Daily Devotional

February 21

A First Book of Daily Readings

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

... none but His loved ones know

For [unbelievers] Jesus Christ was only a man who was born and laid in a manger, lived, ate, and drank like other men, and worked as a carpenter. Then He was crucified in utter weakness upon a cross. "There are the facts," they say, "and am I asked to believe that that is the Son of God? It is impossible...."

They are thinking only on the rational level.... That is rational thinking. You talk to them about the doctrine of the rebirth, and they say, "Of course things like that don't happen; there is no such thing as a miracle...; once you talk about miracles, you are violating the laws of nature." As Matthew Arnold said, "Miracles cannot happen; therefore miracles have not happened." That is rational thinking.

...Before a man can become a Christian, he has to cease to think like that.
He has to have a new type of thinking; he has to begin to think spiritually...; when we become Christian ... we find that we are thinking in a different way. We are on a different level... ; miracles are no longer a problem, the rebirth is no longer a problem, the doctrine of the atonement is no longer a problem. We have a new understanding; we are thinking spiritually.

Our Lord was visited by Nicodemus, who ... said, "Master, I have watched your miracles; you must be a Teacher sent from God, for no man can do the things you do except God be with him." And he was clearly on the point of adding, "Tell me how you do it...." But our Lord looked at him and ... what He was saying to Nicodemus was really this, "Nicodemus, if you think that you can understand this thing before it has
happened to you, you are making a real mistake. You will never become a Christian in that way...; you are trying to understand spiritual things with your natural understanding. But you cannot. Though you are a master of Israel, you must be born again...; you have to realize the nature of this new type of thinking which is spiritual."

Faith on Trial, pp. 35-6

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“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.”