January 25 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

John 10:22-42:

²²And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
²³And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.
²⁴Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
²⁵Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.
²⁶But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
²⁸And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
²⁹My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
³⁰I and my Father are one.
³¹Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
³²Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
³³The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
³⁴Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
³⁵If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
³⁶Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
³⁷If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
³⁸But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
³⁹Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,
⁴⁰And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode.
⁴¹And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true.
⁴²And many believed on him there.

Devotional

Our Lord put the mark of His divine approval on the Old Testament. His high regard for the inspired Scriptures can be seen all through the four gospels, and is clearly stated in His words, "The scripture cannot be broken." He instructed us that not a single expression or a single word of the Scriptures can be overthrown or invalidated.

All around us today, nevertheless, men take it for granted that the Scripture can be broken. Even among those who profess to be Christians there are many who erroneously think that the Bible contains mistakes.

We believe, however, that what our Lord said is true. We believe that He - and not the confused and sinful men around us - was right about the Scriptures. We believe that no attacks of men and no devices of Satan can ever overthrow the perfect Word of our God. We believe that the Scriptures are true, valid, authoritative, given by inspiration of God, and are our only infallible rule for faith and life. We will confess that the Scripture cannot be broken!

With this belief, how stable and strong we should be in the midst of the doubt of this world and the confused and erroneous speculations of men. How consistent we should be and how devoted to unchanging truth and righteous principle. By God's grace may we ever honor in our confession and in our life the Scripture that cannot be broken!

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)