February 19 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9).

Devotional

How little we associate our most valued mercies—and even those which we regard as more ordinary (although every mercy is infinitely great)—with the humiliation of our Lord! How seldom we trace our happy moments, our hallowed joys, our high delights, our precious privileges to this dark part of his eventful history! And yet all flow to us through this very channel. Except for this, they would never have been ours.

Whenever the ocean of his goodness rolls in upon me, wave on wave; whenever I feel the cheering warmth of creature smiles beaming sweetly and fondly; whenever I review, one by one, my personal, household, and familial mercies; whenever even the cup of cold water, presented by the hand of Christian kindness, moistens my lips, what thought forces itself upon my mind? All this springs from the deepest humiliation of my adorable Christ!

And when I ascend to the higher region of grace and survey the blessings so richly and so freely bestowed—a rebel subdued; a criminal pardoned; a child adopted; a royal priest anointed; union with Christ; covenant relationship with God; access within the Holy of Holies; conformity to the Divine image; still more deeply am I overwhelmed with the thought—all this proceeds from the infinite abasement of the incarnate God!

And when I ascend even higher, and passing from grace to glory, contemplate the heaven of bliss that awaits me—in one moment absent from the body of sin and present with the Lord; away from the world (beautiful though it is because God has made it, yet the throne of Satan), the empire of sin, the scene of sorrow, pollution, suffering, and death; eternally shut in with God, where all is joy and all is holiness—made perfectly holy and consequently perfectly happy; to sin no more; to sorrow no more; to weep no more; to wander no more; to fall no more—oh, how full of glory then the humiliation of my incarnate Lord becomes!

Beloved, whenever God exalts you, remember that it is because your Savior was abased. Whenever your cup is sweet, remember that it is because his cup was bitter. Whenever you press your blessings fondly and closely to your heart, remember that it is because he pressed his heart to the spear. And whenever your eye of faith and hope looks forward to the coming glory, oh, never forget that because he endured your hell, you will enjoy his heaven!

Man of Sorrows! what a name
for the Son of God, who came
ruined sinners to reclaim:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned he stood,
sealed my pardon with his blood:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Guilty, vile, and helpless, we;
spotless Lamb of God was he;
full atonement! can it be?
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Lifted up was he to die,
"It is finished!" was his cry:
now in heav'n exalted high:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

When he comes, our glorious King,
all his ransomed home to bring,
then anew this song we'll sing:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

(Phillip P. Bliss, 1838–1876)

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.