Daily Devotionals

Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God

Devotional: November 29th

Giving thanks to the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.- Colossians 1:12.

Too many of God’s dear children seem to abound more in complaining of what they find and feel in themselves than in praising God for what he hath done for and in them. Why is this? They do not live enough in their own kingdom; they do not enough consider their own privileges; they dwell not enough upon the rich love of God their Father to them; the free-grace of Jesus their Redeemer FOR them, and the work of the comforter IN them. But, what from a sense of their corruptions, the devices of Satan, the sight of the spirituality of the law, the legality that is in them, they cannot think themselves made meet for God’s kingdom; therefore they do not praise God for it. Say, O ye sons and daughters of the Most High, is this right? What! because you find sin abound in you, will you not give praise that grace doth much more abound towards you and IN you also? Consider, God the Father HATH made us meet. Who? Us vile sinners. How? by taking away the being of all sin in us? No, no more than by taking us out of the body. If we never have meetness for glory till all sin is perfectly destroyed in us, we shall never begin the work of praise till we get to glory. But praise is a present work for what God HATH already done in us. First, "God HATH delivered us from the power of darkness." The prince of darkness no more blinds our eyes to the evil of sin, the curse of the law, the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus, and the preciousness of his salvation. For, secondly, "God HATH translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." We are out of the kingdom of nature, sin, pride, and unbelief; we live under the spiritual reign of JESUS. Therefore, thirdly, we possess all the graces of this kingdom; FAITH in the king of saints, love to the king of saints, and "love to all the saints;" to all our fellow-sinners, who confess Jesus the Son of God, and salvation by him ONLY. Is sin our burden? Christ our glory, our life of holiness? Is holiness the desire of our souls? we have light, life, faith, love, holiness; then God HATH made us meet for the enjoyment of his glory. Nay, we do enjoy him NOW. We have fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, therefore, we are now to give him thanks; we shall never have any other meetness for heaven on earth, though greater degrees of the comforts of this may be experienced. O my soul, art thou no longer in the darkness of sin? Satan’s slave? under the curse of the law? blinded by pride to the charms of Jesus? tied and bound by the chains of unbelief? an enemy to God’s grace, his truth, and his people? "O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name, for thou hast done marvelous things." etc.- Isaiah 25:1.

I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. Romans 7:9.

Would you read the best experience of a true believer in Christ, that ever was written? Here it is in this chapter. Try your own. Judge of others by this. Commend me to a holy, humble Paul’s experience. If we are taught by the same Spirit, ours will answer to his, as face does to face in a glass, in the following particulars. (1st.) A sense of sin will be revived in the conscience, which no human palliates, or lulling opiates can keep in a swoon any longer. You will so see, feel, and be sensible of its dread and terror, that you will confess yourself to be totally destroyed by it, and your case to be quite desperate under it. (2d.) This is effected by the law. “For by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20.) “When the commandment came.” That is, when the purity and spirituality of the holy and perfect law of God comes into your heart and conscience, then you see that it requires truth and perfection of obedience in the inward parts, as well us in the outward walk. You see you have it not: you find it is as much impossible for you, a sinner, to fulfil God’s holy law, as it is for you to create a world. Then, (3d.) you die. You become as a dead man. Seeing the exceeding sinfulness of sin in you, and the dreadful curse of the law hanging over you, all hopes of life forsake you. Sin and the law live within you. They pierce your soul to the quick. The law adds strength to sin. You can no longer flatter yourself, that your state is good, that you can do any thing to bring yourself upon good terms with God. You have now done with all works of righteousness to that end. You can have no more hope upon your obedience to the law, than from your transgressing against it. You see yourself sin in all that you are, and in all that you do. But, (4th.) the hand of the Comforter is in all this. His loving design is to bring you to live by the faith of the Son of God. Instead of looking to and living by your own righteousness, you are to live wholly and solely upon his life, and by his righteousness. But while alive without the law, and striving to fulfil the law, you reject Christ-slight his righteousness-think your own better to trust in than his. Now the Spirit keeps alive sin and the law in you for this very purpose, to make you wretched in self and happy in Christ. All experiences that do not effect this, are not worth a straw. Christ, is the end of the law for righteousness, to every one who believeth. Romans 10:4.

When dead in sin, I was alive

And strong in legal confidence;

But Christ who lov’d me would not leave

My mind to rest on such pretence.

Think, O my soul, with grateful joy,

When legal terrors thee distress-

Christ sav’d thee from the fi’ry law

By his own death and righteousness.