Daily Devotional Readings
Every few days I receive letters tracks from men trying to persuade me that, though we are free in Christ, we are yet under the bondage of the law. Some of these are good men, men who believe and preach the gospel of God's free grace in Christ. But their error in this point is most serious and grievous.
1. If you seek to be, justified by the law, you will surely perish. It is written: 'By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight'.
2. If you seek sanctification or seek to become more holy by obedience to the law, you will become self-righteous. Self-righteousness is neither more nor less than your own righteousness. It is a supposed righteousness performed by you. It is that proud foolishness of heart which supposes that you are more holy than others.
3. If you make the law your rule of life, you will lose the joy of serving Christ. The joy of Christian service is the fact it is free, unconstrained and spontaneous. It is motivated by love. But when you make the law of God a rule of life the motive becomes fear or desire for reward and all joy is destroyed.
4. If you seek assurance by obeying the law, you will become despondent and fearful. The old Puritans, sound as they were in many points, could never gain any comforting assurance and their congregations were never allowed to enjoy any because they sought it on a legal basis. Some were driven to such despondency by legal fear that they had to be locked away in asylums to keep them from committing suicide. The law breeds fear. You cannot obey it. It can never comfort anyone except a proud, self-righteous man who does not understand it.
5. If you seek acceptance before God in any measure whatsoever upon the basis of the law, you will never be accepted at all. Christ alone is our acceptance before God. He is all our righteousness, all our sanctification, all our holiness, all our redemption and all our peace. To add anything to his finished work is to make his work vain and useless. Christ will be all, or he will be nothing.
The mysteries of Gethsemane are such that we cannot begin to enter into them. I am struck by the fact that Peter, James and John, those disciples who were the nearest to our Lord when he made this prayer, never mention it. They must have realized that the soul sufferings of Christ in the garden were depths into which no mortal could ever dive. This prayer of our Lord is written so that we may wonder and adore the great humiliation of our divine Saviour, but not to supply us with a place of theological speculation. Beloved, we must learn to reverence the silence of Scripture as well as the voice of Scripture. We do not know what the cup was which our Lord prayed to have removed, because the Holy Spirit chose not to tell us. But clearly it is not what most people suppose it was.
Our Lord was not praying here that he might be delivered from going to the cross to bear the wrath of God as our Substitute. The cross was the goal of his life, not the dread of it. Never once do we see any hesitancy on the part of Christ to redeem his people. There was no cowardice in him. He voluntarily agreed to become our Substitute and to die in our place on the cross. And he was resolved to accomplish this mighty work (Psa. 40:7-8; Isa. 50:5-7). Eternally his loving eye was fixed upon the cross.
Besides, our Lord knew very well that it was not possible for the terrible cup of God's wrath to pass from him. He must take this cup, not from the hands of Judas, Pilate, or the Jews - he must take this cup from the hands of his Father and drink its bitter dregs until he had turned it upside down. God's immutable decrees and purposes required it. The covenant of grace required it. The prophecies of the Old Testament required it. His own suretyship engagements required it. The salvation of his people required it. The law, justice and glory of God required the death of our Substitute.
Blessed be his name! Immanuel would not be turned aside from his work, until at the appointed hour he cried, 'It is finished!' And his work was done!
The wise man gives us this solemn warning: 'Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few' (Eccles. 5:2). I would do nothing to discourage either public or private prayer. Indeed, we ought all to pray more. But in the act of prayer, we should consider who we are and to whom we are speaking. If we would, I am sure that our prayers would be more earnest, more reverent, more sincere and more effectual.
True prayer is seeking the will of God. A believer does not dictate to God what he should do in prayer. Rather, he seeks to know the will of God. This knowledge can be given to us only by the Spirit of God. If we can, at least in measure, know God's will in a matter, then we can pray with confidence about it.
