Lectionary Calendar
Friday, March 29th, 2024
Good Friday
There are 2 days til Easter!
Attention!
Partner with StudyLight.org as God uses us to make a difference for those displaced by Russia's war on Ukraine.
Click to donate today!

Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Devotional: February 3rd

Resource Toolbox
Morning Devotional

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. - 2 Timothy 1:12.

THE apostle, in the prospect of that day, deposited something in the Redeemer’s hand. Let us inquire what this deposit was. It is evident it was something personal, and something in which he acted as a believer. And it is not necessary to exclude any thing from the transaction, but principally we are to understand the eternal concerns of the soul. And if this required any confirmation, it may be derived from Stephen the Protomartyr, who, when he was dying, said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;” and from the experience of David, who in an hour of danger said, “Into thy hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, Lord God of truth.” The act means, therefore, simply believing.

Various are the views given us, in the Scriptures, of faith in the Son of God. When the sacred writers spoke of faith, they never placed it before the people in the nakedness of metaphysical abstraction. They described rather than defined, and exemplified rather than described. One thing we may observe, that in all their representations of faith they made it to have to do immediately and expressly with the Lord Jesus. But then they held forth this faith as clothed in attributes and varied in its actings. Sometimes this faith was a “coming” to Christ -sometimes a “fleeing” to him-sometimes a “receiving” him -sometimes a “trusting” in him-and here a “committing” of the soul into his blessed hands; this is the evidence, this is the consequence, of real faith; and there is no one single term that enters so fully into the nature of saving faith, as confidence or trusting in Christ. The apostle’s representation of faith here will remind us of several things. The committing our eternal all into his hand implies, in the first place, conviction. The man before was deluded by error and blinded by ignorance, but now the eyes of his understanding are opened. Now he is convinced of the value of his soul, and sees that the worth of it is beyond all comparison, according to the language of our Saviour:- «”What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” He is now convinced of the danger of the soul: it is ready to perish,-not as to the physical destruction of its being or powers, but as to the destruction of its welfare, its happiness, and its hopes. And now, too, he is convinced of his inability to save his own soul; he sees and he feels that he cannot atone for his offences-that he cannot furnish for it a justifying righteousness in which to appear before God-that he cannot renew and sanctify it, without which it can never enter into the kingdom of God.

And this act implies also, Secondly, A concern for its security and welfare. His language now is, “How shall I come before the Lord, and bow before the high God? What must I do to be saved?” Before it was chiefly, “What shall I eat? and what shall I drink? or wherewithal shall I be clothed?” But a man who is acting as Paul did always, “against that day,” he would be ready to say, “It is of little importance what becomes of this poor body: let the worms devour it, let flames consume it, let the sea engulf it, let wild beasts feed upon it, provided my soul is safe in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

The act of committing the soul to Christ also implies application to the Redeemer for the purpose of salvation. O thou Restorer of the human race! let this ruin be under thine hand. O thou heavenly Physician, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. O thou Refuge from the storm, and Covert from the tempest, oh, receive and shelter me.

Fourthly, It implies submission. The man is resigned to his method of salvation. This committing of the soul to his hands is as much an act of resignation as it is of application; and it is absolutely necessary; for, though the Lord Jesus is ready to undertake our case, we should remember one thing:-that he will have the whole management of it, or he will have nothing to do with it. And a convinced sinner is brought to this; who is brought to say, “Lord, I yield to thy pleasure; I must indeed be saved: but, O Lord, I am not come to dictate nor to prescribe; make known thy will, and I acquiesce.”

Evening Devotional

The Word was made flesh. - John 1:14.

NO one for a moment can doubt that this refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. Observe two things. First, His peculiar denomination, “The Word.” John is the only one of the sacred writers who speaks of him under this name; but this does not render it less worthy of regard, for “he wrote as he was moved by the Holy Ghost.” Three things appear to be derived from John’s use of the title, “The Word.”

First, That it is intended to mark a person. Nothing can be more false or forced than the meaning given by the Socinians, that it here means the wisdom of God. How could the wisdom of God be made flesh, and dwell among us? And how could we behold this as the only begotten of the Father?

Secondly, The term indicates previous existence. When it is said the Word was made flesh, it conveys the idea that he was something else before.

Thirdly, It is designed to mark a Divine person. The name given to God is expressly given to him. Creation is ascribed to him. All this could not have been affirmed of him, as a mere creature, or a super-angelic being. John here declares that he was Gob; and that he was the source of all life and existence.

Observe, His incarnation, “The Word was made flesh,” which is saying that he became man. But he did not cease to be God in order to become man. Union is not transmission. As he was God before, so he could not cease to be God after, he took upon him our nature; “for he took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham.” Hence the Scriptures ascribe many things to him which will not apply to his Divine nature, or agree with his human nature separately. “Unto us a child is given.” This does not refer to him as God. “And his name shall be called Wonderful.” This does not refer to him as man. It is not the humanity of Christ that was from everlasting; and it is not the divinity of Christ that hung and suffered on the tree. So that there is neither contradiction nor impossibility in the incarnation of the Son of God; but it is a mystery, and will perhaps ever remain so. And what is not a mystery? There is a mystery in the wind. Every blade of grass, and every part of matter is a mystery. And “great is the mystery of godliness: God manifest in the flesh.” And the Apostle makes it to be of so much importance, as to be the medium of our salvation.

It is thus the Deity is brought down to our apprehension and to our reach. Thus he becomes what he could not else have been-our example. Thus he is able to sympathize with us in our distresses. Thus he would suffer, bleed, and die, and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Subscribe …
Get the latest devotional delivered straight to your inbox every week by signing up for the "Mornings and Evenings with Jesus" subscription list. Simply provide your email address below, click on "Subscribe!", and you'll receive a confirmation email from us. Follow the instructions in the email to confirm your subscription to this list.
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile