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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Devotional: April 8th

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Morning Devotional

We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. - Romans 5:11.

WHATEVER the people of the world may imagine, religion is the highest wisdom: “her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;” and “wisdom is justified of all her children.” The service religion demands is founded upon principles that will bear the strictest investigation. It is a reasonable service, and hence it is enjoined on all Christians to be “always ready to give a reason of the hope that is in them with meekness and fear.” And the Christian’s joy proceeds from knowledge; and therefore David says, “Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound: in thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” There is no joy-not even the joy of hope-apart from the gospel.

Now, when a man is convinced that he is a sinner, and condemned by the righteous law of God, which says, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them,” it is impossible for him to rejoice, even in hope, till he can see God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses; nor can he be happy until he knows that he is “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Oh, what a burden is laid upon the conscience when we are thus awakened!-a burden too heavy for us to bear. What a burden had poor Christian, as he travelled on from day to day, till he came within sight of the cross,-when he saw this his burden was loosed from off his shoulders and rolled into the sepulchre! To dismiss allegory, the Christian is thus “justified by faith, and has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yea, “he rejoices in Christ Jesus, and has no confidence in the flesh.” Thus, as Cowper says,-

“To see the law by Christ fulfill’d,

And hear his pardoning voice,

Changes the slave into a child,

And duty into choice.”

Though our safety does not depend, yet our comfort does, upon clear and full views of the gospel, of our acceptance with God, of the manner of our justification, of our safety, and of the certainty of our perseverance even to the end, and of our becoming more than conquerors “through him who hath loved us.” Therefore we joy in God in proportion as we are receiving this knowledge of salvation by Jesus Christ. Therefore it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,-that is, the doctrine of grace: and thus may we go on our way rejoicing.

Evening Devotional

He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. - Romans 4:25

THE importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is often expressed in the Scriptures, but the importance of it is not seen by viewing the fact itself, or considering it separately. All we hope to derive from the mediation of Jesus Christ, or from the official relation he sustains, depends upon his resurrection, and is nothing without it. It is there we have the clearest evidence of his Messiahship, because he is thereby declared to be the Son of Cod, with power; it is there we see him victorious over all the powers of darkness.

Enoch and Elias never grappled with death; they slipped into heaven by a flowery way. But it was otherwise with the Messiah. Death seized him, and dragged him into his den, but there he was strangled himself, and the destroyer of death came forth in triumph, and proclaimed, “I am the resurrection and the life.” It is there we see the worth, the all-sufficiency, and the acceptableness of this sacrifice. It is there we have evidence that his death was an offering and a “sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savour.” “He raised him up from the dead and gave him glory” for that purpose.

In his discharge from the grave we may read our own discharge from the curse of the law; and hence we read that an angel came and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre. He could have done this himself, but it would have looked like a prisoner breaking away from his prison, and endeavouring to escape by stealth, whereas now he who had imprisoned him as the surety of his people releases him. He has made the payment, and his resurrection from the dead is a receipt in full for the deliverance of his church, by his suffering for them. Therefore it is said, “He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Therefore, says the Apostle, “who is he that condemneth? it is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” It is there we behold him, the source of Spiritual life, awaking, and sanctifying, and enlightening, and renewing his people by the Holy Spirit, which he died to obtain, and which he rose to possess and to communicate. It is there we behold him, as the model and principle of our resurrection.

When he died, we died in him; when he rose, we rose with him; when he was quickened, we were quickened together with Christ, and raised, and made to sit with him in heavenly places. Our glory, if we belong to him, necessarily follows his; he would not be complete without us. Where the head is, there shall also the members be, and the Apostle assures us that “if, when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

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