August 19 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

Devotional

The spiritual life is above human nature. Therefore all the power of nature cannot inspire it.

Nature, we admit, can go far in imitating some of its characteristics. But nature cannot create the essential property or principle of this life.

Nature can produce an appearance of faith, as in the case of Simon Magus. It can produce an appearance of repentance, as in the case of Judas. It can produce an appearance of hearing the Word with joy, as in the case of Herod. It can even appear to taste the heavenly gift, and feel the powers of the age to come (Heb. 6:4–6). Human nature can do all this, and much more, and yet be human nature still.

But here its power stops. There is something which it cannot do. It cannot counterfeit the indwelling of Christ in the sinner's soul. It cannot enable a man to say, "I live, and Christ lives in me." This infinitely transcends its mightiest power.

Spiritual life, then, does not spring from human nature. Therefore, it cannot be produced by natural causes or means. No, it is from God. It is God who calls this new creation into being. It is God who pencils its wonders. It is God who enkindles its glories. It is God who breathes over it the breath of life. It is God's life in man's soul.

Thus the genuine Christian is one who can adopt the expressive and emphatic language of Paul; "I live." In other words, he can exclaim, "I live as an enlivened soul. I live as a regenerated soul. I live as a pardoned sinner. I live as a justified sinner. I live as an adopted child. I live as an heir of glory. I live, and I have never lived before! Until now my whole existence has been only as a blank. I never truly, really lived, until I died! I lived—if it may be called "life"—to the world, to sin, to the creature, to myself. But until now I never lived by Christ; and I never lived to God."

Oh tremendous truth! Oh sobering thought! for a soul to pass away into eternity without having answered the great purpose of its creation, without having ever really lived! With what feelings, with what emotions, with what plea, will it meet the God who created it? God will say, "I created you for myself, to glorify and enjoy me forever. I endowed you with gifts, ennobled you with abilities, and clothed you with powers second only to my own. I sent you into the world to expend those gifts, and to employ those abilities, and to exert those powers for my glory, and with a view to enjoying me forever. But you buried those gifts! You abused those abilities! You wasted those powers! You lived to yourself and not unto me! And now to yourself, and in everlasting banishment from my presence, you shall continue to live through eternity!"

O merciful Breath of the living God, come from the four winds and breathe upon the dead in order that they may live! Avert from the reader so dire a doom! Prevent from the reader so fearful a catastrophe! O gracious Father, please permit none whose eye lights upon this solemn page, to live any longer to themselves. O compassionate Savior, grant that they may instead live for you from this moment and forever. Grant that their solemn determination and their sublime motto may be this, "For me to live is Christ."

What tho' I cannot break my chain
or e'er throw off my load,
the things impossible to men
are possible to God.

(Augustus M. Toplady, 1740–1778)

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.