September 4 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"...and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 1:4).

Devotional

The resurrection of the Redeemer substantiated the truth of his Godhood. His miracles had already strongly demonstrated his divine Sonship. Yet there was still another evidence, the crowning one of all—the resurrection. This one evidence put the final seal upon the truth of his Deity.

If Jesus stayed dead, then all that he had previously said, predicted, and done would prove—as his enemies would have asserted—only to have been the ruse of a scheming man attempting to exploit the credulity of a few devoted, but deluded, followers. But his return to life on the exact day which he had predicted—breaking from the cold embrace of death and the imprisonment of the grave by the exercise of his divine power—put to rest forever the question of his Deity. It powerfully declared him to be the Son of God. Oh, how truly and properly divine does he now appear!

All the previous attestations of his Godhood were awe-inspiring and convincing. His life was one succession of the most astonishing and brilliant achievements of divine power and goodness. He healed diseases. He restored sight. He cast out demons. He raised the dead. He hushed tempests. He stilled winds. His death was marked by portents of terrible and surpassing wonder and sublimity. The earth heaved beneath his feet. The sun darkened above him. The graves opened around him.

Yet his Godhood had never shone forth with such demonstrative power and resplendent glory as when he broke forth from the tomb and rose triumphant over hell, death, and the grave. Then he fulfilled this prediction and redeemed this pledge—"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). Receding for a while from communion with life—as if to create a pause in nature which would awaken the interest and fix the gaze of the intelligent universe upon one stupendous event—he disappeared within the very domain of the "king of terrors," wrapped around him its shroud and darkness, and laid himself down. Essential Life was locked in the embrace of death. Immortality slumbered in the tomb! But he rose again! Bursting from the cold embrace, and awakening from the mysterious slumber, he came back to life all radiant, immortal, and divine!

O saint of God! Do you need further evidence that your faith has trusted no cunningly devised fable? Do you need stronger evidence that he to whose guardianship you have committed your precious soul is able to keep it until the morning of our own resurrection-glory? Behold it in the risen life of the incarnate God! He has come up from the grave to make good all his previous claims to Deity, thus to encourage and confirm your belief in the truth, dignity, and glory of his Person, and to assure you that "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame" (Rom. 10:11). Now you may take up the triumphant strain, as it falls from the lips of the departing apostle, prolonging it until another shall catch it from your expiring tongue, "I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what I have entrusted to him" (2 Tim. 1:12).

Praise the Savior now and ever;
praise him all beneath the skies;
prostrate lying, suffering, dying
on the cross, a sacrifice.
Victory gaining, life obtaining,
now in glory he doth rise.

Man's work faileth, Christ's availeth;
he is all our righteousness;
he, our Savior, has for ever
set us free from dire distress.
Through his merit we inherit
light and peace and happiness.

Sin's bonds severed; we're delivered;
Christ has bruised the serpent's head;
death no longer is the stronger;
Hell itself is captive led.
Christ has risen from death's prison;
o'er the tomb he light has shed.

For his favor, praise for ever
unto God the Father sing;
praise the Savior, praise him ever,
Son of God, our Lord and King.
Praise the Spirit; through Christ's merit,
he doth us salvation bring.

(Venantius Fortunatus, c. 530–609; tr. by Augustus Nelson [1863–1949])

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.