“We do not lose heart…Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but all the things which are not seen.” (2 Cor. 4:16-18)

Some say, “I will find something to condemn me every time I look at myself.” To be sure! The freedom from condemnation is not in ourselves, but in Christ Jesus. We are to look at Him instead of at ourselves. There will never be a t me when one will not find condemnation in looking at himself.

The fall of Satan was due to his looking at himself. The restoration for those whom he has made to fall is only through looking to Jesus. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). The serpent was lifted up to be looked at. Those who looked were healed. Even so with Christ.

Getting into Christ is only the beginning, not the end, of Christian life. It is the entrance to the school where we are to learn of Him. He takes the ungodly man with all his evil habits and forgives all his sins, so that he is counted as though he never had sinned. Then He continues to give him His own life, by which he may overcome his evil habits.

Association with Christ will more and more reveal to us our failings, just as association with a learned man will make us conscious of our ignorance. As a faithful witness, He tells us of our failings. But it is not to condemn us. We receive sympathy, not condemnation, from Him. It is this sympathy that gives us courage, and enables us to overcome.

When the Lord points out a defect in our characters, it is the same as saying to us, “There is something that you are in need of, and I have it for you.” When we learn to look at reproof in this way, we shall rejoice in it instead of being discouraged.

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 126, 127