Daily Devotional for July 15
Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,...and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:3)
IN our ministrations to others we are not to forget that money is not the only thing of which people are sorely in need--some need love and sympathy who do not need money. Our Lord was one of these: His own heart, full of love, found comparatively little companionship in the more or less sordid minds of even the noblest of the fallen race represented among His apostles. In Mary He seemed to find the depth of love and devotion which was to Him an odor of sweet incense, of refreshment, of reinvigoration, a tonic: and Mary apparently appreciated, more than did others, the lengths and breadths of the Master's character. She not only delighted to sit at His feet to learn of Him, but also delighted, at great cost, to give Him some manifestation of her devotion, her love. Z.'99-77 R2448:3
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Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. (Acts 13:38)
THE apostle does not refer to something that was done by our Lord as the Archangel before “he was made flesh,” nor does he refer to any work to be done by him in his new, highly exalted condition, “set down with his Father in his throne” and partaker of his divine nature; but he here refers to the work done by “the Man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.” Thus the apostle again emphasizes the fact that “as by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.” Yes, this is the center of the Gospel proclamation that the failure of the first perfect man was fully offset by the sacrifice of the Man Christ Jesus, and that it was to this end that it was needful for our Lord to leave the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, to become poor (in the sense of taking our lower nature--but not its blemishes, for he was “holy, harmless, and separate from sinners”); and yielding up this human nature a ransom-price or corresponding price for the life forfeited by father Adam for himself and his race. This is the basis upon which every offer to grace is presented by the Scriptures. And now, he who was the Father's agent in the redemptive work is to be the Father's agent also in the work of “blessing” all the redeemed with ample opportunities for return to divine favor--the first step of which is the forgiveness of sins. `Z'97-138` R2150:1 (Hymn 68)
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