Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: February 27th

We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. - 2 Corinthians 5:4.

AND burdened with what? How numberless are the evils under which believers groan, and by which they are pressed down to the ground! It would be endless to particularize them, but we may arrange them under two classes. First, Those evils which Christians endure in common with their fellow-creatures. “For man,” says Job, “is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.”

Secondly, The burdens of the Christian comprehend those painful things that are peculiar to themselves,-the persecutions for Christ’s sake which they experience from the world, the temptations of Satan, and, above all, they groan, being burdened with their sins. “Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart faileth me.”

At the beginning of the Christian life, we are enabled, by application to the blood of sprinkling, to have the “conscience cleansed from dead works to serve the living God,” and to enter into rest with regard to justification; but then, after this, in the remains of them, sin continues to be burdensome to the Christian all through life, and will be increasingly burdensome in proportion as he is increasingly holy. Paul was a singular sufferer, but he did not speak of any of his sufferings as he did of this,-the sin that was still dwelling in him; that when he would do good evil was present with him; and how to perform that which was good he found not, and therefore he says, “Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Christians therefore groan often under moral infirmities. While the people of the world sneer at them as if they were licentious, as if they were always ready to plead for sin, Christians groan under the burden of those infirmities which their adversaries never feel as sins at all. You may lay any heavy load upon a dead man, and he does not feel the burden; you may drive a sword through his body, and he will neither move nor cry; but a living body feels the least pressure, and a mote in the eye will make the sufferer wretched for the time. So it is with the Christian.

Oh, there is enough here to induce Christians to groan, being burdened! It is said of that beautiful bird, the bird of paradise, that being once caught and caged it never leaves off sighing till it is set free. That bird is the Christian; he never leaves off sighing till he enters the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

We beheld his glory. - John 1:14.

HOW was this perception of the Redeemer’s glory realized? First, They saw his glory corporeally, with their bodily senses; they heard him in conversation and preaching. They saw his glory at his baptism, in his transfiguration, in. the miracles he wrought, in the garden of Gethsemane, at his crucifixion. How much of his glory did they see after his resurrection, and when he ascended to his Father, and the heavens received him out of their sight, and on the day of Pentecost? Before this “the Holy Ghost was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” “He hath showed forth this,” says the Apostle, “which ye now see and hear.” All these new tongues are his, and in the conversion of the three thousand they saw the glory of his power displayed in giving efficacy to the word of his grace.

They now saw his kingdom was not of this world, that his death, was a propitiation for sin, and that he was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. They not only saw the Saviour’s glory corporeally, but Spiritually too. Others saw the miracles, but believed not on him. But it pleased God, said the Apostle, to “reveal his Son in me.” And it is the same now; while he is revealed to others, he is revealed in his people. And according to the Saviour’s own word, “He that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, hath everlasting life.”

Are we able to make this acknowledgment? Can we say we have “beheld his glory?” for this is possible now. He is now to be seen by the eye of faith, and by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Yes, he is to be seen now in the gospel, in his house, in his ordinances, in his people, and in his works. If we have beheld his glory, then we have been abased in our own eyes; then the world has ceased to overcome us; then we can say with Paul, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of Christ Jesus my Lord;” and we shall exclaim with Doddridge:-

“Yes, thou art precious to my soul,

My transport and my trust;

Jewels to thee are gaudy toys,

And gold is sordid dust.”

Secondly, If we have seen his glory, we shall he concerned that others may behold him also; his love will constrain us to live not unto ourselves but unto him who loved us and gave himself for us. Then we shall resemble him. He will not only be our teacher but also our example. This is the essence of all religion, and this is what he himself enjoined. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.”