Friday April 26, 2024
John 17:3
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
To know Christ is the salvation and life of the soul from first to last.
To behold Jesus, that is the beginning of our salvation. A soul has not been awakened spiritually in a Christian sense until the Spirit has brought it face to face with Christ.
Then sin becomes bitter and distasteful; then we begin to see the selfishness and spiritual coldness of the human heart. Then a reckless sinner is transformed into a despairing sinner.
And this despairing sinner never becomes a free and peace-filled Christian until the Spirit draws aside the veil and enables him to see Christ as his Savior in the Word. Then slavish fear of God is banished; likewise fear of other people.
A believer strives daily against her old sinful habits and the wickedness of her old heart.
Oftentimes she strives and loses, makes good resolutions and fails again.
What is it that can bring victory in this unequal struggle?
A glimpse of the Savior is enough to make sin loathsome. Then temptation loses its enticing power, and the sinner feels that it is blessed to say no to sin.
We live in a world of suffering. We all suffer. Children of God should suffer willingly, in fact, thank God for suffering and rejoice in tribulation. But as a rule we are afraid of suffering, even long before it comes. And when it does come, we sigh and complain.
But a glimpse of the suffering, bleeding Savior is enough to set our impatient minds at rest. We become ashamed of our impatience and our complaining.
Verily, this is eternal life: to know Him whom Thou didst send, Jesus Christ. O God be praised!
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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