September 3 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27–28).

Devotional

As God-man Mediator, Christ is able to keep his people. As the covenant Head and Preserver of his church, "in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Col. 1:19).

The Father knew what his beloved family would need. He knew what corruptions would threaten them. He knew what temptations would beguile them. He knew what foes would assail them. He knew what infirmities would encompass them. He knew what trials would depress them. Therefore it pleased him, it was his own good and gracious pleasure, that in his Son, the Mediator of his beloved people, should all fullness dwell—a fullness of merit, a fullness of pardon, a fullness of righteousness, a fullness of grace, a fullness of wisdom, and a fullness of strength corresponding to the varied, multiple, and diversified circumstances of his family. It is "all fullness."

As the Mediator of his people, then, he keeps them in perfect safety by night and by day. No man, no power, can pluck them out of his hands. He has undertaken their full salvation. To die for their sins, and to rise again for their justification, and yet not to provide for their security while traveling through a world of sin and temptation—to leave them to their own guardianship, an unprotected prey to their own heart's corruptions, the machinations of Satan, and the power of worldly entanglement—would have been but a partial salvation of his people.

Opposed by a threefold enemy—Satan and the world in league with their own imperfectly renewed and sanctified hearts, that treacherous foe dwelling within the camp, ever ready to betray the soul into the hands of its enemies—how could a poor weak child of God bear up and overcome this powerful phalanx?

But he, who was mighty to save, is mighty to keep. In him provision is made for all the trying, intricate, perilous circumstances in which a believer may be placed. Grace is laid up for the subjection of every inbred corruption. An armor is provided for every assault of the foe—wisdom, strength, consolation, sympathy, kindness—all that a poor believing sinner can possibly require is richly stored in Jesus, the covenant Head of all the fullness of God to his people.

But how is the child of God to avail himself of this provision? By the simple but glorious life of faith. By faith the believer travels up to this rich and ample supply.

By faith take your nothingness to Christ's all-sufficiency.

By faith take your unworthiness to Christ's infinite merit.

By faith take your weakness to Christ's strength.

By faith take your folly to Christ's wisdom.

Your fearful heart, your timid spirit, your nervous frame, your doubtful mind, your beclouded evidences, your rebellious will, your painful cross—your particular case, whatever it may be—in the way of believing, in the exercise of simple faith, go with it to Jesus. And as an empty vessel hang yourself upon that "nail fastened in a sure place" (Isa. 22:23), the glorious Eliakim on whom is hung "the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons" (Isa. 22:24).

Thus may the weakest believer, the most severely assailed, the most deeply tried, the most painfully tempted, lay his Goliath dead at his feet, by a simple faith's dealing with the fullness that is in Christ Jesus.

Oh, how mighty is the believer who, in deep distrust of his own power, casts off from him all spirit of self-dependence and looks simply and fully at Jesus, who goes forth to meet his enemy only as he is "strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might" (Eph. 6:10).

Make me a captive, Lord,
and then I shall be free;
force me to render up my sword,
and I shall conqueror be;
I sink in life's alarms
when by myself I stand;
imprison me within your arms,
and strong shall be my hand.

My heart is weak and poor
until it Master find;
it has no spring of action sure—
it varies with the wind;
it cannot freely move
till you have wrought its chain;
enslave it with your matchless love,
and deathless it shall reign.

My power is faint and low
till I have learned to serve;
it lacks the needed fire to glow,
it lacks the breeze to nerve;
it cannot drive the world
until itself is driven;
its flag can only be unfurled
when you shall breathe from heaven.

My will is not my own
till you have made it thine;
if it would reach a monarch's throne,
it must its crown resign.
It only stands unbent
amid the clashing strife,
when on your bosom it has leaned,
and found in you its life.

(George Matheson, 1890; mod., 2009)

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.