Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: April 9th

This do in remembrance of me. - Luke 22:19.

HOW many persons who would be considered Christians live in the neglect of this command! Sometimes this neglect may be greatly influenced by superstition; it may arise from the disproportionate share of solemnity and danger they attach to the same in distinction from all other religious ordinances and exercises. They read that “he who eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body;” and they do not remember that he who sings, and that he who reads, and he who hears, and he who worships, and that he who attends any other religious ordinance or exercise, unworthily, also increases his sin and condemnation. And if these persons were to act consistently they would turn their backs upon them all.

We read in the Gospel of Matthew, “When the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding-garment; and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding-garment? and he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away and cast him into outer darkness.” This they read; but why do not they read what the king did to those who did not comply with the invitation? What did he do with these? “He sent forth his armies and destroyed them.” Therefore neglect is as critical and dangerous, yea, it is more so than improper attendance.

Is there any thing hard in this command? If we had a dear departed friend who had left us an emblem or memorial of himself, should not we highly prize it? Suppose it to be the picture of that friend, and that it represented him in the act of dying in consequence of his endeavouring to save us from fire or from flood; and suppose he delivered this to us with his own dying hand, saying, “When this you see, remember me,” and we should throw it into the lumber-room, and there leave it, and never wipe off the dust or bring it forth to look upon it and kiss it and weep: what would be thought of our kindness to the memory of that friend? And such a memorial have we in the Lord’s supper. It is the only representative of him he has left in the church. He exhibited it when dying. He delivered it on the same night in which he was betrayed. Jesus then took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat this my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.”

Is he not worthy of everlasting remembrance? Is not his death of such importance that it can never be exhibited enough, exposed enough? Have not his people found that walking in this commandment has been profitable and delightful, in reference to which they have said, “I sat under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet unto my taste”? And when the dear picture has been presented before them, they have been thrilled with holy joy, and have said,-

“Let all our sacred passions move

While we rehearse his deeds.”

I will raise him up at the last day. - John 6:44.

OBSERVE first the specialty of the privilege. For it may be asked-“Will he not raise all at the last day? He will; but that cannot be considered a deliverance which raises a man from a bad state and consigns him to a worse; which takes him from worms and casts him into flames. The wicked are not raised hereafter from the same principle as the righteous, nor are they raised under the same kind of dispensation. They are to be raised as criminals, not to be set free, but to be judged, and punished for the deeds done in the body. So that though the resurrection be a universal event, it is a special and limited privilege. Unquestionably the privilege is to be taken exclusively, that in comprehending all that precedes it, and subserves it, and that is necessary to it, it takes in the perseverance of believers to the end of life, their victory over all Spiritual enemies, and the raising up the body at the resurrection. The resurrection is not only apart of this blessedness, but it is the completeness of it, the principal part. We see how far the Redeemer carries his concern on behalf of his people. As he will lose no one of them, so he will lose no part of them. He has ransomed the body as well as the soul, and he will reclaim them; and “the temple of the Holy Ghost,” though demolished for a time, he will re-edify; it will be raised infinitely improved. The same body, but oh, how superior; not after the model of Adam’s body when he came from his Maker’s hands in Paradise, but “after the image of the heavenly.” This is the privilege.

Observe also the Author of it. He is not only the model of the resurrection of his people, but the accomplisher of it. And in his humiliation he knew this sublime destination, he knew that his voice was to awaken all the dead, that he was to raise them up, and judge them all, and to assign them their proper portions. The Apostle, therefore, fixes upon the ability, which it is necessary for us to recognise here- We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it maybe fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself .” Then, finally, the certainty of the privilege, “I will raise him up at the last day.” It is, moreover, as sure as it can be made. As his power renders him able, as his love makes him willing, so his word has bound him down, for though we could not bind him, he has condescended to bind himself. And his people can depend upon him as a faithful and true witness, especially as they know that there is such a union between him and his people that he cannot be complete without them, that where he is there shall also his servants be, that where the head is there must the members be.

And he has said, “Because I live ye shall live also.”