Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: August 29th

Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. - 1 Peter 1:8.

WHAT is heaven? There is no term by which heaven is so frequently expressed in the Scriptures as the word glory. The radical idea of glory is brilliancy; the second idea is excellency displayed. Heaven is called glory, because it is a state of brilliancy, and because it is calculated to develop and display every kind of excellency,-natural excellency, moral excellency, spiritual excellency, divine excellency. It is, therefore, preeminently called glory. And here we are told that this joy is “full” of it. Christians are not yet, indeed, arrived at heaven,-that is, locally and personally; yet the apostle makes no scruple to say, “Ye are come unto the heavenly Jerusalem;” and he says to the Ephesians, “Ye are quickened together with Christ, and raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places.” Christians are not in heaven as yet, but they know that they are sometimes by their own enjoyments reminded of the experience of Jacob:-“This is none other than the gate of heaven.” Before they live there, they are rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.

“The men of grace have found

Glory begun below.”

They have heaven in the taste, they have heaven in their eye, they have heaven in the first-fruits, they have heaven in their Forerunner who has gone, and as he entered heaven said, “I am come, and all my people are coming after me,” and so took possession of it in our name and holds it for our sakes. Hear David: “Let the saints,” says he, “be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds.” How can they “be joyful in glory” while they are here on earth? Christians can explain this. And let us refer this for a moment to the dying experience of believers, for it is indeed in the dying chamber that we have most peculiarly witnessed this joy, which is so “full of glory.”

It would not have been safe for the Christian to have been indulged with it earlier: it would have unhinged him too much from all his present connections, and have rendered him too indifferent to things around, which had various claims upon him. But now he can bear to be raised above the love of life and the fear of death; now his apprehensions have no purpose further to answer, and therefore they are allowed to die away; and now through the crevices of the falling tabernacle some rays of glory beam in; now he is near enough that blessed world to hear some of the songs and shoutings there; now he can turn round his pallid countenance, and say to the friend who is by,-

“Jesus can make a dying bed

Feel soft as downy pillows are,

While on his breast I lean my head

And breathe my life out sweetly there.”

And he can even sing,-

“As I hare tasted Canaan’s grapes,

So now I long to go

Where my dear Lord the vineyard keeps,

And all the clusters grow.”

We have witnessed an elevation of sentiment and a strength of language in persons in their dying hours, far beyond their ordinary feelings and speech,-even in persons who have been entirely destitute of education, and whose low, grovelling, enslaving employments have hardly allowed them to rise up into any thing intellectual, or to exercise the power of reflection; we have witnessed in them a refinement of taste such as never was inspired by learning or philosophy; even these we have heard to say,-

“I’d part with all the joys of sense,

To gaze upon thy throne.”

“As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness.”

The inheritance of the saints in light. - Colossians 1:12.

NOW are believers the “sons of God;” though the period of their manifestation is not arrived, though they are minors now, and under age, they are “heirs,” and they receive their remittances, and their supplies, and they have their trainings, and their attendants, and their preparations. Witness the language of the Apostle here: “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” Let us notice the inheritance itself.

Observe, first, Its character. It is spoken of as one common state. As there is one common salvation, so there is one common inheritance. An earthly inheritance is impaired and diminished by division, but it is otherwise here. Here the number of pensioners really adds to the happiness of every individual partaker. And if we consider its magnitude, how shall we estimate this inheritance? by what standard shall we judge it? Compared with this, what is the inheritance of the worldling, abounding with all the honours, riches, and pleasures of the earth? Compared with this, what the inheritance of the Jews in the land of Canaan- “a land flowing with milk and honey, and the glory of all lands?” What was the inheritance of Adam previous to his fall? what was Eden? what was the tree of knowledge, compared with the tree of life, in the midst of the paradise of God? What is the inheritance of angels? He who is their Lord is our elder Brother.

“Never did angels taste above

Redeeming grace and dying love.”

John, therefore, in the vision, saw the saints nearer the throne than the angels. What are we to think of that blessedness that it is intended to display-the value of that blood which purchased it, the blood of God-that blessedness which is designed to show in the ages to come, the exceeding riches of his grace-that blessedness which exhausts all the world of nature in furnishing images to express it-that blessedness which after all the Scriptures have told us concerning it, is glory that is to be revealed.

Observe, secondly, Its possessors. “It is the inheritance of the saints.” This is a term abused and ridiculed by many but it is the language of Scripture, and “God is not mocked.” The word simply means, holy beings. Of such importance is the possession of this attribute, that we are assured that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” The design of the gospel is to make us holy. We are not such by nature. “Therefore,” says the Apostle, “we are called to be saints.” This will apply to the external call by the Word, and to the internal call by the Spirit-the one requiring, the other producing it.

All God’s people are to be considered as saints: they partake of holiness now; they love holiness, but they are not completely holy: at present they are “encompassed with infirmities,” and “groan, being burdened,” but it will be otherwise at death. Then they will drop their imperfections; then they will join the “Spirits of just men made perfect;” then they will be “presented faultless” before the throne of God; then they will be as innocent as Adam in Paradise, as holy as the Son of God himself. For though “it doth not yet appear what we shall be,” we know that “when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Observe, thirdly, The region in which it is to be enjoyed. “The inheritance of the saints in light.” Hell is darkness, “outer darkness,” where there is “weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.” The world is darkness, therefore our deliverance from it is represented as being “called out of darkness into marvellous light.” But the Church is light; all the members of it are “children of light and of the day;” they are “not of the night nor of the darkness.” And yet while they are here, they are able only to survey the dawning and the glimmering of the day.

Now we “walk by faith, not by sight;” now “who can understand his errors?” now how often do we mistake appearances for realities? now how often does evil cheat us under the notion of good? now how often are we baffled in our inquiries, turn which way we choose, in order to move on? now what is conjecture but a thorny maze? now how unable are we to discern our own privileges, and what distress arises from our doubts and fears? now how frequently we mistake our best friends for our enemies, and charge God with foolishness and unkindness, while his wisdom and goodness are peculiarly at work to advance our happiness. But-

“There is a land of pure delight,

Where saints immortal reign,

Infinite day excludes the night,

And pleasures banish pain.”

This is the “inheritance of the saints in light.” And heaven is light-all light; there is no darkness at all- perfect light; endless light. Our sun will “no more go down by day, nor our moon withdraw her shining, for God shall be our everlasting light, and the days of our mourning shall be ended.”