Daily Devotionals

'Every Day Light' with Selwyn Hughes

Devotional: February 19th

For Reading and Meditation:
     Matthew 5:21-26

"God';s wrath," said George MacDonald, "is always judicial. It is always the wrath of the Judge administering justice. Cruelty is always immoral but true justice - never." Those who experience the fullness of God's wrath get precisely what they deserve. That may sound hard, but it is true. There is great wisdom in the words of our Lord in the passage before us today. Settle matters with an adversary, He says, before he drags you to court. Do at once what you must do one day. As there is no escape from payment, escape at least from the prison sentence that will enforce it. The point our Lord is making is that we ought not to drive justice to extremities. God requires righteousness of us. It is utterly useless to think we can escape the eternal law. Yield yourself rather than be compelled. To those whose hearts are true, the idea of judgment is right; to those whose hearts are untrue, the idea of judgment is wrong. Many people live under the illusion that perhaps it might be possible to find a way of escaping all that is required of us in this world. But there is no escape. A way to avoid the demands of righteousness, apart from the righteousness which God accounts to us at the Cross, would not be moral. When a man or woman accepts the payment God has made for them in Christ, the whole wealth of heaven is theirs; their debt is cleared. Those who deny that debt, or acknowledging it do nothing to avail themselves of the payment made on Calvary, must face at last an unyielding Judge and an everlasting prison.

O Father, how serious and solemn is all this - but yet how true. Sin must ultimately be punished. I am so grateful that You have shown me that in Christ my debt has been paid, and availing myself of Your offer I am eternally free. Blessed be Your Name forever. Amen.