We make our petitions in the name of Christ. Praying in Jesus' name is much more than simply tacking the name of Christ on the end of our prayers. It is praying in the conscious awareness that Christ is our only grounds of acceptance before God. It is praying in faith in the righteousness and shed blood of the Son of God. Christ alone merits favour with God. And we pray, asking our favours upon the ground of his merit.
Real prayer is submitting to the will of God. Like our Lord, we must learn to pray, 'Thy will be done.' We are all prone to pray that God will heal such and such a person, or save such and such a person, because of our relationship to that person. But what is God's will in the matter? That is what we must seek. When we pray, let us submit our personal desires to the will and glory of God.
Prayer is an act of the heart. God cares nothing for the length or eloquence of our prayers. He looks upon the heart. If at heart we are humbled, submissive, reverent and believing, our words might be fewer, but our, prayers would be more effectual. 'Lord, teach us to pray!'
Our Lord was carrying his cross through the streets of Jerusalem. He had been beaten, mocked, abused and scourged. Many were astonished at the hideous sight. 'His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.' As Jesus of Nazareth carried his cross through the streets, his temples bled. His face was bruised. And his back was lacerated. The sight was more than some women in the crowd could endure. They felt great sorrow and pity for Jesus. They could not refrain themselves; they wept, bewailed and lamented this suffering man. But Immanuel stopped the procession. Turning to those women, our mighty Saviour said, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.'
Why did our Lord rebuke these weeping women? They were rebuked not because they wept, but because they wept over the wrong thing. They felt sorry for poor Jesus. My friend, Jesus Christ is not a man to be pitied; he is a God to be worshipped and a King to be served! Too many people weep over the story of the crucifixion because they feel sorry for Jesus, thinking that sorrow for Jesus is salvation. Our Lord was not helplessly dragged off to the cross. He marched up to Calvary in triumph. We ought never to lament the fact that Christ died as he did upon the cross. Rather, let us glory in the cross. The death and resurrection of the Son of God is our salvation. Without the cross, we would all perish. The cross is God's remedy for human sin. Weep not over the cure, but over the disease. Weep not over the fulfilling of the law, but over the transgression of the law. Do not ever weep over the fact that Christ died as a Substitute for sinners, but weep over the sin which made the death of Christ necessary for the salvation of his people.
As believers, we are no longer under the bondage of the law. The legal fears and terrors of the law have no power over us. Paul's language could not be clearer: 'The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.'
But our freedom from the law does not mean that we are without responsibility, obligation or constraint. Paul looked upon himself as the bond-slave of Jesus Christ. We who believe are divorced from Moses, but we are married to Christ. And with marriage comes commitment, responsibility and a certain form of bondage. Yes, we are in bondage to Christ. Ours is a deliberate, wilful, voluntary bondage. Our hearts are bound to Christ by cords of love. The love of Christ constraineth us. This bondage of love is the greatest freedom imaginable.
Now let me reason with you who love the Lord. Surely the motives of love are stronger than any produced by the fear of the law. Think of all the Lord's benefits towards you. Who can count the small dust of God's favours towards us? Just to think of God's daily, temporal mercies of providence is overwhelming. But we have experienced the love, mercy and grace of God in Christ! God gave us his Son! He chose us to be his own. We are redeemed by the blood of Christ and clothed with his righteousness! God the Holy Spirit gave us life, led us to Christ and dwells in our hearts. 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.'
Surely the consideration of the Lord's benefits towards us will inspire in a loving heart a sense of overwhelming obligation. Out of love to our Saviour, and God we ask, 'What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?' What gift can I bring to my Redeemer? How can I prove the sincerity of my love? How can I show the depth of my gratitude? I will give myself wholeheartedly to my God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, heart, soul, mind and being. Whatever I am, whatever I possess, it belongs to Christ. My time, my property, my talents, my labour all are his. That is the least that I can do. 'Lord, here am I. Use your servant for your glory, however you see fit.'
