January 28

Morning

Perfect in Christ Jesus. — Col 1:28

Do you not feel in your own soul—that perfection is not in you? Does not every day teach you that? Every tear which trickles from your eye—weeps “imperfection”; every harsh word which proceeds from your lip—mutters “imperfection.” You have too frequently had a view of your own heart to dream for a moment of any perfection in yourself. But amidst this sad consciousness of imperfection, here is comfort for you—you are “perfect in Christ Jesus.” In God’s sight, you are “complete in Him;” even now you are “accepted in the Beloved.”

But there is a second perfection—yet to be realized, which is sure to all the chosen seed. Is it not delightful, to look forward to the time when every stain of sin shall be removed from the believer, and he shall be presented faultless before the throne, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing? The Church of Christ then will be so pure, that not even the eye of Omniscience will see a spot or blemish in her; so holy and so glorious, that Joseph Hart did not go beyond the truth when he said—“With my Savior’s garments on—Holy as the Holy One.” Then shall we know, and taste, and feel the happiness of this vast but short sentence, “Complete in Christ!” Not until then shall we fully comprehend the heights and depths of the salvation of Jesus. Does not your heart leap for joy at the thought of it? As black as you are—you shall be white one day! As filthy as you are—you shall be pure. Oh, it is a marvelous salvation! Christ takes a worm and transforms it into an angel! Christ takes a vile and deformed thing and makes it pure and matchless in His glory, peerless in His beauty, and fit to be His eternal companion! O my soul, stand and admire this blessed truth, of perfection in Christ.

Evening

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. — Luke 2:20

What was the subject of their praise? They praised God for what they had heard—for the good tidings of great joy that a Savior was born unto them. Let us copy them; let us also raise a song of thanksgiving that we have heard of Jesus and His salvation.

They also praised God for what they had seen. There is the sweetest music—what we have experienced, what we have felt within, what we have made our own, “the things which we have made touching the King.” It is not enough to hear about Jesus: mere hearing may tune the harp but the fingers of living faith must create the music. If you have seen Jesus with the God-giving sight of faith, allow no cobwebs to linger among the harp-strings but awake your psaltery and harp loud to the praise of sovereign grace!

One point for which they praised God was the agreement between what they had heard and what they had seen. Observe the last sentence, “As it was told unto them.” Have you not found the gospel to be in yourselves, just what the Bible said it would be? Jesus said He would give you rest—have you not enjoyed the sweetest peace in Him? He said you should have joy, and comfort, and life through believing in Him—have you not received all these? Are not His ways—ways of pleasantness, and His paths—paths of peace? Surely you can say with the queen of Sheba, “The half has not been told to me! I have found Christ more sweet than His servants ever said He was. I looked upon His likeness as they painted it but it was a mere daub compared with Himself; for the King in His beauty outshines all imaginable loveliness!” Surely what we have “seen” keeps pace with, nay, far exceeds, what we have “heard.” Let us, then, glorify and praise God for a Savior so precious, and so satisfying.