I have readso mething this morning that seems to be good for this thread, though I might be theo nly one who thinks so.
This man wrote in the 1500's in Italy and appears to have had no connection or dealing with the reformation in other parts of the world, even though he was shown some of the same things!
His name is Juan de Valdes.
"And if man does not know himself as a sinner, then he does not know how to distrust himself concerning his own self-justification. And if he but knew God, and recgonized in Him goodness, mercy and faithfulness, he would readily trust Him and accept the pardon and much more which the gospel offers to him. So that is why I see it is impossible for man, when he neither knows himself nor God, to accept the truth. Nor can he accept the grace of the gospel, or depend upon it.
What then about the Jewish saints when they attempted to justify themselves through the sacrifices that were prescribed by the Law? I answer that the Jewish saints did not base their righteousness upon their sacrifices, but upon the Word of God which promised to pardon them upon the basis of sacrifices.
God no longer asks men to offer sacrifices in order to have reconciliation with Him and the remission of sin. For He has laid upon CHrist the sins of all. So I must either know myself to be righteous in Christ, even though I recognize myselft o be a sinner in myself, or I will deny what the gospel affirms, that God has borne upon Christ the iniquities of us all. Otherwise I am constrained to say that God isu njust, punishing sins twice over: once in Christ and again in me. Since this would be an act of impiety to say this (and to deny the other would be an act of infidelity), it remains that i am constrained to recognize myself as pardoned by and reconciled to God, and thus justified in Christ.
I also learned this: since the impossibility which man findsi n accepting this holy gospel of Christ proceedsf rom his ignorance of himself and of God, it is every mans duty to earnestly know himself and his natural inclinations as derived from Adam, as well as to know God."