Are you maintaining a clear conscience (1Ti 3:9)? If not, we are not giving the Lord Jesus the glory for it! There is no reason for a saint to allow the oppositions (self, Satan and society) to produce guilt in ones thoughts. God knows the believer’s objective is ever to “please” Him, because this is the very thing He “works” in them (Phl 2:13); and Christ’s expiation for our sin is for the purpose of being at complete peace concerning all that may attempt to bring guilt to the mind. There is never a time a believer isn’t forgiven (1Jn 1:9), nor forsaken (Heb 13:5).
NC
The Christian is planted in the Lord Jesus before the Father, and has a holy, loving, life and nature. But besides this, there is a positive relationship formed; and that union, in which we are brought to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is nothing less than being sons according to the pattern, the life and nature of the risen Son.
As the eternal Son of the Father, none could have such a place with Him (e.g. relationship as a Son “from everlasting to everlasting”—NC). The very thought would be repulsive to the renewed mind. But the Lord Jesus is pleased to call us His brethren when He rose from the dead, and not before (Heb 2:11; Rom 8:29). It is on earth, the scene of our sins, where we had been servants of Satan; it is here that, through faith in Christ we leave behind all that we were, and enter into this blessed and glorious, most intimate relationship with our Father.
But then if He chooses according to His nature and holiness, He has predetermined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself. So that now we find the special privilege and glorious relationship of sons before the Father in His presence by Jesus Christ. He might not have done it, but it was “according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph 1:5).
Here is a peculiar display of His pleasure, and therefore He puts them in this blessed position, “to the praise of the glory of His grace through which He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Jesus – Eph 1:6—NC). “Accepted” is rather a moderate word to express what is meant here. It is not what persons doctrinally call acceptance, which is rather more of the nature of reconciliation. But here there is the fullness of divine favor, which goes far beyond mere acceptance.
In short, the Father makes us objects of favor according to all that is in His heart (after all, we are the sole being after His image—NC), and in order that this should be most fully brought out, He says, “in the Beloved,” not merely “in Christ.” There was one object that satisfied the Father, that met every thought, every desire of His heart; and this was His Beloved Son, the One beloved, of course, in a sense in which no creature could be so in itself. In order to bless us fully, the Father has made us objects of His favor in His Beloved One, and all is “to the praise of the glory of His grace.”
This takes in all the heights and depths of His grace who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessing us in Him. In fact, He could go no farther! Could He show favor to anyone so much as to His Son? Just so, He loves and blesses us (love us as much as He loves His Son—NC). He could not do more, and He will not do less (the Father could have come but it’s the greatest sacrifice sending His Son—NC). He has risen up to the fullest character of love and blessing in the grace wherewith He regards us in His Beloved.
—William Kelly (1821-1906)
MJS daily devotional excerpt for May 9
“It is quite possible for every one of us to have a perfectly good conscience (all is always forgiven—NC). A happy state to be in! Have you a good conscience? Are you under accusation, under condemnation? Are you fretting and worrying about the badness of your own heart? That means that you have not the answer of a good conscience to God. What is the matter? You are still looking for something from nature, from the old man. You had better give it up, as that is the only way out; repudiate it. -Theodore Austin-Sparks (1888–1971)
(more: None But The Hungry Heart)
NC
Unobjectionable Objects
The Christian is planted in the Lord Jesus before the Father, and has a holy, loving, life and nature. But besides this, there is a positive relationship formed; and that union, in which we are brought to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is nothing less than being sons according to the pattern, the life and nature of the risen Son.
As the eternal Son of the Father, none could have such a place with Him (e.g. relationship as a Son “from everlasting to everlasting”—NC). The very thought would be repulsive to the renewed mind. But the Lord Jesus is pleased to call us His brethren when He rose from the dead, and not before (Heb 2:11; Rom 8:29). It is on earth, the scene of our sins, where we had been servants of Satan; it is here that, through faith in Christ we leave behind all that we were, and enter into this blessed and glorious, most intimate relationship with our Father.
But then if He chooses according to His nature and holiness, He has predetermined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself. So that now we find the special privilege and glorious relationship of sons before the Father in His presence by Jesus Christ. He might not have done it, but it was “according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph 1:5).
Here is a peculiar display of His pleasure, and therefore He puts them in this blessed position, “to the praise of the glory of His grace through which He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Jesus – Eph 1:6—NC). “Accepted” is rather a moderate word to express what is meant here. It is not what persons doctrinally call acceptance, which is rather more of the nature of reconciliation. But here there is the fullness of divine favor, which goes far beyond mere acceptance.
In short, the Father makes us objects of favor according to all that is in His heart (after all, we are the sole being after His image—NC), and in order that this should be most fully brought out, He says, “in the Beloved,” not merely “in Christ.” There was one object that satisfied the Father, that met every thought, every desire of His heart; and this was His Beloved Son, the One beloved, of course, in a sense in which no creature could be so in itself. In order to bless us fully, the Father has made us objects of His favor in His Beloved One, and all is “to the praise of the glory of His grace.”
This takes in all the heights and depths of His grace who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessing us in Him. In fact, He could go no farther! Could He show favor to anyone so much as to His Son? Just so, He loves and blesses us (love us as much as He loves His Son—NC). He could not do more, and He will not do less (the Father could have come but it’s the greatest sacrifice sending His Son—NC). He has risen up to the fullest character of love and blessing in the grace wherewith He regards us in His Beloved.
—William Kelly (1821-1906)
MJS daily devotional excerpt for May 9
“It is quite possible for every one of us to have a perfectly good conscience (all is always forgiven—NC). A happy state to be in! Have you a good conscience? Are you under accusation, under condemnation? Are you fretting and worrying about the badness of your own heart? That means that you have not the answer of a good conscience to God. What is the matter? You are still looking for something from nature, from the old man. You had better give it up, as that is the only way out; repudiate it. -Theodore Austin-Sparks (1888–1971)
(more: None But The Hungry Heart)
