February 15 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32).

Devotional

Look at the cross; behold his precious Gift affixed to it—by his own hand and for your sins. Then look at your present circumstances. Survey your needs, your trials, your chastisements, your bereavements, your heart-sickening, heartbreaking tribulations, and know that God is still Love.

If God has love strong enough, deep enough, to give you Jesus—to tear him, as it were, from his own breast and to affix him to the accursed tree for your iniquities—does he not have love enough to incline his ear to your cry and his heart to your sorrow? Will he not rescue you from this difficulty, deliver you out of this trouble, shield you in this temptation, supply you this need, and support, help, and comfort you in this grief?

Oh yes, he will! Never doubt it! The cross of Calvary is a standing pledge—standing until sin and guilt, need and woe, shall be known no more—that God, "who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all" will "with him also freely give us all things"—all things we need for our good, all things that promote his glory.

Ah, holy Jesus, how have you offended
that man to judge you has in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by your own rejected,
O most afflicted.

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon you?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, has undone you.
'Twas I, Lord Jesus, 'twas I who denied you!
I crucified you.

Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
the slave has sinnèd, and the Son has suffered:
for my atonement, while I nothing heeded,
God interceded.

For me, kind Jesus, was your incarnation,
your mortal sorrow, and your life's oblation;
your death of anguish and your bitter passion,
for my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay you,
I do adore you, and will ever pray you,
think on your pity and your love unswerving,
not my deserving.

(Johann Hermann, 1630; tr. Robert S. Bridges, 1899; mod. LEW, 2006)

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.