December 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God' " (John 3:5).

Devotional

It is utterly impossible that God would admit a sinner into heaven with his carnal mind unchanged.

Suppose an opposite case. Imagine an unrenewed soul suddenly transported to heaven. Instantly he finds himself in the light and holiness and presence of God. What a scene of wonder, purity, and glory has burst upon his gaze! But, awful fact! Horror of horrors! He is confronted face to face with his great enemy—the God he hates, loathes, and has denied! Is he composed? Is he at home? Is he happy? Impossible! He enters the immediate presence of the living God, his heart rankling with the virus of deadly hate, and his hand clutching the uplifted weapon. He carries his sworn malignity and his drawn sword to the very foot of the throne of the Eternal. "Take me away," it exclaims, "this is not my heaven!" And then he departs to "his own place" (Acts 1:25).

But the case we are supposing is impossible. For it is written of the heavenly city, "But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev. 21:27).

Listen to the declaration of the Great Teacher sent from God, "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Do you ask what this new birth means? We reply, you must become a new creature in Christ Jesus. You must lay down your arms before the Eternal God of heaven and earth. You must give up the quarrel. You must relinquish the controversy. You must cease to fight against God. You must submit to the law and government of the LORD. Your will must bow to God's will. Your heart must beat in unison with God's heart. Your mind must harmonize with God's mind. Implacable hatred must give place to adoring love, deep ungodliness to a nature breathing after holiness, stern opposition to willing obedience, the creature to the Creator, yourself to God.

Oh blissful moment when the controversy ceases, and God and your soul are at agreement through Christ Jesus! When, dropping the long-raised weapon, you grasp his outstretched hand, and rush into his expanded arms, fall a lowly, believing penitent upon his loving bosom, take hold of his strength, and are at peace with him.

Oh, happy moment! No more hatred, no more enmity, no more opposition now! It is as though all heaven had come down and entered your soul—such joy, such peace, such love, such assurance, such hope do you experience! What music now floats from these words, "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1)! How blessed now to lean upon the breast which once you hated, and find it a pillow of love; to meet the glance which once you shunned, and find it the expression of forgiveness; to feel at home in the presence of him to whom once you said, "Depart from me, for I do not desire the knowledge of your ways"!

But it is utterly impossible for the sinner to produce this change in himself. It is a miracle of God's grace when the soul fully acquiesces in the moral government of God! "The Lord God omnipotent reigns" becomes the adoring anthem of every heart brought into subjection to the law of God. To the born again Christian how settling is the thought that the government is upon Christ's shoulders, and that he sits upon the throne judging rightly.

His heart is now brought from hostility to the law of God to a joyful acquiescence in its precepts, and to a deep delight in its nature. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man." "O Lord," he exclaims, "my holiness is in submission to your authority. My happiness flows from doing and suffering your will. I rejoice that the scepter is in your hands, and I desire that the thoughts of my mind and the affections of my heart may be brought into perfect obedience to yourself. Let my soul be your kingdom, let my heart be your throne, and let grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life."

Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King:
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!"
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with th'angelic host proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King."

(Charles Wesley, 1739)

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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.

 

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