Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

June 21– Evening

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

“The foundation of God stands sure.” 

—2 Timothy 2:19

The foundation upon which our faith rests is this: that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” The great fact on which genuine faith relies is that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” and that “Christ has suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”; “[Jesus] himself bore our sins in his own body on the cross”; And Isaiah adds, “For the punishment of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.”

In one word, the great pillar of the Christian’s hope is “substitution”: the mediated sacrifice of Christ for the guilty, Christ being made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, Christ offering up an atoning sacrifice in the place of as many as the Father gave him. This is the cardinal fact of the gospel.

If this foundation were removed, what could we do? What else could we possibly stand on? This foundation stands as firm as the throne of God itself. We know it; we rest on it; we rejoice in it. Our delight is to hold it, to meditate upon it, and to proclaim it. And we desire to be stimulated and moved by gratitude for it in every aspect of our life and conversation.

Direct attacks have been made on the doctrine of the Atonement. Men cannot bear the notion of substitution. They gnash their teeth at the thought of the Lamb of God needing to stands in man’s own place, bearing the sin of man. But we, who know by experience the preciousness of this truth, will proclaim it in defiance of them confidently and unceasingly. We will neither dilute it nor change it, nor fritter it away in any way, shape, or fashion. And we dare not give it up, for it is our life! Despite all controversy, “the foundation of God stands sure.” [M&E]