This statement is true only of the death of a believer. To die without Christ is a terrible thing. For the unbeliever death is the wages of sin, the execution of justice, the beginning of sorrow, the end of all hope, the end of all mercy and the end of all opportunity. To die without Christ is to enter into the torments of infinite, inflexible, insatiable wrath. But for the believer death is a far different thing. For us there is no penalty to be inflicted in death. There is no sin to terrify us. And there is no law to condemn us. Christ, our Substitute, has borne the penalty of our sin, removed our guilt and satisfied every demand of the law and justice of God. To the child of God, it is not death to die. Death for us is a covenant blessing (I Cor. 3:21-23). It is a departure out of this world unto the Father. It is being unclothed that we might be clothed upon. It is failing asleep in the arms of Christ. It is entrance into the heavenly kingdom. Death to a believer is a happy home-going. There is no limit in this statement; if a man, woman, or child who dies is a believer, one of God's saints, that death is a precious thing in the sight of God.
How can the death of God's saints be precious to him? Why, because they are precious to him. They are the objects of his eternal, electing love, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and members of his body, the church. The death of God's saints is precious, because then the precious blood of Christ will be satisfied. We are 'the fulness of him that filleth in all'. Without his body, every member intact, the Head cannot be complete. As members of his body, we must be where our Head is - in glory. A believer's death is precious in the sight of God, because it answers the prayer and satisfies the desire of God's well-beloved Son (John 17:24).
Children of God, let us learn to look upon our death and the death of our believing relatives and friends as the Lord does. We may sorrow because we miss them and feel our need of them. But we have no reason to weep for their sakes who die in the Lord. Death to a believer is a precious thing. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord!
The cleansing of this leper is recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke. Surely the Holy Spirit intends us to learn some specific lesson from it. This leper is held up as an example of the way in which a sinner must approach the Lord in order to obtain mercy. Let me show you how this man came to Christ.
1. This leper came to Christ with a deep sense of his personal need. He was a leper. According to the law, he was unclean, corrupt and defiled. He was an outcast of society. Luke tells us that he was 'full of leprosy'. There was no covering for his disease. From head to toe, he was defiled. The sure result of his disease was death. He could not help himself and no one else could or would help him. Do you need Christ?
2. This leper came to the Lord in great humiliation. Mark says, he came 'kneeling'. Luke tells us that he fell on his face at the Saviour's feet. He saw who and what he was. He saw who and what Christ is. And he was humbled. The way to Christ is the road of humiliation. If you would go up to heaven, you must come down in repentance.
3. This leper came to Christ confessing true faith. He called, Jesus 'Lord'. He knew that Christ is what he claims to be - Lord and King. And he knew that Christ could do what he claimed. He worshipped the man Christ Jesus as God ('Lord, thou canst make me clean'). Jesus Christ is God. He is Lord and King. He has power sufficient to save your soul.
4. This leper came to Christ in total submission. 'Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst.' He knew that the sovereign power of Christ is dispensed according to the sovereign will of Christ. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy. He ventured himself upon the sovereign mercy of Christ, saying, 'Lord, I know you have all power, do for me what you will according to your own great mercy. If he turns me away, I cannot be worse off than I am now. But he can make me whole. I must sue for mercy.'
5. This leper obtained mercy, and so may you! The Lord said, 'I will, be thou clean.' His healing was immediate and complete. God never has turned away one who came to Christ like this.
This name, by which God revealed himself to Abraham, may be translated by a number of expressions. But however you translate it, Jehovah-Jireh expresses the idea of the Lord seeing and being seen. In this place we are taught that our heavenly Father sees our need; and, with the foresight of divine love, he provides us with what we need in Christ, and in that provision God himself is seen. The ram which God provided as a substitute for Isaac was typical of God's own great provision of his Son as the Substitute for sinners.
