Daily Devotional

January 27

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

He restoreth my soul

Before we begin to talk about freedom for self-expression, we must discover whether or not we have that true self which God has desired for all men. If we lack it, we cannot express it, and we shall not be able to hand it back to Him and give an account of it at the dread Day of Judgement. The one urgent question therefore confronting every man is the question, What of your self? Do you possess your soul? Is the true self still in existence? Are the vision and the divine faculty still there? Is your soul alive? ... Man cannot rehabilitate his true self. He cannot find God. Man can lose his own soul, but he can never find it again. He can kill and destroy it but he cannot create it anew.... But ... "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).


Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, came down to earth and lived and died and rose again in order to save. He has borne the punishment that we deserve on account of sin and for spoiling and marring the image of God upon us. But more, He restores our soul to us. He gives us a new nature and fills us with power that will enable us to express this new and true self even as He expressed it Himself. This self-expression expresses man as a son of God, well-pleasing in the sight of his Heavenly Father, and as an heir to eternal life....

The Bible, therefore, calls upon us to give up the pleasures of sin for a season and to find our true selves in Jesus Christ. It calls upon us to this end to deny ourselves, to cut off hand or foot, to pluck out eye, to do anything that may be necessary in order to serve the best and the highest interests of this true self, for it tells us that "it is better to enter into life halt or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into hell fire."

Truth Unchanged, Unchanging, pp. 30-1

---

“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”