Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: January 17th

The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. - Zephaniah 3:17.

SAVE from what? This is not mentioned; this was not necessary. Save from penury-from the scourge of tongues-from bodily sickness-from family bereavements? Yes, if it be good for us. But there are cases which will require the sacrifice of these instead of their preservation. No; deliverance from temporal evil is not absolutely promised; it could not have been absolutely promised; if it had, it would have turned the promise into a threatening. Could we ourselves have wished God to promise temporal advantages, whether they should be good for us or whether they should he evil? Surely we could only have asked God to engage to give them if good for us, and to beg him to refuse if he foresaw they would be evil.

This he has promised, and so far they are sure. “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Christians will not be saved from death,-that is, from the stroke of death; but they will from the sting. They will not be saved from the grave,-that is, from entering it; but they will from continuing there. But we may observe that this salvation, though not exclusively, is principally, spiritual and eternal. “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.” “They shall not be ashamed or confounded, world without end.”

If guilty, then, this salvation shall justify us; if unholy, it shall renew us; if blind, it shall open our eyes, and make us wise unto salvation. If poor, it shall enrich us, and if destitute, it shall bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But are they not saved already? Does not the apostle say, “By grace are ye saved”- “He hath saved you, and called you with an holy calling”? Yes, assuredly they are saved already, because the whole of the salvation is insured, and the whole of the salvation is begun.

But yet there is a great difference between the purchase and the application of salvation-between the commencement and the completion of it. But, it may be said, if persons are saved, can they be more than saved? Not as to their state, but as to their experience. Surely they may know more of the salvation, feel more of it, rejoice more in it, and communicate more of it to others. What! can a man be more justified than the believer is now before God? No, but then he may apprehend him more clearly and fully, and realize the privilege, and no longer write bitter things against himself, and, knowing that he is justified by faith, have peace with God and peace within-peace in the court of conscience, as well as in the court of heaven.

Is not the Christian already sanctified? “Among whom are ye the sanctified?” says the Apostle Peter. But, though the work is begun, it is not perfected; it will be carried on against the day of Jesus Christ. Every thing here is progressive, whatever some may say to the contrary. There is first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. There is the dawn and the shining unto perfect day. The righteous “hold on their way, and was stronger and stronger;” they are “renewed day by day,” and are “changed from glory into glory.” Hence the church prays, “Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.”

And hence David pleads, “Thou wilt perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever; forsake not the work of thine own hands.”

O Lord, I will praise thee. Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Isaiah 12:1.

THOSE who have tasted the bitterness of alienation have enjoyed the luxury of renewed and restored sentiments of friendship and tenderness. But what is peace with a friend, with a brother, or a father, compared with peace with God? “In his favour is life,” and “his lovingkindness is better than life.” Who can describe the calm after a tremendous storm? It is a “peace which passeth all understanding.” It is angels’ food. It is more-

“Never did angels taste above,

Redeeming grace and dying love.”

Angels never knew what it was to have a “certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation” to be delivered from; they never felt the anguish of a wicked conscience, and therefore they never felt the sunshine of rising hope beaming upon their distressed Spirits; but the Christian by faith, placing his arms around the cross, can say with the Apostle, “We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atonement.”

“Believing, we rejoice

To see the curse remove;

We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,

And sing his bleeding love.”