the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Now are we the sons of God. - 1 John 3:2.
BELIEVERS are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection, called so because then every thing will be displayed and revealed. It will then “appear what they shall be.” But now under all their disadvantages they are the “sons of God.” Every thing is not future with the Christian. He is now saved by grace; believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is justified from all things, from which he could not have been justified by the law of Moses. Now, though they are despised, and reproached, and persecuted by the world. The apostle had just said, “The world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” It does not discern the excellency of the Christian character; even the apostles were regarded “the filth and offscouring of all things.” And the Saviour himself “was despised and rejected of men.” Therefore, said he, “Marvel not if the world hate you: ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
Even in their elevated and sanctified condition they may suffer much in their persons, connections, and circumstances. This is so far from being incompatible with sonship that the apostle says, “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” And again, “If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons.” Now, though assailed hy the enemy of souls. Some of God’s children are ready to say, “As to temptation, I think none know so much of it as I. The enemy of my soul follows me into the closet, and into the house of God, and even to the Supper of the Lord; he embitters all my comforts, and I fear will destroy my soul at last.” But he never will; although
“He worries whom he can’t devour,
With a malicious joy.”
Believers are the sons of God even when they are destitute of inward peace and joy. When Isaiah describes a believer as one “who feareth the Lord, and obeyeth the voice of his servant,” he at the same time represents him as “walking in darkness, and having no light.” David says, “Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” And the church thus expresses herself:-“I will wait upon him who hideth himself from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.”
Yes, Christians are now the children of God, though full of doubts and fears. They should always exercise the fullest confidence in God; yet what wonder is it if they should feel self-suspicious, after being so often betrayed by the enemy of souls! self-delusion is not only possible, but as common as it is dreadful. Therefore let us seek to exercise holy confidence in the power and grace of God. How much does our peace of mind depend upon our thus realizing that we are “the sons of God”!
The host of the Lord. - Joshua 5:14.
HAVING noticed the historical circumstances connected with the passage, let us now derive from it a subject which may be found profitable. It regards two things. First, “The host of the Lord;” and this will apply to the Israel of God now: they are so called because of their number. Now they are a multitude; and hereafter they will be found to be “a number which no man can number;” and because they are in a state of martial discipline, arrangement, and order, and readiness for conflict.
Thus the Church is held forth by Solomon, “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” The Book of the Lord reminds us that they are now in a state of warfare. And the Christian life is in a very peculiar sense a warfare; and there is no one image more frequently employed in Scripture in describing the partakers of Divine grace, than the image taken from the condition of a soldier. Paul therefore, speaking to his son Timothy, says, “Warring a good warfare,” “fighting the good fight of faith;” and when he takes his final review of life, he not only says, “I have kept the faith, and I have finished my course, but I have fought a good fight.”
And in the addresses to the seven Churches of Asia there is a promise, a glorious promise, made to each of them; it is made in each instance to him that overcometh. There is an obvious truth and force in the metaphor; and the Christian finds that it corresponds with his experience. He is called not only to work and to walk, but to fight; and he finds that he can neither walk nor work without fighting. The world is a foe to the Christian, not only by its persecutions; the friendship of the world is enmity with God; its smiles are much more dangerous than its frowns.
The world is only one of the enemies that the Christian has to contend with; for, says the Apostle, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities; against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against Spiritual wickedness in high places.” “Our adversary the devil goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour:” and “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit;” there is the “evil heart of unbelief, that departeth from the living God,” there is “the sin that dwelleth in us,” enfeebling all our powers.
It is not a trifling nor an easy conflict which every Christian is engaged in now; he must be constrained to say with the Apostle, “So fight I not as one that beateth the air;” that is, I am not like one vapouring away, while the enemy is at a distance, and brandishing my weapons in a feigned combat. I have to beat not the air but the adversary; we have closed upon each other; it is a dreadful struggle, and I must conquer or be conquered and undone for ever. There is much to be said of this warfare which cannot be said of any other. This will bear examination.
This is a just and necessary war; the cause is truth and righteousness and peace; and the issue will be glorious.
