A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY
🌷🌷🌷 August 12 🌷🌷🌷
“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name” (Psalm 103:1).
We should keep these three thoughts together, the Lord’s death, burial and resurrection. Do not try to separate them, because they all go together. Whenever you mention the cross in your prayer, or testimony or preaching, or writing, please try to keep His death, burial and resurrection together. When the apostle Paul defines the Gospel, he mentions the death, burial and resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15:3,4). If anybody questions you, “What is the Gospel?” the answer is, “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; …was buried, and that he rose again …according to the scriptures.” The Lord Jesus died to do the same work of death, burial and resurrection in us. He died to bring into us His power of resurrection. He died to make us conquerors; to make us immortal. For the same purpose, He was buried and rose again.
First of all, He died for our sins (Gal. 1:4). Secondly, Christ lived in us (Gal.2:20). He died to take away the judgement of our sins and to give us His righteousness. He took upon Himself the punishment for all our sins, of the past, present and future. He paid the full price of redemption. We commit sins in a three-fold manner: by our thoughts, words and deeds. For all these sins the Lord Jesus bore three kinds of punishment (Mark 10:34). First, for our sinful thoughts He was spat upon. When a man wants to show extreme hatred towards anybody, he often spits on that person. Then for our sinful words, He was reviled and mocked. But He bore it all patiently. He never said a word. Thirdly, for our sinful deeds His hands, feet and side were pierced; His back was scourged; and His head was crowned with thorns. So remember that the Lord has borne all your sins, and paid the full price for them all, even to the smallest thought.
If you want to grow spiritually, thank Him with all your heart every day for taking all your punishment on Himself. That is the simple way of growing spiritually. Say to Him, “Lord Jesus, I thank You with all my heart for dying for my sins and bearing my entire punishment.” Imagine a person in court. There is ample evidence that he has committed a crime. He has stolen many things. All the articles stolen by him are brought to the court as evidence.
It is impossible for the man to escape from condemnation in the face of such overwhelming evidence. Suddenly something happens, and all the evidences disappear, and the witnesses run away. Only the judge and the accused are left. What can the judge say now, except, “There is no evidence against you. You are free!” Will not the man walk out triumphantly? That is how we also have been forgiven by our Lord Jesus. For this purpose He bore all our sins in His own body upon the tree (1 Peter 2:24). So if you want to grow spiritually, you must be thankful and grateful to Him indeed. When we learn to thank God with all our heart every day, we will know that this is the secret of spiritual growth.
