23rd September
“I am he that liveth, and was dead;
and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen;
and have the keys of hell and of death.”
Revelation 1:18
O what a mercy that he who was dead lives at God’s right hand! that he lives as a risen head; that he is not a dead Saviour; but a Saviour that lives for evermore; that can and does bless; that can and does comfort; that can and does bring the soul safely through all. He is not a Saviour that stands as it were upon the brink of a river, and pulls us out when we have swum half way out ourselves; he is not a Saviour that will take us half way to heaven, and then, as Rutherford says, let us “fend” or shift for ourselves. He must take us to heaven throughout. We are nothing, we have nothing without him. He must be, as he is, our “all in all.” We value him in his death, nothing but his death could reconcile us to God; we value him in his life, nothing but his life can save. We want salvation now; salvation in the heart; a spiritual salvation revealed in and unto the soul; a salvation worthy of the name, wholly, fully, completely, finally, and everlastingly to the praise of superabounding grace; a salvation indefeasible, never to be lost; worthy of God, worthy of the God-man; adapted to every want of the soul, coming into every trial of the heart, and able to save the vilest and the worst, “without money and without price.”
J. C. Philpot 1802-1869