Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–
January 19– Evening
by C. H. Spurgeon, Revised and Edited by W. C. Neff
“Then (Jesus) opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.”
—Luke 24:45
We saw last evening Jesus opening the Scriptures to these two men, but here we see him opening their understanding. There are many who can open the Scriptures, but, in granting understanding, he stands alone. Many can bring the Scriptures to the mind, but the Lord alone can prepare the mind to receive the Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus differs from all other teachers in this way: they reach the ear, but he instructs the heart; they deal with the outward letter, but he imparts an inward taste for the truth by which we perceive its savor and spirit. The most unlearned men become scholars in the school of grace when the Lord Jesus by his Holy Spirit unfolds the mysteries of the kingdom and grants divine anointing to behold the invisible.
Happy are we if our understandings have been cleared and strengthened by the Master! How many men of profound learning are ignorant of eternal things! They know the killing letter of revelation, but its killing spirit they cannot discern; they have a veil upon their hearts which the eyes of fleshly reason cannot penetrate. And such was our case until only recently; we who now see were once utterly blind; truth was to us as beauty in the dark, a thing unnoticed and neglected. Had it not been for the love of Jesus we should have remained to this moment in utter ignorance, for without his gracious opening of our understanding we could no more have attained to spiritual knowledge than an infant can climb the Pyramids or an ostrich fly to the stars.
Jesus’ college is the only one in which God’s truth can really be learned; other schools may teach us what is to be believed, but Christ’s alone can show us how to believe it. Let us sit at the feet of Jesus and, by earnest prayer, call in his blessed aid that our dull wits may grow brighter and our feeble understandings may receive heavenly things. [M&E]
