December 26 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38–39).

Devotional

The love of the Father is seen in giving us Christ, in choosing us in Christ, and in blessing us in him with every spiritual blessing. Indeed, the love of the Father is the fountain of all covenant and redemptive mercy to the church. It is that river whose streams make glad the city of God.

How anxious Jesus was to vindicate the love of the Father from all the suspicions and fears of his disciples! "I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you..." (John 16:26–27). "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son..." (John 3:16).

To this love we must trace all the blessings that flow to us through the channel of the cross. It is the love of God, exhibited, manifested, and seen in Christ Jesus. Christ is not the originator, but the gift of his love; not the cause, but the exemplar of it.

Oh, to see a perfect equality in the Father's love with the Son's love! Then shall we be led to trace all his present mercies, and all his providential dealings—however trying, painful, and mysterious—to the heart of God; thus resolving all into that from which all alike flow—the everlasting and unchangeable love of God.

It is from this love that there is no separation. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" The apostle had challenged accusation from every foe, and condemnation from every quarter; but no accuser rose, and no condemnation was pronounced. Standing on the broad basis of Christ's finished work and of God's full justification, his head was now lifted up in triumph above all his enemies round about.

But it is possible that, though there is no fear of condemnation in the believer's heart, there yet may exist the latent fear of separation. The collective dealings of God with his church, and his individual dealings with his saints, may at times present the appearance of an alienated affection of a lessened sympathy.

The age in which this epistle was penned produced much suffering for the church of God. And if any period or any circumstances of her history boded a severance of the bond which bound her to Christ, this was the period, and those were the circumstances.

But with a confidence based upon the glorious truth on which he had been discoursing—the security of the church of God in Christ—and with a persuasion inspired by the closer realization of the glory about to burst upon her view, with the most dauntless courage he exclaims, "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Just as I am, without one plea
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd'st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

(Charlotte Elliott, 1836)

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.