the Third Week after Easter
Click here to join the effort!
Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Wherein ye greatly rejoice. - 1 Peter 1:6.
THERE are only three things really great in the universe,- God, the soul, and eternity; and, as religion has to do with them all, its dealings have something peculiar and superior to them all.
For instance, Do Christians hate themselves as they are depraved and defiled creatures? This hating is nothing less than loathing and self-abhorrence. Hence it is said, “They shall loathe themselves for all their abominations.” Hence Job says, “Behold, I am vile; wherefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes.” Or do they mourn? They “look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son, and are in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born!” Or do they fear? “He is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his saints.” Or do they rejoice? “Wherein they greatly rejoice.”
What more expressive of the greatness of this joy can we have than the language of David, when he says, “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted “? And in his admonition, “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous; and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.”
Why, it is expressed by the joy of harvest and of victory. “They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil!” It is held forth by the joy of marriage. “Behold king Solomon, with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.” And by the mother’s joy, “who forgetteth her anguish in the joy that a man is born into the world.”
So we read in the Scripture that this joy is everlasting also; and that it is “strong consolation;” strong enough to invigorate the trembling heart; strong enough to wean the soul from the world; strong enough to bear it up under its losses and distresses; strong enough to enable the believer to say, “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, the and fields shall yield no meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall he no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
Yea, and “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”
This is his name whereby he shall he called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. - Jeremiah 23:6.
TO whom does this passage refer but to the Son of God, “in whose days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely?” To him from whom we derive all our salvation and all our security. Let us, therefore, consider his personal title. He shall be called the lord our righteousness. The word is JEHOVAH, which is a name above every name. Our translators have rendered the word “Jehovah” by the word “Lord,” which is very inferior to the comprehensive idea of the original. The Scripture gives an honour to this name above every other by which the Divine nature is represented.
God, therefore, reserved the proclamation of it for the most illustrious revelation of his power and glory; and he applies this name to himself peculiarly and as incommunicable. And this name is given to him who came into the world to save sinners. In the New Testament it is paraphrased and expressed thus: “Him who was and is, and is to come-The Almighty.” Is he here called Jehovah? The language is strong, but his perfections allow it. His omniscience allows it- “The churches shall know that I am he who searcheth the reins and the heart.” His omnipresence allows it-“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” His unchangeableness allows it- “He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”
The language is strong, but his operations justify it. “All things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” “Without him was not anything made that was made.” The language is strong, but it accords with the worship demanded and received by him. When John fell at the feet of the angel to worship him, the angel said unto him, “See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow-servant.” Worship God. Worship him only and exclusively. When the Apostles came to our Saviour and said, “Lord, increase our faith,” he did not rebuke them; and Stephen, when dying, and being full of the Holy Ghost, and therefore not likely to be mistaken, prayed unto him, and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit;” and “lay not this sin to their charge.” Paul “besought the Lord thrice” when he had the “thorn in the flesh,” that it might depart from him.
And we know that it was to the Lord Jesus that he prayed, because he answered the prayer, and said, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” “Therefore, says the Apostle, “I will glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” And where, also, in other places, addressing the Corinthians, he says, speaking of the Saviour, “Their Lord and ours.” “To all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, both, theirs and ours.” And if men were liable to mistake, the angels are considered as infallible. And yet John heard them crying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” And they were authorized to do it, and they were commanded to do it; and if they could err, God could not, who enjoined it upon them, for “when he bringeth his first-begotten into the world, he saith, ‘Let all the angels of God worship him.’” The language is strong, but the occasion requires it. His greatness must be carried into every part of his work, as a Saviour.
Without this, how could he preserve what they committed to him against that day? Without this, how could his obedience be meritorious or his blood Divine? Or how could it be that One died for all, so that his death was an equivalent, and more than an equivalent, for the destruction of the numberless victims who would otherwise have perished? So we see this is not a mere speculation, but it is an indispensable truth in the Christian system.
