the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God
By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.- Ephesians 2:8.
Sleep is the image of death; every morning we awake is a kind of new life. In sleep, how insensible of danger! how unable to prevent it! The Lord’s mercies are renewed every morning; his watchful providence is our safety. Reflect, O my soul, upon the unmerited love of thy God! Happy for thee, daily to awake and arise from thy bed of slumber with the sense of free grace and sovereign love upon thy heart!
Temporal mercies are heightened and improved by a sense of spiritual and eternal blessings. Disciple, thou livest in a space of time in which thou mayest look back upon eternal love, look forward to eternal glory, and look upon thyself and see what wonders grace has done. Thou art this day called to consider how thou ART saved. First, in the purpose of thy God, ere thou hadst a being, everlasting love which gave thee existence, decreed thy salvation. Secondly, in accomplishment, grace provides a LAMB for thy ransom; in the fulness of time, a Saviour is born in human flesh; he lived for sinners, died for sin, "made an end of sin," made reconciliation for iniquity, brought in an everlasting righteousness; his expiring breath proclaimed, salvation work is FINISHED; but thy poor soul lay in nature’s darkness, in the sleep of death, and would have slept on till the arch-angel’s dreadful sound of the trumpet had wakened thee to everlasting shame and confusion; but impossible this: being saved in love’s decree, being redeemed by blood divine, grace challenged thy soul. Therefore, thirdly, thou art saved in enjoyment "through faith;" called by the word of truth; quickened by the Spirit of grace; Jesus’s salvation become the desire of thy soul; God gave his Son for thee; the Spirit gave faith to thee: hence Jesus became precious, sin hateful, thyself vile, holiness lovely in thine eyes and to thy heart; thus sinners ARE saved by grace through faith; they have no hand, no share, no glory at all in this matter; in the believing, abiding views of this grace, this salvation, consist all our peace, love, joy, holiness, heaven. Why then, O believer, art thou not perfectly, uninterruptedly happy and holy? Verily, because thou art still in the flesh; thy old man is still alive; nature’s pride and sinfulness daily resist the glory of grace and the exercise of faith: but in opposition to all, thou art to abide confident in the belief of the truth, daily study the love of thy God and Saviour; this tends to sink thee in humility; daily consider thy deserts to be hell, and adore the riches of sovereign grace; this will, through the blessing of the Spirit, keep thee from boasting in self, and cause thee to glory in the Lord only. "Salvation is of faith, that it might be by grace."- Romans 4:16.
Then said one unto him, LORD, are they few that be saved? Luke 13:23.
Peter’s fervent prayer, “Lord, save, or I perish!” was much better than this curious question. It was an unprofitable one. Suppose our Lord had given a direct answer to it, assured him there were but few that would be saved, and told him the exact number, what good would this querist have got by it? Learn hence, (1st.) that unprofitable questions are to be avoided. They proceed from a vain curiosity, and are proposed to gratify the itch of a speculative humour. Indulge no thoughts in thy mind above, beyond, nor contrary to what is written. They may amuse and perplex, but cannot edify thy soul. Observe, (2d.) the wisdom of thy Lord. He does not give a direct answer to this vain question, but improves it to general usefulness. As though he had said, Friend, thy question is impertinent. Thou art prying into a matter that concerns thee not! Thou hast a notion of salvation in thy head, and hast put a curious question from thy tongue, but thy heart is unconcerned about thy own salvation. Rather than answer thy unprofitable question, I will improve it to general use:-Strive to enter in at the strait gate. (3d.) Disciple, here is an admirable lesson for thee and me. Let us learn to improve every curious question into godly edification; nice and subtle distinctions, into practical and experimental conversation. You can scarce begin to speak of the grace of God and the salvation of Christ to poor blind sinners, but they will ask, Do not you hold the doctrine of election? I am persuaded, it would be best to follow our Lord’s conduct. Give no answer to the question. Set forth the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the deplorable state sinners are in, the absolute necessity of a Saviour: the matchless glory of his person, the riches of his love to sinners, the fulness of his salvation for them, and the need we have of faith in him, to be clothed in his righteousness, justified before God, and eternally saved by him. This, this is the way to instruct poor sinners’ minds, and to warm and enliven our own souls. Dry disquisitions promote jar and discord. Let Jesus, the strait gate, be in our view. “Let us consider the end of our conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:7-8.) Let us look to him every day and every hour, to save us from the deceitful pride of our hearts, the abominable wickedness of our nature, and from all our cursed lusts, which war against our souls.
This is our comfort, dearest Lord,
That ev’ry soul thou’ll save,
Who comes to thee with self abhorr’d,
Salvation for to crave.
Tho’ chief of sinners, Lord, I am,
Yet still I hope in thee:
O! suff’ring, loving, saving Lamb,
Save, save poor guilty me.
