Mark 8.36
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
TBT: Of Christ’s Humiliation | by John Meriton (c. 1659-1689)
Christ humbling himself should teach us to highly prize our souls. By the price that was paid we conceive at what a rate God values them. If God said concerning any soul, “I so esteem it that, rather than it shall perish, I will dissolve and unpin the whole fabric of heaven and earth,” that, you will say, evidently demonstrated a high valuation of souls. But the course which God has taken, shows an even higher esteem of them.
Now let this dear-bought ware be precious. Ah! Let none of us adventure a soul for the satisfying of a base lust; let not any sin steal that away upon easy terms, which put the Lord of glory to such expenses. Christ best knows the worth of souls, for he paid for them. Christ so values them that he tells us that the gain of the world were no sufficient or satisfactory compensation for the loss of but one of them.
Did Christ thus humble himself to death for us? Let us prize him exceedingly and raise him in our esteem above riches, honor, pleasure, father, mother, husband, wife, friend, yea, life itself — or any other thing that we are apt to account precious. How ought he to be prized and preferred above all things, that prized such inconsiderable nothings as we are at so high rates as his own blood!
If you put Christ into one end of the scale be sure he out-balances every thing that can be laid in the other: “Unto you that believe he is precious.” To a carnal heart, nothing is so low-prized and undervalued as Christ; but with believers, that have an interest in him, and know the worth of him, he is in highest esteem. [1]
Prayers from the Past
Who can sufficiently praise
the mystery of your grace?
We have been enabled
to take our share of the gift;
may we keep it save to the end,
that so we may come to hear
the blessed voice,
the sweet, the holy, saying:
Come, you that have received
a blessing from my Father;
take possession of the kingdom
that awaits you.
— From the prayer “For Holy Saturday,” c. 200-400 C.E.
Christian Identity
Part 4 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org
Today’s Readings
Genesis 38 (Listen – 4:34)
Mark 8 (Listen – 4:29)
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Footnotes
[1] Abridged and language updated from Rev. John Meriton’s sermon on Philippines 2.8 in Nichols, J. (1981). Puritan Sermons (Vol. 5, p. 229). Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers.
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