Gems worth pondering
August 20
"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth (or displayed, or painted, or portrayed, or depicted), crucified among you?"
(Galatians 3:1)
Paul had told them the story of that terrible day at Golgotha outside the gates of Jerusalem when the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. Paul had told them that story till the Galatians saw it all. They saw the mocking, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the purple robe. They saw the holy Son of God go forth bearing His cross. They saw Him stripped of His clothes, and those cruel nails driven through His hands and feet. They saw Him hanging on the cross between two thieves and they gazed on all His agony. Then they had watched the sun darkened, and they had heard that bitter, bitter cry, "Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani," - "My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?"
They had seen all this, even portrayed before their very eyes. They had heard it all. They had heard that cry, "It is finished." But how little had it entered into their souls! True, no living man has ever known the depths of sorrow and anguish that our Lord Jesus suffered when the Lord "laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). No eye has ever seen the load our Saviour bore in those hours of darkness and not one can ever measure the depths of bitterness in that bitter cry,"Why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
But this had all been portrayed before the eyes of the Galatians. They had seen it. They knew what Paul meant when he wrote "Grace to you and peace, from . . . our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for out sins." That is the price their sins had cost our Lord Jesus Christ - HIMSELF!".
God is satisfied with that price, but the "senseless Galatians" had forgotten that great Saviour portrayed before them, and they wanted to add their own works, circumcision, and the law, to the price that Christ had paid .
(MEDITATIONS on GALATIANS or BEAUTIFUL GRACE - G.C, WILLIS)
N.J. Hiebert - 3802
August 21
"For whosever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."
(James 2:10)
Jesus declared the second great commandment is "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." James designates this the royal law. It sums up man's responsibility to his neighbour. He who fulfills it will love all men and look with contempt on none. Therefore, to have respect to persons, preferring one above another, is to violate the letter and spirit of this sacred precept, and so to commit sin and be convicted of the law as a transgressor.
For such an one to pretend to be righteous before God was sheer folly. The law was violated already and so he had no title to expect blessing on the ground of legal obedience. It is not necessary to break every commandment of the law in order to stand condemned as a criminal in the sight of God. To offend in one point is to be guilty of all. The slightest infringement of the law indicates the self-will and insubjection of the heart. Suspend a man over a precipice by a chain of ten links; how many of these need to snap to plunge him into the abyss below? The breaking of the weakest link shatters the chain, and the man falls to his doom.
The same law which forbade adultery, prohibited murder. One need not be guilty of both to be under judgment. To violate either command marked one out as a transgressor of the law. How hopeless then the efforts of anyone to be justified on the ground of his own obedience! (H.A. IRONSIDE - NOTES ON JAMES)
N.J. Hiebert - 3803
August 22
"God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)."
(Ephesians 2:4,5)
The display of the grace in Christ did not hinder the wickedness in Judas, and the display of Judas' wickedness did not hinder the Lord's grace.
The sin of Judas was so black because it was in the presence of grace. There was a constant incessant hardening in the presence of Jesus. He took the money that grace gave the Lord, to live upon, and he went on and on till he came to that point where grace was most fully manifested. Then his wickedness comes to the highest point. Satan enteres into him; he goes and kisses Him when he had betrayed Him; he uses the familiarity grace had given him with Christ to betray Him. (BILBLE TREASURY)
N.J. Hiebert - 3804
August 23
"For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not."
(Job 33:14)
"If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged."
(1 Corinthians 11:31)
Watchful Love
God always sends a testimony before the thing itself. He does not strike before He warns. It is so in His dealings with with us every day. What Christian has a chastening upon him before he is admonished of the Spirit of God? There is always a sense of wrong, and a lack of communion sensible to the spirit before the Lord inflicts the blow which tells of His watchful love over our careless ways. He gives the opportunity, if one may say so, of setting ourselves morally right; and if we do not heed the teaching, then comes the sorrow. (SELECTED - TCNL)
N.J. Hiebert - 3805
