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daily devotional
Evening ...
Isaiah 41:9
Thou art My servant; I have chosen thee.
If we have received the grace of God in our hearts, its practical effect has
been to make us God's servants. We may be unfaithful servants, we certainly are
unprofitable ones, but yet, blessed be His name, we are His servants, wearing
His livery, feeding at His table, and obeying His commands. We were once the
servants of sin, but He who made us free has now taken us into His family and
taught us obedience to His will. We do not serve our Master perfectly, but we
would if we could. As we hear God's voice saying unto us, "Thou art My
servant," we can answer with David, "I am thy servant; Thou hast loosed my
bonds." But the Lord calls us not only His servants, but His chosen ones-"I
have chosen thee." We have not chosen Him first, but He hath chosen us. If we
be God's servants, we were not always so; to sovereign grace the change must be
ascribed. The eye of sovereignty singled us out, and the voice of unchanging
grace declared, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Long ere time
began or space was created God had written upon His heart the names of His
elect people, had predestinated them to be conformed unto the image of His Son,
and ordained them heirs of all the fulness of His love, His grace, and His
glory. What comfort is here! Has the Lord loved us so long, and will He yet
cast us away? He knew how stiffnecked we should be, He understood that our
hearts were evil, and yet He made the choice. Ah! our Saviour is no fickle
lover. He doth not feel enchanted for awhile with some gleams of beauty from
His church's eye, and then afterwards cast her off because of her
unfaithfulness. Nay, He married her in old eternity; and it is written of
Jehovah, "He hateth putting away." The eternal choice is a bond upon our
gratitude and upon His faithfulness which neither can disown.
Morning ...
Colossians 2:9, 10:
In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in
Him.
All the attributes of Christ, as God and man, are at our disposal. All the
fulness of the Godhead, whatever that marvellous term may comprehend, is ours
to make us complete. He cannot endow us with the attributes of Deity; but He
has done all that can be done, for He has made even His divine power and
Godhead subservient to our salvation. His omnipotence, omniscience,
omnipresence, immutability and infallibility, are all combined for our defence.
Arise, believer, and behold the Lord Jesus yoking the whole of His divine
Godhead to the chariot of salvation! How vast His grace, how firm His
faithfulness, how unswerving His immutability, how infinite His power, how
limitless His knowledge! All these are by the Lord Jesus made the pillars of
the temple of salvation; and all, without diminution of their infinity, are
covenanted to us as our perpetual inheritance. The fathomless love of the
Saviour's heart is every drop of it ours; every sinew in the arm of might,
every jewel in the crown of majesty, the immensity of divine knowledge, and the
sternness of divine justice, all are ours, and shall be employed for us. The
whole of Christ, in His adorable character as the Son of God, is by Himself
made over to us most richly to enjoy. His wisdom is our direction, His
knowledge our instruction, His power our protection, His justice our surety,
His love our comfort, His mercy our solace, and His immutability our trust. He
makes no reserve, but opens the recesses of the Mount of God and bids us dig in
its mines for the hidden treasures. "All, all, all are yours," saith He, "be ye
satisfied with favour and full of the goodness of the Lord." Oh! how sweet thus
to behold Jesus, and to call upon Him with the certain confidence that in
seeking the interposition of His love or power, we are but asking for that
which He has already faithfully promised.
Galatians 5:4-6
(4) Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are
justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. (5) For we through the Spirit
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. (6) For in Jesus Christ neither
circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by
love.
Paul makes another contrast. What avails a person is faith working
through love. These three verses are important because they introduce "Spirit"
and that "faith works through love." Faith works. It works through-meaning "by
means of"-love. In other words, if a person really has faith in the right
things and the right Person, he will produce what? Love!
What is the Bible definition of love? "For this is the love of
God, that we keep His commandments" (I John 5:3). That is beautiful! Similarly,
Paul is saying that, if we really believe in the right things and the right
Person (that is, have faith), then it will produce the keeping of the
commandments.
The evidence of our faith, then, is in whether or not we keep His
commandments. John tells us that the basis of love is commandment-keeping. It
is not the whole picture, because emotion, feeling, is also tied to it, but we
have to begin somewhere, and the bottom line is keeping the commandments.
Another statement that proves that Paul was not doing away with
law keeping comes right from this context. The word "Spirit" reflects on a
subject he dealt with earlier. The enemy-Judaistic Gnostics-believed that their
calling and election by God came because they had the law and kept it. But Paul
is saying, "No. We are drawn to God by His Spirit," which is what Jesus says in
John 6:44.
Also, truth is revealed by God's Spirit (I Corinthians 2:10-16;
John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13), so our calling has nothing to do with our works.
Romans 9:16 tells us that it is not of him who wills or of him who runs, but of
God who shows mercy. Thus, we are in this position because God, by His Spirit,
has drawn us. He, by His Spirit, has revealed Himself, His Word, and the
purpose of life to us. Our calling and election are completely a work of grace.
At the point of our calling, law-keeping has nothing to do with it, but comes
into play later when we our faith works through love.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 28)
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