Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: September 20th

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. - 1 Corinthians 12:4.

MEN have always been wishing for uniformity; and, in religious concerns, how many have been sacrificed to that Moloch! While men have always been seeking after uniformity, God has always been producing variety. There is variety in the heaven of heavens,-cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers. There is variety in the skies:-“One star differeth from another star in glory.” There is variety in the seasons,-morning and evening, summer and winter, spring and autumn. There is variety in the productions of the earth,-in the forest, the field, and the garden. It would be strange, therefore, indeed, if we had nothing but sameness and equality and uniformity in the church of God. But it is otherwise: there are differences,-numerous differences.

If the subjects of divine grace are examined, there will be found differences among them. There are differences in their natural talents: one excels in memory, another in judgment, another in speech. There are differences in their natural tempers: some are sanguine and warm, others are cold and phlegmatic; some are bold as a lion, others are timid as a dove. In this view, what a difference was there between the severe Toplady and the candid Doddridge,-between the rough Knox and the mild Leighton, -between the forward Peter and the retiring John! There are differences in their very graces too: we have more zeal in one, more humility in another, more resignation in a third, more liberality in a fourth, and so of the rest. One is weak in faith, another is strong; one has a trembling hope, another possesses the “full assurance of hope:” yet all are partakers of His grace.

There are differences in their destinations, in their appointments, in their functions. One man is called to do a public work, and a public work requires great talents and strong passions, and he is furnished with them; another is called to move in private and domestic life, and he is fitted by those gentle qualities which embellish and adorn it. Now, let us observe what use the apostle makes of this diversity in the church of God. He applies it to two purposes. The first is to encourage those who feel that they are not what others are, but are yet parts of the same body too. “If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, is it therefore not of the body?” And then he applied it also to prevent pride and disdain among those who view others as not equal to themselves. “The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; nor, again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you.”

Let us, then, operate according to our position, according to the functions to which God hath called us, according to our ability and our opportunity.

In whom we have redemption through his blood. - Ephesians 1:7.

REDEMPTION supposes a price; and here we see

“The precious price that bought us

Was his atoning blood.”

Observe, first, It is here only a poor burdened conscience can find relief. Under a sense of guilt, by the blood of the cross we can approach the footstool of mercy, and bow before the most high God. He hath showed us what is good. We hear the voice that cries: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” And it is this that constitutes the gospel glad tidings of great joy. It assures us that “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin.” There are those who have made the trial of it, and can therefore speak of its sufficiency from their own experience. By believing they have entered into rest; not only have their consciences been tranquilized, but they even joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, “in whom we have redemption through his blood,” and “by whom they have now received the atonement.” Let us follow their example, and say-

“Jesus, my great High Priest,

Offer’d his blood and died;

My guilty conscience seeks

No sacrifice beside.

His powerful blood did once atone,

And now he pleads before the throne.”

Observe, secondly, That the love of the Saviour as herein displayed should powerfully impress our minds. The monarchs of the earth have often sacrificed the lives of their subjects for the safety of their own. Yea, and when their own has not been in danger they have immolated thousands and millions on the altar of their pride and vanity and revenge. Where was one of them ever to be found who gave his life for the lives of his subjects? But it is said of Jesus that “he shall save the souls of the needy,” that “precious is their blood in his sight.” He said himself, “I give my life for the life of the world.” “Herein is love”-truly “greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus has done this. He has done more-he died for his enemies.

Lastly, If “in him we have redemption through his blood,” we are not our own. What a man has purchased is surely his own. If he has purchased us, we have no right in ourselves to anything we are, or anything we have, but we belong entirely to him. And what a clear and undeniable claim has he to the whole. It is here he has wooed and here he has won. It is here he has drawn, and here he binds us “with the cords of a man and the bands of love.” It is, as Cowper says, “a soul redeemed,” and therefore passes through the world perpetually singing, “To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever.”

And let this be said not only “by our lips, but also by our lives,” “by giving ourselves up to his service and by walking before him in holiness and righteousness all our days.”