Examine yourself. To find out what?

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove

your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how

that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

(II Cor. 13:5)

Do we realize what we are being told here? God is telling us

to examine ourselves, NOT to see whether WE are righteous, but

to see whether our faith is in He who is righteous. We are NOT

to examine our works, or our spiritual condition, to see if WE

measure up. No. No. No. We are to examine ourselves to see

whether we are in the faith -- that is -- to see whether we are

putting all of that aside and placing our faith and rest in Jesus

Christ.

The Truth here is fundamental Christianity. But it has been

smothered with religiousity for two-thousand years. God is

telling us that our spiritual condition depends NOT upon what we

do, nor upon what we are. It depends upon foremost upon who

we trust. The self-examination of which Paul speaks is unto that

end: Upon WHAT is my confidence before God based? Upon

my works? Upon my spiritual condition? Or upon Jesus Christ?