May 15
Today!
Everyone who believes is freed from everything [justified, kjv]. - Acts 13:39
The believer in Christ receives a present justification. Faith does not produce this fruit later on, but now. So far as justification is the result of faith, it is given to the soul in the moment when it closes with Christ and accepts Him as its all in all. Are those who stand before the throne of God justified now? So are we as certainly and as clearly justified as those who have entered into the portals of heaven. The thief upon the cross was justified the moment that he turned the eye of faith to Jesus; and Paul, at the end of his life, after years of service, was not more justified than the thief who had no service at all.
We are today accepted in the Beloved, today absolved from sin, today acquitted at the bar of God's judgment. What a soul-stirring thought! There are some benefits that we will not be able to enjoy until we enter heaven; but this is our immediate possession. This is not like the corn of the land, which we can never eat until we cross the Jordan; but this is part of the manna in the wilderness, a portion of our daily nutriment with which God supplies us in all our comings and goings.
We are now--even now--pardoned; even now are our sins put away; even now we stand in the sight of God accepted, as though we had never been guilty. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."1 There is not a sin in the Book of God, even now, against one of His people. Who dares to lay anything to their charge? There is neither speck, nor spot, nor wrinkle, nor anything remaining upon any one believer in this matter of being justified in the sight of the Judge of all the earth. Let our present privileges awaken us to present duty, and now, while life lasts, let us spend and be spent for our sweet Lord Jesus.
1) Romans 8:1
Family Bible reading plan
verse 1 Numbers 24
verse 2 Psalms 66, 67
My 1st Books and More
My 1st Books and More is a compilation from the series My 1st Book . . . by Carine MacKenzie and Philip Ross. Consolidating the content from all of these titles in one resource, My 1st Books and More gives parents a comprehensive study tool from which to teach children Christian values, the Gospel, the nature of the One True God, Jesus Lord and Saviour, the Psalms, and prayers from Scripture. Presented in a devotional style question and answer format, My 1st Books and More contains more than a year’s worth (371) questions and answers for parents to discuss with young children. Not intended for independent reading by children, this book is for families to share God-centered, Christ-honoring, character-building teaching.
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From Morning & Evening revised and edited by Alistair Begg copyright © 2003. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.