Jehovah-Jireh means, 'The Lord will see.' God graciously saw our need as sinners. Seeing the ruin of our race by the fall of Adam, and our great need because of that fall, God pitied us. He saw our need as transgressors of his holy law. By nature we are all sinners, children of wrath, perishing under the sentence of divine justice, and God saw our great need. In this fact there is a ray of hope. Since God sees our need, we have hope that he will provide.
Jehovah-Jireh means, 'The Lord will provide.' Our God provided his own Son to be a Substitute for us, graciously and freely, simply because he loved us. And the provision was gloriously effective. The ram was slain in Isaac's place, so Isaac must go free. Even so, the Son of God was slain in the place of his people, and the very justice of God demands that they go free! At the very time when we were ready to perish, God said in his law, 'Lay not thy hand upon the lad!' A Substitute was provided to satisfy our need as guilty men.
Jehova-Jireh means, 'The Lord will be seen'. Go to Mt Calvary. There you see Abraham's prophecy fulfilled. There is God's glorious display of himself in justice and grace, in holiness and mercy, in wrath and love. Behold the revelation of God. Christ crucified is Jehovah-Jireh!
We may differ on many points. But in this one thing every true child of God is like every other child of God: 'We love him.' We do not love him as we desire. We do not love him as we know we should. We do not love him as we soon shall. But we do really love him. It is not possible for a man to experience the grace of God in salvation and not love the God of all grace. It is not possible for a man to know the efficacy of Christ's blood in his own soul and not love his gracious Redeemer. It is not possible for a man to have his heart renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit and not love the Spirit of life. In spite of our many weaknesses, sins and failures, we do honestly and sincerely confess, 'Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.'
We know also that we would never have loved him if he had not loved us first. The love of God for us precedes our love for him. 'He first loved us.' He loved us before we had any desire to be loved by him. He loved us before we sought his grace. He loved us before we had any repentance or faith. He loved us before we had any being. He loved us eternally. Does he not say, 'I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I called thee'? He chose us, redeemed us and called us because he loved us.
Not only does God's love for us precede our love for God, but God's love for us is the cause of our love for him. 'We love him, because he first loved us.' This heart of mine was so hard, this will was so stubborn, that I would never have loved the Lord, if he had not intervened to conquer me with his love. In the midst of my sin and corruption, he passed by, and behold it was 'the time of love'. He revealed his great love for me in Christ. As I beheld the crucified Christ, dying in the place of sinners, the love of God conquered this rebel's heart. Trusting Christ as my only Saviour, I am compelled to love him, because he first loved me. And now I know that whatever I am, by the grace of God, I am because he loved me. Tell me, my friend, is it not so with you?
This is the question that causes me most concern. Like other men, I am curious about the decrees of God and the events of the future. But this is the question which outweighs all others. I know that God is holy, righteous and just, and that I am a sinner. Soon I will stand before the bar of God's judgement and be weighed in the balances with his strict righteousness and justice. Woe unto the man who is found wanting in that day! How can a man be just with God?
I know this: I cannot justify myself. Job said, 'If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me.' It is not possible for me, (or any other man) to be justified before God by my own works. It is written: 'By the work of the law shall no flesh be justified.' Having once broken God's law, we can never make reparation.
This too I know: if ever I am justified, it will be by the work of God alone. The apostle Paul wrote, 'It is God that justifieth.' God can and does justify sinners. justification is a gracious work of God, accomplished through the shed blood of Christ, his Son. The Lord, Jesus Christ stood before God as the sinner's Substitute. He legally represented us before the law by the appointment of God himself'. The law required perfect obedience to its precepts. Christ rendered that obedience. The law required a full payment for sin. Christ paid the awful debt. This is the only way that God could forgive sin. His law had to be fulfilled. Therefore, Jesus Christ voluntarily assumed our nature and place. Since he fulfilled the law's righteousness and its penalty, all who ever believe were justified freely by his grace'. Through the blood of Christ, God is both just and the justifier of all who believe.
