December 28, Morning
C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling
"The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." — Galatians 2:20 · KJV
When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, He first of all said, "Live"; and this He did first, because life is one of the absolutely essential things in spiritual matters, and until it is bestowed we are incapable of sharing in the things of the kingdom. Now the life that grace confers on the saints at the moment of their quickening is none other than the life of Christ, which, like sap from the stem, runs into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection between our souls and Jesus. Faith is the grace that perceives this union, having proceeded from it as its firstfruit; it is the neck that joins the body of the Church to its all-glorious Head. O Faith, you bond of union with the Lord — is this not your office, and your fitting name, the Church's neck, identifying her in will and work with her ascended Lord? Faith lays hold of the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp. She knows His excellence and worth, and no temptation can induce her to place her trust elsewhere; and Christ Jesus is so delighted with this heavenly grace that He never ceases to strengthen and sustain her by the loving embrace and all-sufficient support of His eternal arms. Here, then, is established a living, sensible, and delightful union, which pours forth streams of love, confidence, sympathy, contentment, and joy, of which both the bride and the Bridegroom love to drink. When the soul can plainly perceive this oneness between itself and Christ, the pulse may be felt as beating for both, and the one blood as flowing through the veins of each. Then is the heart as near heaven as it can be on earth, and prepared for the enjoyment of the most sublime and spiritual kind of fellowship.