God divided the light from the darkness
Mar 30
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness" (Genesis 1:3-4). The initial aspect of God's newly created world was one of darkness in the presence of the all-pervading waters. Since "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5), the darkness had to be specially created (Isaiah 45:7) before God could then call for the light to appear in the darkness. This would later serve as a striking picture of the entrance of light into the darkness of a soul born in sin. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 4:6). The light enters our soul by His Word. "The entrance of thy words giveth light" (Psalm 119:130).
"I and my Father are One."
Mar 23
"Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19). What the Father sees, the Son sees, and what the Father does, the Son does, for "I and my Father are one," said the Lord Jesus (John 10:30). God sees everything, of course, for "the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3), but it is noteworthy that there are just seven occasions where John's gospel stresses specifically that Jesus saw a particular event and then took special action to do something about it. At Jesus' baptism, two seekers followed Him and "Jesus turned, and saw them following" (John 1:38). He invited them to come and they followed Him from that day on. Nathanael, a devout Jew, also followed Him when Jesus said: "When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee" (v.48).
In the Spirit
Mar 16
"For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:18). We cannot see or hear the Holy Spirit, but He is very real and is, in fact, the very life of each true Christian. It is only through Him that we have access in prayer to the Father, as our text points out. Christ in His resurrection body is seated at the right hand of the Father in the distant heavens, but the Holy Spirit has His temple in our very bodies. He not only hears each spoken prayer, but also each thought of our hearts. From the moment we receive Christ, we live in the Spirit; He is always with us, to guide our steps, to bear witness with our spirits that we belong to God, to illumine our understanding and, when needed, to convict and chasten when we get out of His will. Therefore, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). When we yield to some worldly temptation, it is because we have ignored this admonition for the promise is "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). The very presence of the Holy Spirit assures our eternal salvation, so how can we ignore His holy constraints on our behavior? "Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30). We speak of worshiping God in church, or home, or elsewhere, but if we really worship Him, we must "worship God in the spirit" (Philippians 3:3), for we have access to the Father, and the Son, only in the Spirit.
We are His workmanship
Mar 09
"But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (I Corinthians 1:30). In this one verse we find described four aspects of Christ's work on our behalf. As we look at each one, let us first note that it is "of Him," literally "by His doing," that we are in Christ Jesus, who "is made" or "who became" these things to us and for us. Wisdom of God: This is the preferred rendering. Paul was writing to the church at Corinth (a Greek city). The Greeks were infatuated with wisdom, but Paul declared Christ Jesus to be the "wisdom of God." Such wisdom is likewise imparted to believers (v.24) while "the foolishness of God is wiser than men" (v.25). Righteousness: Christ, being "made" righteousness becomes an all-sufficient righteousness to us. This imputed rightness before God gives us a new standing before Him, permitting us access to Him, peace with Him, and ultimate glory with Him.
Grace upon grace
Mar 02
"And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). We can never exhaust the riches of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we receive Him as Savior, we receive "grace for grace"--that is, one grace after another, grace upon grace. In the first place, we have received His saving grace: "For by grace are ye saved" (Ephesians 2:8). We also receive justifying grace, because we are "justified freely by His grace" (Romans 3:24), having the very righteousness of Christ credited to our account. It is then standing grace, enabling us to stand confidently in our grace-given salvation. "We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand" (Romans 5:2). That same boundless grace soon becomes working grace and serving grace. "By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (I Corinthians 15:10). "Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear" (Hebrews 12:28).
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