Yet it is equally clear that if I am justified, I must receive that justification by faith alone. My faith will not satisfy the law's requirements. Christ alone can do that. But as I rest in Christ and trust in the merits of his righteousness and shed blood, God declares that I am justified! 'All that believe are justified from all things.' 'We have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ.'
Never were three words spoken which are more precious, and at the same time more profound than these three blessed words of the apostle Paul: 'Christ is all.' Who can tell out the depth of their meaning?
Christ is all we need. We are sin; Christ is righteousness. We are filthiness; Christ is cleansing. We are naked; Christ is clothing. We are ignorance; Christ is wisdom. We are guilty; Christ is pardon. We are blind; Christ is healing. We are dead; Christ is life. Whatever there is that a poor, guilty sinner needs, it is found in Christ.
Christ is all before God. It has pleased the Father to put all the blessings of grace in his Son. Christ is the fulness of grace and glory. There is nothing that God will accept, except his Son. Christ is all God will accept for both the justification and the sanctification of his people. We must be washed in his blood, or we cannot be justified. We must be clothed in his righteousness, or we cannot be accepted before God. That righteousness which God imputed to us in justification is the righteousness of Christ alone. And the righteousness which God imparted to us in regeneration (the beginning of sanctification) is the righteousness of Christ. And the only righteousness that God will accept in the Day of judgement is the perfect righteousness of Christ.
Christ is all to all his people. Unto them that believe, he is precious. He is all that we desire. If I have Christ, I have enough. Christ is all to be trusted, loved, worshipped, served and honoured. Christ is all our hope, all our joy, all our peace, all our assurance and all our comfort. Christ is all in life, all in death and all in eternity. Yes, in heaven, Christ will be all. He will be all our beauty, all our glory and all our reward.
Our faith rests entirely upon the Word of God. If it could ever be proved that the Bible is not the inspired, inerrant Word of God, then the gospel of Christ would be proved false. But the infidel, though he may scoff, cannot ever produce such proof. The fact that the Bible stands today shatters every argument of those sceptics who deny that the Bible is the Word of God.
This blessed book is the greatest standing miracle in the world today. Just think of this: there was never an order given to any man to plan the writing of this volume. Nor was there any concerted effort on the part of men to write it. Under the sovereign direction of the Holy Spirit, the Bible gradually developed over a period of 1600 years. Little by little, part by part, century by century, it came out in parts and fragments. It was written on two continents, in countries hundreds of miles apart. It was written in three languages - Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. And it was written by scores of men, from every possible background variation. Yet it stands as one unified volume.
This is a book with one message. It contains one system of doctrine, one plan of salvation, one principle of conduct and one rule of faith. The one message of the Bible is that of redemption by the shed blood of Christ. Substitution is stamped upon every page. Everything in the Bible points to Christ and his substitutionary work.
There are historical statements in the Bible that could not have been known except by revelation: the account of creation, the decrees of God, the covenant of grace. And there are doctrines taught in the Bible which no human mind ever devised: the character of the triune God, the incarnation of Christ, substitutionary atonement. Add to this the perfect accuracy of the prophecies of the Bible and their evident fulfilment. I say there can be but one rational explanation for the existence of this divine book: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." Without question, this is the Word of God!
If Holy Scripture was a ring and the Epistle to the Romans its precious stone, chapter 8 would be the sparkling point of the radiant gem. Reading this chapter, I see several things that we who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ know.
1. We know that there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus (v. 1). Beloved, if we are in Christ, vitally, joined to him by faith, we are free from all condemnation. Do not allow Satan to deceive you. If you are in Christ all your sins are under the blood! Right now, we are free!
2. We know that all of God's children have the Spirit of God (v. 14). 'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.' The Holy Spirit is in us as the Spirit of life, adoption, comfort, guidance and prayer.
3. We know that there is a better day coming (v. 18). Today this earth is under the curse of sin. This world is a place of suffering, a Yale of tears. But soon our Lord will create all things new. In that day, his glory will be revealed in us.
