July 13 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed" (John 17:4–5).

Devotional

Having finished his work, made the great atonement, and eternally secured salvation to all the covenant seed, it was fitting that the Son of God should return back to glory. Heaven was his original and proper place; he was but a stranger and a sojourner here. He had willingly bent his steps towards earth as the field of his labors, the scene of his humiliation, and the theater of his conflict. But now that his labors were finished, now that his humiliation had passed, now that his battle was fought and his victory won, he as readily hastened from all below.

Oh, what stronger ties, what more powerful allurements, did earth have than heaven for Jesus? All to him had been toil and suffering, trial and sorrow. His pilgrimage had been wearisome and his life laborious, humiliating in its every scene and painful in its every incident. The best and fondest creatures had disappointed him. The most promising sources of created good had failed him. And the hour of his deepest necessity and woe found him treading the wine-press alone, forsaken by man and deserted by God! A putrid atmosphere of sin had enveloped him on every side. Forms of suffering and pollution each moment flitted before his eye. Sounds of blasphemy and woe fell upon his ear at each step. Wherever he turned, he saw his Father's name dishonored, his Spirit grieved, his own dignity outraged, his teaching despised, his gospel rejected, and his authority trampled under-foot by men swearing allegiance to a rival sovereign.

What greater, sweeter, and holier attractions, then, did earth have than heaven for Jesus? His resurrection from the dead was his preparation for glory. Leaving the garments of mortality in the forsaken tomb, he wrapped around him the robe of immortality, and, poised to go, awaited only the signal for his heavenly flight. All that now remained for him to accomplish was to authenticate the fact of his resurrection, put his church in a position to receive the promised Spirit, breathe his parting blessing, and then ascend to glory.

Heaven was his home, loved and longed for! How sweet to him were its recollections! How hallowed its associations, heightened by their contrast with the scene from which he was now retiring! There, no curse, no sorrow, no suffering, no tears, and no indignity awaited him. All was one expanse of glory, all one pavilion of happiness! Bright was the landscape stretched before his view; fragrant the breezes and soft the music that floated from its fields and arbors.

But far above all the glory suggested by the most splendid imagery, rose—in spiritual and surpassing grandeur—the seat, the altar, and the throne which, as Prophet, Priest, and King, he sighed to occupy. A more perfect investiture of him in these offices, a more complete establishment of his mediatorial dominion, awaited him. All power in heaven and on earth had given to him; now all things were to be put in subjection under him; and all beings, from the loftiest angel in heaven to the lowest creature on earth, were to acknowledge his government, submit to his sovereignty, worship, and "crown him Lord of all."

All hail the power of Jesus' Name!
let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all.

(Edward Perronet, 1779, 1780, alt.)

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.