7 JUNE (1874)
Fearful of coming short
‘Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.’ Hebrews 4:1–2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Galatians 2:11–21
Let us examine ourselves with great anxiety, for on many points we may come short. We may fail in reference to the object of our faith. A man may say, ‘I have faith,’ but another question arises, ‘In what have you faith?’ ‘I have faith in what I have felt.’ Then get rid of it, for what you have felt is not an object of faith, nor to be trusted in at all. ‘I have faith,’ says another, ‘in the doctrines which I have been taught.’ I am glad you believe them, but doctrines are not the Saviour, and a man may believe all the doctrines of truth, and yet may be lost; a creed cannot save, neither can a dogma redeem. What is the object of faith, then? It is a living, divine, appointed person. And who is that person? He is none other than Jesus the Nazarene, the Son of God, ‘over all, God blessed for ever’, and yet the son of Mary, born into this world for our sakes.
No faith will save a man which does not rest upon Jesus Christ as God; we must depend upon a whole Christ, or else our faith is not the faith of God’s elect. We must believe in his proper humanity and rejoice in the sufferings which he endured: we must believe in his assured Deity and rejoice in the merit which that Deity imparted to his sufferings. We must believe in Christ as a substitute for us, suffering that we might not suffer, making atonement on our behalf to the broken law of God, so that God ‘might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus’. If we do not fix our faith upon this basis, our faith is not the work of the Holy Spirit, for his work always tends to glorify Christ. Let us be very careful here.
FOR MEDITATION: (Our Own Hymn Book no.666 v.4—John Newton, 1779)
‘Beyond a doubt, I rest assured
Thou art the Christ of God;
Who hast eternal life secured
By promise and by blood.’
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 169.
Fearful of coming short
‘Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.’ Hebrews 4:1–2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Galatians 2:11–21
Let us examine ourselves with great anxiety, for on many points we may come short. We may fail in reference to the object of our faith. A man may say, ‘I have faith,’ but another question arises, ‘In what have you faith?’ ‘I have faith in what I have felt.’ Then get rid of it, for what you have felt is not an object of faith, nor to be trusted in at all. ‘I have faith,’ says another, ‘in the doctrines which I have been taught.’ I am glad you believe them, but doctrines are not the Saviour, and a man may believe all the doctrines of truth, and yet may be lost; a creed cannot save, neither can a dogma redeem. What is the object of faith, then? It is a living, divine, appointed person. And who is that person? He is none other than Jesus the Nazarene, the Son of God, ‘over all, God blessed for ever’, and yet the son of Mary, born into this world for our sakes.
No faith will save a man which does not rest upon Jesus Christ as God; we must depend upon a whole Christ, or else our faith is not the faith of God’s elect. We must believe in his proper humanity and rejoice in the sufferings which he endured: we must believe in his assured Deity and rejoice in the merit which that Deity imparted to his sufferings. We must believe in Christ as a substitute for us, suffering that we might not suffer, making atonement on our behalf to the broken law of God, so that God ‘might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus’. If we do not fix our faith upon this basis, our faith is not the work of the Holy Spirit, for his work always tends to glorify Christ. Let us be very careful here.
FOR MEDITATION: (Our Own Hymn Book no.666 v.4—John Newton, 1779)
‘Beyond a doubt, I rest assured
Thou art the Christ of God;
Who hast eternal life secured
By promise and by blood.’
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 169.
7 JUNE (1874)
Fearful of coming short
‘Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.’ Hebrews 4:1–2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Galatians 2:11–21
Let us examine ourselves with great anxiety, for on many points we may come short. We may fail in reference to the object of our faith. A man may say, ‘I have faith,’ but another question arises, ‘In what have you faith?’ ‘I have faith in what I have felt.’ Then get rid of it, for what you have felt is not an object of faith, nor to be trusted in at all. ‘I have faith,’ says another, ‘in the doctrines which I have been taught.’ I am glad you believe them, but doctrines are not the Saviour, and a man may believe all the doctrines of truth, and yet may be lost; a creed cannot save, neither can a dogma redeem. What is the object of faith, then? It is a living, divine, appointed person. And who is that person? He is none other than Jesus the Nazarene, the Son of God, ‘over all, God blessed for ever’, and yet the son of Mary, born into this world for our sakes.
No faith will save a man which does not rest upon Jesus Christ as God; we must depend upon a whole Christ, or else our faith is not the faith of God’s elect. We must believe in his proper humanity and rejoice in the sufferings which he endured: we must believe in his assured Deity and rejoice in the merit which that Deity imparted to his sufferings. We must believe in Christ as a substitute for us, suffering that we might not suffer, making atonement on our behalf to the broken law of God, so that God ‘might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus’. If we do not fix our faith upon this basis, our faith is not the work of the Holy Spirit, for his work always tends to glorify Christ. Let us be very careful here.
FOR MEDITATION: (Our Own Hymn Book no.666 v.4—John Newton, 1779)
‘Beyond a doubt, I rest assured
Thou art the Christ of God;
Who hast eternal life secured
By promise and by blood.’
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 169.
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