Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

July 6– Evening

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

“How many are my iniquities and sins?” 

—Job 13:23

Have you ever really weighed and considered how great the sin of God’s people is? Think how heinous your own transgression is, and you will find that not only does a sin here and there tower up like an alp but that your iniquities are heaped upon each other like mountains upon mountains. The life of even one of God’s most sanctified children is like a quarry of sin!

If you then multiply the sin of one by the multitude of the redeemed, you will arrive at “a number which no man can number.”  It is impossible to conceive of the great mass of the people’s guilt for whom Jesus shed his blood. The greatness of the remedy God provided should give us a more adequate idea of the magnitude of sin. Our sin required the very blood of Jesus Christ, God’s only and well-loved Son. Angels cast their crowns before him! All the choral symphonies of heaven surround his glorious throne. He is “God over all, blessed forever. Amen.” And yet he takes upon himself the form of a servant and is scourged and pierced, bruised and torn, and at last slain.

Since nothing but the blood of the incarnate Son of God could make atonement for our offenses, it should tell us something of the infinite value of that divine sacrifice. Great is the sin of God’s people, but even greater is the atonement which takes it away. Therefore, every time the believer is reminded of his sins, he can stand before the blazing throne of the great and holy God and cry, “Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died and, even more than that, has risen again!” Though the believer recalls his sin and is filled with shame and sorrow, he, at the same time, puts the brightness of God’s mercy on display. Though the guilt of sin is a dark night, in it the fair star of divine love shines with serene splendor. [M&E]