Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

December 28– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.”

—Galatians 2:20

When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our dead and bloody condition, he first of all commanded us to live. Having life is absolutely essential in spiritual matters too, and, until it is given to us by God, we are incapable of partaking in the things of the kingdom. The life that is given to us is none other than the life of Christ himself. It is the same spiritual “sap” that runs from the stem into the branches and establishes a living connection between our souls and Jesus. Our faith, then, is the grace that perceives this union, having proceeded from the Spirit as the “first-fruit” in the Christian’s life.

Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp. She knows his excellence and worth, and no temptation can coax her to place her trust elsewhere; as faith lays hold of Christ, he never ceases to strengthen and sustain her by the loving embrace and all-sufficient support of his eternal arms. This is a living, sensible, and delightful union of love, confidence, sympathy, satisfaction, and joy.

When a soul perceives 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. That’s when the heart is as near to heaven as it can be on earth. [M&E]