September 17 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3).

Devotional

When does this knowing God begin? It begins in reconciliation. It begins when peace with God begins. I cannot associate with someone against whom my heart cherishes deep, entrenched, and deadly enmity. My very hatred of him keeps me from studying his character and from knowing how he feels towards me. But bring me into a state of friendship with that individual—take away my enmity towards him and appease his indignation against me—and then I will be in a position to get acquainted with him.

This is precisely what the Holy Spirit does in us. He takes away the enmity of the sinner's heart. He humbles his spirit. He brings it to bow down in penitence. He constrains the sinner to lay down the weapons of his hostility against God. He brings him to see that the God against whom he has been fighting all his life is a God of love, a God who draws sinners to himself, a God who is reconciled in Jesus Christ. That soul, disarmed of its rebellion and enmity, is now brought into a position to learn to know God. Looking at God now—not through the law, but through the gospel, not in creation, but in Christ—he is in a position to get acquainted with God.

And oh what an acquaintance he now forms! All his dark and shadowy conceptions vanish away. All his distorted views are rectified. And the God whom he thought to be a God so hateful, a God whose law was so repulsive, a God who was so harsh and tyrannical, he sees now to be a God of infinite mercy and love in Jesus Christ. Now he gets to know him as a sin-pardoning God, a God who blots out every last trace of his transgressions. He gets to know him as a God reconciled in Christ, and therefore a Father pacified towards him. Oh! what a wonderful discovery he makes of God, with whom he had previously lived in the darkest and deepest alienation! Thus he gets to know God when his heart becomes reconciled to God.

A closer and more simple view of Jesus, a daily study of Jesus, must deepen my acquaintance with God. As I know more of the heart of Christ, I know more of the heart of the Father. As I know more of the love of the Savior, I know more of the love of him who gave me that Savior. As I know more of Jesus' suffering to work out my redemption—the drops of blood he shed, the groans of agony he breathed, the torment through which he passed, the death-throes of his spotless soul—I know more of the heart of God, more of the character of God, and more of the love of God.

Do you want to see more of the glory of God? Then look for it in the face of Jesus (2 Cor. 4:6). Look for it in the "radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (Heb. 1:3). It stands revealed to you in the person and in the work of Jesus Christ.

I've found a Friend, O such a Friend!
He loved me ere I knew him;
he drew me with the cords of love,
and thus he bound me to him;
and round my heart still closely twine
those ties which nought can sever,
for I am his, and he is mine,
for ever and for ever.

I've found a Friend, O such a Friend!
He bled, he died to save me;
and not alone the gift of life,
but his own self he gave me!
Nought that I have mine own I'll call,
I'll hold it for the Giver,
my heart, my strength, my life, my all
are his, and his for ever.

I've found a Friend, O such a Friend!
All pow'r to him is given,
to guard me on my onward course,
and bring me safe to heaven:
eternal glory gleams afar,
to nerve my faint endeavor:
so now to watch, to work, to war;
and then to rest for ever.

I've found a Friend, O such a Friend!
So kind and true and tender,
so wise a Counselor and Guide,
so mighty a Defender!
From him who loves me now so well
what pow'r my soul can sever?
Shall life or death, shall earth or hell?
No! I am his for ever.

(James G. Small, 1866)

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.