January 8

I call to You; save me, that I may keep Your testimonies. — Ps 119:146 BSB

If you know inwardly and personally the evil within your heart, the power of sin, the strength of temptation, the cunning of your tireless enemy, and the daily battle between nature and grace, flesh and spirit—these are the distinguishing marks of God’s living family. Then you will recognize your need for salvation as a daily, ongoing reality. Don’t think that salvation is only something from the past—accomplished by the bloodshed and death of the Son of God.

There is a present salvation—an inward, personal, continual salvation, drawn from the fullness of Christ as our risen Mediator. Don’t you need to be saved daily, even hourly? Saved from what? From everything within you that resists the will and word of God. Sin is not dead in you. Even if you are reconciled to God and brought near to Him, even if you have a share in Christ’s precious blood, even if your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life and heaven is your eternal home, you are not free from the presence of sin. Grace alone can give you deliverance from its power. Sin continues to work in your carnal mind and will do so until your last breath. What you need to be saved from daily is the guilt, filth, power, love, and practice of indwelling sin.