December 28 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Galatians 2:17–21

Devotional

When in mercy the Lord passed by and saw us kicking about in our blood, he first of all said, “Live” (see Ezek. 16:6). And he did this first because life is one of the absolutely essential things in spiritual matters. Until life is bestowed we are incapable of partaking in the things of the kingdom.

Now the life that grace confers upon the saints at the moment of their new birth is none other than the life of Christ himself, which, like the sap from the stem, runs into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection between our souls and Jesus. Faith is the grace that perceives this union, having proceeded from it as its first fruit. Faith is the “neck” that joins the body of the church to its all-glorious Head.

“Oh Faith! thou bond of union with the Lord,
is not this office thine? and thy fit name,
in the economy of gospel types,
and symbols apposite—the church’s neck;
identifying her in will and work
with him ascended?”

Faith lays hold of the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp. She knows his excellence and worth, and no temptation can induce her to repose her trust anywhere else. And Christ Jesus is so delighted with this heavenly grace that he never ceases to strengthen and sustain her by the loving embrace and all-sufficient support of his eternal arms.

Here, then, is established a living, tangible, and delightful union. It sheds forth streams of love, confidence, sympathy, contentment, and joy from which both the bride and bridegroom love to drink. When the soul can evidently perceive this oneness between itself and Christ, the pulse may be felt as beating for both, and the one blood as flowing through the veins of each. Then the heart is as near heaven as it can be on earth. It is thus prepared for the enjoyment of the most sublime and spiritual kind of fellowship.

[Dec 28]

Extracted from C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (public domain), language modernized by Larry E. Wilson.