July 27 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Jesus answered him, 'What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will understand hereafter' " (John 13:7).

Devotional

Oh, that "hereafter." Is there a hereafter, then? Jesus says there is; and I believe it because he says it.

What a solemn word to the ungodly! That hereafter will be terrible to whoever dies in his sins. It will be a hereafter whose history will be written in "words of lamentation and mourning and woe" (Ezek. 2:10). Dear reader, if you live and die impenitent and unbelieving, then it would have been better for you if you had never been born! It would have been better for you if there was no hereafter. But there is a hereafter! It is a hereafter of woe to the sinner, as it is of bliss to the saint—"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matt. 25:46). Dear reader, "seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isa. 55:6–7).

The hereafter will be wonderful to whoever dies in Christ. The position which the believer will occupy will favor a clear grasp of the mysteries of his earthly journey. The "clouds and thick darkness" (Ps. 97:2) which now envelop God's throne and enshroud his government of the saints, will part. The mist and fog will vanish. Breathing a purer atmosphere and canopied by a brighter sky, the glorified saint will then see every object, circumstance, incident, and step with eyes no longer obscured by sin, and no longer dimmed by tears. "Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known" (1 Cor. 13:12).

And what will you know? You will better understand the mysteries of providence. Then you will see that things which had deeply grieved you were actually causes of the greatest joy. Clouds of threatening, which appeared to you charged with the agent of destruction, will then reveal the love that they concealed in their bosoms.

You will better understand the mysteries of faith, too. "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known" (1 Cor. 13:12). The great "mystery of godliness" (1 Tim. 3:16) will develop and unfold its wonders. His everlasting love to his church, his choice of a people for himself, his sovereign grace in calling them—all will shine forth with unclouded radiance to the eternal praise of his great and holy Name. Oh, what a perfect, harmonious, and glorious whole will all his doings in providence and grace appear, from first to last, to the undimmed eye, the enraptured gaze of his white-robed, palm-bearing church.

We may gather many and holy lessons from this subject. The first is the lesson of deep humility. There are three steps in the Christian's life—the first is humility; the second is humility; the third is humility. In veiling his dealings, Jesus would "conceal pride" from you (Job 33:17). In "leading the blind in a way that they do not know" (Isa. 42:16), he teaches you to trust the knowledge, truth, and goodness of your Divine escort—and that trust is the calm unquestioning repose of faith.

God moves in a mysterious way
his wonders to perform;
he plants his footsteps in the sea,
and rides upon the storm.

(William Cowper, 1774)

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.