July 12 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Cor. 15:10).

Devotional

We should always take care to distinguish between the denial of self and the denial of the life of God within us. The most entire renunciation of ourselves, the most humiliating acknowledgment of our personal unworthiness, may at the same time harmonize with the strongest assurance and profession of Christ living in us. Self-denial does not necessarily involve grace-denial. It is the profoundest act of humility in a Christian man to acknowledge the grace of God in his soul. Never is there so real a crucifixion, never so entire a renunciation of self, as when the heart—in its lowly but deep and grateful throbbings—acknowledges its indebtedness to God's sovereign grace, and—in the fervor of its adoring love—summons the whole church to listen to its recital of the great things God has done for it—"Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul" (Ps. 66:16).

Oh yes! it is a self-denying life. Listen to Job—"I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). Listen to Isaiah—"Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" (Isa. 6:5). Listen to the penitent publican—"God, be merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke 18:13). Listen to Paul—"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). In this way a sense of sin and a believing sight of Christ lays the soul low before God in self-renunciation and self-abhorrence.

Dear reader, judge your spiritual condition by this characteristic of the inner life. Is it yours? Have you renounced both your sinful self and your righteous self? Has the Spirit of God emptied you? Has the grace of God humbled you? Has the life of God crucified you? Are you as one in whom Christ lives, walking humbly with your God? Oh, it is the essence of vital godliness; it is the very life of true religion.

If Christ is living in you, then you will be a humble soul. Pride never existed in the heart of Christ. His whole life was one act of the profoundest self-abasement. In the truest and in the fullest sense of the emphatic declaration, "he humbled himself" (Phil. 2:8). It is impossible, then, that he who was thus "gentle and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11:29) can peacefully coexist with one whom "pride is [his] necklace" (Ps. 73:6).

"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" are two states of the renewed soul; they are as inseparable as any cause and effect. A humble and a self-denying Christ produces a humble and a self-denying soul. Examine yourself accordingly. Do your gifts inflate you? Does your position exalt you? Does your usefulness engender pride? Has the honor and distinction which God or man has placed upon you turned you aside from the simplicity of your walk and set you upon the work of self-seeking, self-advancing, so that you are not gentle and lowly, child-like, and Christ-like in spirit? If so, then be sure of this—either you are not a partaker of the life of Christ, or else that life is at a low ebb in your soul. Which, do you think, is your real state?

Jesus, merciful and mild,
lead me as a helpless child:
on no other arm but thine
would my weary soul recline.
Thou art ready to forgive,
thou canst bid the sinner live;
guide the wand'rer, day by day,
in the strait and narrow way.

(Thomas Hastings, 1858)

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 2011.