscience accuses, when Satan whispers that our faith is weak or our sanctification too slow, the answer is not to search ourselves endlessly for something worthy of confidence. The answer is to flee to Christ. His righteousness has not changed. His blood has not lost its power. His intercession at the Father’s right hand has not ceased.
Ironically, the Christian who spends all his time looking for fruit often neglects the very source from which fruit grows. But the one who beholds Christ is transformed into His image from glory to glory. There more we fix our eyes on Him, the more the Spirit conforms us to Him. Holiness is not produced by morbid introspection but by communion with the Savior.
Therefore, examine yourself as Scripture commands – but do so with the purpose of seeing whether you are resting in Christ, not whether you can find a righteousness or confidence in yourself apart from Him. Our hope is in the resurrected Christ, therefore continue to run the race with your gaze upon the reward, the Lord Himself. Let every look within be followed by ten looks to the cross. It is there that you will find peace, assurance, and strength that no amount of self-scrutiny can ever provide. After all, the healthiest Christian is not the one who spends all day looking for faith within himself, but the one who spends all day looking unto Christ. A man does not know the sun by staring into his own eyes, but by looking at the light that shines upon Him. Therefore, brethren, as the writer of Hebrews exhorts us, let us run the race “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith”.
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