June 12

Morning

TEKEL means that you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. — Dan 5:27 BSB

It is good for us to regularly weigh ourselves against the standard of God’s Word. You’ll find it a holy exercise to read through a psalm of David, and as you meditate on each verse, ask yourself, “Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart been broken over my sin as his was when he wrote his penitential psalms? Have I had the same deep trust in God in times of difficulty as David did when he sang of God’s mercy while hiding in the cave of Adullam or the strongholds of Engedi? Do I take up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord?”

Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourself how closely your life conforms to His example. Consider whether you display the same meekness, humility, and loving spirit that He constantly demonstrated.

Next, turn to the epistles and examine your own experience against the apostle’s words. Have you ever cried out as Paul did, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Have you felt the same self-abasement? Have you, like Paul, seen yourself as the chief of sinners, less than the least of all the saints? Have you shared in his devotion? Could you join him in saying, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain”?

If we read God’s Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we’ll often find ourselves pausing to say, “Lord, I haven’t yet reached this point. Bring me here! Give me true repentance like the one I read about. Give me genuine faith, a deeper zeal, more fervent love. Grant me the grace of meekness and make me more like Jesus. Don’t let me be ‘found lacking’ when weighed on the scales of Your Word, so I won’t be found lacking on the scales of judgment.” “Examine yourselves, that you may not be judged.”

Evening

He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began. — 2 Tim 1:9 BSB

The apostle uses the past tense and says, “Who has saved us.” Believers in Christ Jesus are already saved. They are not seen as people in a hopeful state who may eventually be saved—they are saved now. Salvation is not just a blessing to be experienced on the deathbed or a future joy to be sung about in heaven. It is something to be received, enjoyed, and lived out now.

The Christian is completely saved in God’s plan. God has predestined him for salvation, and that purpose is finished. He is saved because the price for his salvation has already been paid. “It is finished” was the cry of the Savior before He died. The believer is also perfectly saved in his union with Christ. Just as he fell in Adam, he now lives in Christ.

This complete salvation is accompanied by a holy calling. Those whom Christ saved on the cross are, in due time, called by the Holy Spirit into holiness. They leave behind their sins and seek to be like Christ. They choose holiness, not out of obligation but out of a new nature, which leads them to rejoice in holiness, just as they once delighted in sin.

God didn’t choose or call them because they were holy, but He called them so that they would become holy. Holiness is the beauty produced by His workmanship in them. The graces we see in a believer are as much the work of God as the atonement itself. Thus, the fullness of God’s grace is beautifully displayed. Salvation must be of grace because the Lord is its author, and what motive but grace could move Him to save the guilty? Salvation must be of grace because the Lord works in such a way that our own righteousness is completely excluded. This is the believer’s privilege—a present salvation. And the evidence of this salvation is a holy life.