January 25 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect...." (Hebrews 2:17).

Devotional

Partaking of our nature, there was nothing human that was foreign to Jesus except the sin that taints and defaces it. If you could separate from humanity all that is fallen, exorcize every evil spirit from the soul, expel every low sentiment from the mind, root out all selfishness from the heart, and let all that remains be only its purest affections, its highest sensibilities, its most refined feelings, its noblest purposes, its loftiest and most generous sentiments of sympathy and love—then you would have a portrait of our Lord and Savior.

Our Lord, as man, was truly and purely human. Entering into every affinity of our nature, he became intimate with each thought and feeling, with each sentiment and emotion, with each sorrow and pang, with each tear, groan, and sigh of our humanity. All, all were his except its sin.

Nor was it necessary to the perfect tenderness and sympathy of his nature that he should, like us, be sinful. No, this would only have darkened, blunted, and impaired all the gentle sensibilities and intellectual perceptions of his human soul, just as it has woefully done in us. The human susceptibilities which Jesus possessed were all the deeper, richer, and more intense because of the very fact of their perfect purity and entire sinlessness.

How perfect, then, must be his love, how tender his compassion, how exquisite his sympathy, since it all flows from a humanity that is as immaculate as his deity!

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)

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 2025.