Morning, November 27 Go To Evening Reading
“Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord.”
—Zechariah 3:1
In Joshua, the high priest, we see a picture of every child of God, who has been made nigh by the blood of Christ. And has been taught to minister in holy things and enter into that which is within the veil. Jesus has made us priests and kings unto God, and even here upon earth, we exercise the priesthood of consecrated living and hallowed service. But this high priest is said to be “standing before the angel of the Lord,” that is, standing to minister. This should be the perpetual position of every true believer. Every place is now God’s temple, and his people can as truly serve him in their daily employments as in his house. They are to be constantly “ministering,” offering the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, and presenting themselves as a “living sacrifice.” But notice where it is that Joshua stands to minister; it is before the angel of Jehovah. It is only through a mediator that we poor defiled ones can ever become priests unto God. I present what I have before the messenger, the angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus; and through him my prayers find acceptance wrapped up in His prayers; my praises become sweet as they are bound up with bundles of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia from Christ’s own garden. If I can bring Him nothing but my tears, He will put them with his own tears in his own bottle for he once wept; if I can get Him nothing but my groans and sighs, he will accept these as an acceptable sacrifice, for he once was broken in heart, and sighed heavily in spirit. I, standing in Him, am accepted in the Beloved; and all my polluted works, though in themselves only objects of divine abhorrence, are so received, that God smelleth a sweet savor. He is content, and I am blessed. See, then, the position of the Christian—“a priest—standing—before the angel of the Lord.”
Go To Morning Reading Evening, November 27
“The forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”
—Ephesians 1:7
Could there be a sweeter word in any language than that word “forgiveness” when it sounds in a guilty sinner’s ear, like the silver notes of jubilee to the captive Israelite? Blessed, for ever blessed be that dear star of pardon which shines into the condemned cell and gives the perishing a gleam of hope amid the midnight of despair! Can it be possible that sin, such as mine, can be forgiven, forgiven altogether, and forever? Hell is my portion as a sinner—there is no possibility of my escaping from it while sin remains upon me—can a load of guilt be uplifted, the crimson stain removed? Can the adamantine stones of my prison-house ever be loosed from their mortices, or the doors be lifted from their hinges? Jesus tells me that I may yet be apparent. Forever blessed be the revelation of atoning love, which not only means to me that pardon is possible but that it is secured to all who rest in Jesus. Propitiation of Jesus crucified. Therefore my sins are forgiven by His substitutionary pains and death. What joy is this! What bliss to be a perfectly pardoned soul! My soul dedicates all her powers to him, who became my surety of his own unpurchased love and wrought out for me redemption through his blood. What riches of grace does free forgiveness exhibit! To forgive at all, to forgive fully, to forgive freely, to forgive forever! Here is a constellation of wonders; and when I think of how great my sins were, how dear were the precious drops which cleansed me from them, and how gracious was the method by which pardon was sealed home to me, I am in a maze of wondering worshipping affection. I bow before the throne which absolves me, I clasp the cross which delivers me, I serve henceforth all my days the Incarnate God, through whom I am this night a pardoned soul.
Spurgeon, C. H. Morning and Evening: Daily Readings. London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896. Print.
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