I suppose this is what some people call a “Holiness” movement, and there is certainly nothing wrong with “Holiness”, but the problem lies in where you find it. I tried to find it through observing the Law, and instead of being satisfied, it just demanded more and more of me. Every time I failed, I found harsher demands. And then God worked a miracle. He sent my cousin to Pittsburgh and to a good Lutheran Church. I even remember the night when it changed, he called me and told me he had a sermon and a book for me to check out. The sermon was by a Swedish Lutheran named Heinric Schartau and it was titled “Jesus Only”.

It knocked my block off. Right from the start the Gospel message hammered at my legal spirit. I still remember a few lines, “It is a blessed thing when a man in prayer fixes his eyes on Jesus only, not on his ownself where the accuser waits” or “You don’t become holier by your penance or your nightly prayer watches, but rather, your holiness is to be found in ‘Jesus Only’”. There was my answer, if I wanted to know that I was holy, righteous and saved, I need not look at myself, where sinfulness always is showing its face, but rather I should look to Christ alone who is my righteousness and Holiness. Anyways, time to get off my soapbox!