March 30 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"We have confidence to enter the holiest place by the blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19).

Devotional

In all true prayer great stress should be laid on the blood of Jesus. Perhaps no evidence reveals a decline in the power and spirituality of prayer more strongly than an overlooking of this. Where the atoning blood is kept out of view—where it is not recognized, not pleaded, not made the grand plea—there is a dearth of power in prayer. Words are nothing, fluency of expression is nothing, niceties of language and brilliancy of thought are nothing, and even apparent fervor is nothing where the blood of Christ—the new and the living way of access to God, the grand plea that moves Omnipotence, that gives admission to the Holy of Holies—is slighted, undervalued, and not made the groundwork of each and every petition.

Oh, how much is this overlooked in our prayers! How the atoning blood of Immanuel is snubbed! How little mention we hear of it in the sanctuary, in the pulpit, in the social circle! And yet it is precisely this that makes prayer what it is with God. All prayer is acceptable with God only as it comes up perfumed with the blood of Christ. All prayer is answered only as it urges the blood of Christ as its plea. It is the blood of Christ that satisfies God's justice. It is the blood of Christ that meets all the demands of God's law against us. It is the blood of Christ that purchases and brings down every blessing into the soul. It is the blood of Christ that sues for the fulfillment of his last will and testament, every precious legacy of which comes to us solely on account of his atoning death. It is the blood of Christ, too, that gives us boldness at the throne of grace.

How can a poor sinner dare to approach the holy God without the blood of Christ? How can he look up, how can he ask, how can he present himself before God's awful purity except as he brings in the hand of faith the precious blood of Jesus?

Outside of Jesus Christ, God can hold no communication with us. All communion is suspended. Each avenue of approach is closed. Every blessing is withheld.

God himself has crowned his dearly beloved Son, and he will have us crown him too. And never do we place a brighter crown upon his blessed head than when we plead his finished righteousness as the ground of our acceptance, and his atoning blood as our great argument with God for the bestowment of all blessing.

If, then, dear reader, you feel yourself to be a poor, vile, unholy sinner—if you are a backslider whose feet have wandered from the Lord, in whose soul the spirit of prayer has declined—and yet you still feel some secret longing to return, but you do not dare because you are so vile, so unholy, so backsliding—yet you may return with "confidence to enter the holiest place by the blood of Jesus." Come, for the blood of Jesus pleads! Return, for the blood of Christ gives you a welcome! "If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).

Arise, my soul, arise,
shake off thy guilty fears:
the bleeding Sacrifice
in my behalf appears.
Before the Throne my Surety stands,
before the Throne my Surety stands,
my name is written on his hands.

He ever lives above,
for me to intercede,
his all-redeeming love,
his precious blood to plead.
His blood atoned for ev'ry race,
his blood atoned for ev'ry race,
and sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds he bears,
received on Calvary;
they pour effectual prayers,
they strongly plead for me.
"Forgive him, O forgive, they cry,
forgive him, O forgive, they cry,
nor let that ransomed sinner die!"

The Father hears him pray,
his dear Anointed One;
he will not turn away
the pleading of his Son;
his Spirit answers to the blood,
his Spirit answers to the blood,
and tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled;
his pard'ning voice I hear;
he owns me for his child,
I can no longer fear.
With confidence I now draw nigh,
with confidence I now draw nigh,
and "Father, Abba, Father!" cry.

(Charles Wesley, 1742; alt. 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.