Morning, December 28
Go To Evening Reading
“The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the
Son of God.”
Galatians 2:20
When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, he first
of all said, “Live;” and this he did first , because life is one of the absolutely essential things in spiritual
matters, and until it be bestowed we are incapable of partaking in
the things of the kingdom. Now the life which grace confers upon the
saints at the moment of their quickening is none other than the life
of Christ, which, like the sap from the stem, runs into us, the branches,
and establishes a living connection between our souls and Jesus. Faith
is the grace which perceives this union, having proceeded from it
as its firstfruit. It is the neck which joins the body of the Church
to its all-glorious Head.
“Oh Faith! thou bond of union with the Lord,
Is not this office thine? and thy fit name,
In the economy of gospel types,
And symbols apposite—the Church’s neck;
Identifying her in will and work
With him ascended?”
Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp.
She knows his excellence and worth, and no temptation can induce her
to repose her trust elsewhere; and Christ Jesus is so delighted with
this heavenly grace, that he never ceases to strengthen and sustain
her by the loving embrace and all-sufficient support of his eternal
arms. Here, then, is established a living, sensible, and delightful
union which casts forth streams of love, confidence, sympathy, complacency,
and joy, whereof both the bride and bridegroom love to drink. When
the soul can evidently perceive this oneness between itself and Christ,
the pulse may be felt as beating for both, and the one blood as flowing
through the veins of each. Then is the heart as near heaven as it
can be on earth, and is prepared for the enjoyment of the most sublime
and spiritual kind of fellowship.