January 15 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Christ is all, and in all" (Colossians 3:11).

Devotional

Anything—even the blessings of the Holy Spirit—that takes the place of Christ is dangerous. Anything that shuts out Christ from the soul is dangerous. In the great work of salvation, Christ must be everything or nothing. Pardon and justification must be drawn from him solely, from him entirely, from him exclusively.

Whatever, then, rises between the soul and Christ—whatever would tend to satisfy the soul in his absence, whatever would take his place in the affections—must be surrendered.

Is it like plucking out a right eye? You must yield it. Is it like cutting off a right hand? Let it go. Christ in his Godhead, Christ in his humanity, Christ in his great and finished work, Christ in his mediatorial fullness, must be all in all to you, O believer.

Christ, of all my hopes the ground,
Christ, the spring of all my joy,
still in thee may I be found,
still for thee my pow'rs employ.

Let thy love my heart inflame;
keep thy fear before my sight;
be thy praise my highest aim;
be thy smile my chief delight.

Fountain of o'erflowing grace,
freely from thy fullness give;
till I close my earthly race,
may I prove it "Christ to live."

Firmly trusting in thy blood,
nothing shall my heart confound;
safely I shall pass the flood,
safely reach Immanuel's ground.

Thus, O thus, an entrance give
to the land of cloudless sky;
having known it "Christ to live,"
let me know it "gain to die."

(Ralph Wardlaw, 1817)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.