November 16 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Acts 3:1–10

Devotional

In the name of Jesus there is deliverance! We can be delivered from sin, which is the cause of life’s miseries. There are countless consequences of sin in this world. Thousands can sit beside the crippled man at the gate of the temple and tell their own story of misery and sorrow. There are many complaints and much weeping in this world.

If sin, the cause of our misery, is not removed, then we remain subject to all kinds of misery, yes, even to eternal condemnation. Indeed, every person must experience what this beggar experienced. The real cause of his distress, sin, is removed. He has physical difficulties, but his real misery is his spiritual condition. Jesus takes care of both!

Ultimately, this man is an image of you and me. We, too, are spiritually paralyzed. We are nothing more than spiritual beggars who have to live off what is given to us. Our condition is a result of our sin. Sin paralyzes. That means that spiritually we cannot take one step on the path of God’s commandments. But sin also degrades. We have been degraded from being children of the King, as we were before our fall in Paradise, to being beggars. That is how the crippled man at the gate called Beautiful displays the image of us all. Therefore, why would a man complain about the consequences of sin? Let each one of us rather complain about the cause of sin.

By nature we think that gold and silver, prosperity and success, health and fun will help us. But with all this your sins are not yet paid for. Your sins have to be blotted out of God’s book. Only the name of Jesus can do that.

Those who realize that sin has degraded and paralyzed them, and who are troubled by the cause of their misery, are the ones who need the name of Jesus. Oh, what precious joy is present in the soul when spiritual healing occurs! “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people; thou hast covered all their sin” (Ps. 85:2).

Do you know what the result is when there is an awareness of the cause of misery? Man is deeply humbled, for he realizes the impossibility within himself of being saved. He sees his lost condition and that salvation lies outside of him. Then the blood of Christ becomes precious. Paul, in his epistles, states that the blood of Jesus is more precious than silver and gold, for only blood can take away the cause of our misery.

 

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.