4. We know that all things work together for the eternal good of God's elect (v.28). All things that take place upon this earth come to pass according to God's eternal purpose for the good of his people.
5. We know that every believer is perfectly and completely saved in Christ (vv. 29-30). There is nothing lacking, nothing left undone. Christ has done all. In our Representative we are loved with a perfect love, accepted, justified, called and glorified. God saves sinners in a way that causes his Son to get the glory. He is the Firstborn among many brethren.
6. And we know that nothing shall ever separate us from the love of Christ (vv. 35-39). Come what may, I stand convinced, he will never cease to love his own.
How can we be so sure of these things? Because God gave his Son, we know he will with him freely give us all things. 'What shall we then say to these things?' I'll say this: 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' And I'll say this also: "To God, be the glory, great things he hath done!'
This is a blessed promise concerning the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a promise given to those who look upon him with an eye of faith. Whatever it is that the Lord Jesus has undertaken to perform will most assuredly be accomplished. He cannot fail, because he is the Son of God. 'He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.'
1. Our Lord did not fail to fulfil every promise and prophecy of the Old Testament. Everything that was written concerning Christ was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.
2. The Lord Jesus Christ did not fail to magnify God's law and make it honourable (v. 2 1.) Living upon this earth as our Representative, the God-man perfectly obeyed the law of God, weaving for us a spotless robe of righteousness.
3. Our blessed Redeemer did not fail to make a full and complete satisfaction of divine justice for his people. It is blasphemous to suppose that the Lord Jesus Christ tried to redeem the souls of men who perish under the wrath of God. That would mean that he failed in his work! When Christ cried, 'It is finished', the work of redemption was finished. The justice of God's law and nature was satisfied in Christ for every soul for whom he stood as Surety.
4. The Good Shepherd will not fail to bring every sheep given to him by his Father into glory. All that the Father gave him, he will seek and they will come to him. And he will present us faultless before the presence of his glory.
5. King Jesus will not fail to reign until all his enemies are put under his feet. He will not fail to establish a perfect rule of righteousness upon this earth. In this place, where the battle was fought and won, the King must reign.
I believe in the final perseverance of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a glorious thought to comfort our souls: 'He shall not fail!'
This was the object of Paul's life, that for which he sacrificed everything: country, kindred, honour, liberty and life itself. Notice that this was not Paul's prayer as an unconverted man, that he might know Christ and be saved. This is the desire of a saved man, one who enjoyed the full assurance that his sins were pardoned and that he was 'accepted in the Beloved'. This is the desire of a regenerate soul, 'that I may know him'.
I am afraid that there are many very religious people who are content to live without knowing Christ. They can say with Paul, 'that I may win him and be found in him'. That they desire. But this higher aspiration has never stirred their hearts: 'that I may know him'. They are content to know the history of Christ's life, the doctrine he taught and the signs of his coming kingdom. These things are all good in their place. But the one thing needful is that we know Christ himself. This is my soul's desire. I hope that it is yours also, 'that I may know him'.
1. I want to know the glory of Christ's person, by a personal acquaintance with him.
2. I want to know the virtue of Christ's blood, by experiencing its efficacy.
3. I want to know the fellowship of Christ's sufferings by entering into the suffering of my Substitute with him. 4. I want to know the power of Christ's resurrection, by being raised by him to the newness of life.
5. 1 want to know the fulness of Christ's love, by experiencing and reflecting that love.
6. 1 want to know the peace of Christ's presence, by resting in his love, relying upon his promise and confidently trusting his faithfulness.
7. I want to know Christ himself! This is a knowledge that is given to them that believe. It is a spiritual knowledge of Christ that we desire (2 Cor. 5:16). The more we know him, the more we see how little we know him. But this I know, to know him is to love him. And soon, we shall see him as he is. Then, oh blessed thought, then, we shall know him!
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