Morning  “Perfect in Christ Jesus.” / Colossians 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 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 Hart did not

go beyond the truth when he said–

“With my Saviour’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 till then shall we fully comprehend the

heights and depths of the salvation of Jesus. Doth not thy heart leap for joy

at the thought of it? Black as thou art, thou shalt be white one day; filthy

as thou art, thou shalt be clean. Oh, it is a marvellous salvation this!

Christ takes a worm and transforms it into an angel; Christ takes a black and

deformed thing and makes it clean and matchless in his glory, peerless in his

beauty, and fit to be the companion of seraphs. 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 Saviour 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, suffer no cobwebs to linger among the harp

strings, but loud to the praise of sovereign grace, awake your psaltery and

harp. 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 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 Saviour so precious, and so satisfying.