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April 6 Daily Devotional

He Goes Before into Galilee

Frans Bakker

But go your way; tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee. —Mark 16:7

Bible Reading

Mark 16:1–8

Devotional

The disciples forsook Christ. They experienced what the poet says, “Thy servant like a sheep has gone astray.” The sheep can run away from their Shepherd, but on their own, they cannot return. They can lose the Shepherd, but they cannot find Him again. They can fall but they cannot rise.

There is hope for sheep that have gone astray. There is a message of grace from the empty grave for wandering sheep, and for fallen sinners. We, like sheep, have gone astray. We forsook God in Paradise. We lost God because we have deserted Him. Even after we receive His rich grace, we lack faith and run away from God’s loving arms. We have committed wickedness against a good God. Will God still have anything to do with such people? Is our condition by nature not totally lost? These are questions which greatly distress the soul.

But what they never dared to expect actually happened on the day of the resurrection. The Shepherd sought His lost sheep. He knows His own even when they no longer wish to be identified with Him, for He does not have a people from whom He expects so much. And yet, He wants to give them in abundance.

Oh, unworthy, lost, and uncomforted ones, the power of His resurrection surpasses all your expectations. The King Himself leaves a message behind for you personally. He is, in fact, a Shepherd of lost sheep. He desires to bring you into His fold of love and forgiveness. He is not angry at the sheep that run away, but lovingly gathers them to Himself.

Go along then with the disciples to Galilee; that is, to the place where you have known better times. Perhaps it was so good there that you could never imagine how far you could fall away from God. Therefore, you must go along with the disciples, with your same unfaithfulness and shortcomings. Go along as the same deserters and sinners. Bring nothing in your own estimation and remain as nothing in yourself. That is how it must be; it cannot go another way. You must go to Him as you are.

So it must be, but what is more, so it also may be. The risen Christ opens the way Himself, for He says that He would go before them into Galilee. He will be there before the disciples. He will wait for them there and show Himself to them at His appointed time. What fullness of grace the exalted Christ displays in that He goes ahead to wait for sinners, sinners who must say of themselves that now they have made themselves totally unworthy to meet the Savior.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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