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June 21

Morning

Thou art fairer than the children of men. — Ps 45:2

The entire person of Jesus is but as one gem, and His life is all along but one impression of the seal. He is altogether complete; not only in His several parts but as a gracious all-glorious whole. His character is not a mass of fair colors mixed confusedly, nor a heap of precious stones laid carelessly one upon another; He is a picture of beauty and a breastplate of glory. In Him, all the “good things” are in their proper places, and assist in adorning each other. Not one feature in His glorious person attracts attention, at the expense of others; but He is perfectly and altogether lovely.

Oh, Jesus! Your power, Your grace, Your justice, Your tenderness, Your truth, Your majesty, and Your immutability make up such a man, or rather such a God-man, as neither heaven nor earth has seen elsewhere! Your infancy, Your eternity, Your sufferings, Your triumphs, Your death, and Your immortality, are all woven in one gorgeous tapestry, without seam or flaw. You are music without discord; You are many, and yet not divided; You are all things, and yet not diverse. As all the colors blend into one resplendent rainbow—so all the glories of heaven and earth meet in You, and unite so wondrously, that there is none like You in all things; nay, if all the virtues of the most excellent were bound in one bundle, they could not rival You, O mirror of all perfection! You have been anointed with the holy oil of myrrh and cassia, which Your God has reserved for You alone! As for Your fragrance, it is as the holy perfume, the like of which none other can ever mingle, even with the art of the apothecary; each spice is fragrant but the compound is divine.

“Oh, sacred symmetry! Oh, rare combination
Of many perfects to make one perfection!
Oh, heavenly music, where all parts do meet
In one sweet strain to make one perfect sweet!”


Evening

The foundation of God standeth sure. — 2 Tim 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”; “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree”; “For the chastisement 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 the substitutionary atonement of Christ. The vicarious 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 a true and proper expiatory and substitutionary sacrifice in the room, place, and stead of as many as the Father gave Him, who are known to God by name, and are recognized in their own hearts by their trusting in Jesus—this is the cardinal fact of the gospel.

If this foundation were removed, what could we do? But it stands as firm as the throne of God. We know it; we rest on it; we rejoice in it; and our delight is to hold it, to meditate upon it, and to proclaim it, while we desire to be actuated and moved by gratitude for it in every part of our life and conversation. In these days a direct attack is made upon the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement. Men cannot bear substitution. They gnash their teeth at the thought of the Lamb of God, 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 shape or fashion. It shall still be Christ, an atoning substitute, bearing human guilt and suffering, in the stead of men. We cannot, dare not, give it up, for it is our life, and despite every controversy we feel that “Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure.”


Morning and Evening - June 21

Public domain content taken from Morning and Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon.


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