Daily Devotional

June 07

A First Book of Daily Readings

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

Paul's way was copied from his Lord

Here was a man, with great powers, and obviously, as a natural man, fully aware of them. But in reading [Paul's] Epistles you will find that the fight he had to wage to the end of his life was the fight against pride. That is why he kept on using the word "boasting." Any man gifted with powers is generally aware of them; he knows he can do things, and Paul knew this. He has told us in that great third chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians about his confidence in the flesh. If it is a question of competition, he seems to say, he fears no one; and then he gives us a list of the things of which he can boast. But having once seen the risen Lord on the road to Damascus all that became "loss,"and this man, possessed of such tremendous powers, appeared in Corinth ... "in weakness and fear and much trembling." That is the position right through, and, as he goes on with the task of evangelism, he asks, "Who is sufficient for these things?" If any man had a right to feel "sufficient" it was Paul. Yet he felt insufficient because he was "poor in spirit."


But of course, we see this most of all as we look at the life of our Lord Himself. He became a Man, He took upon Him "the likeness of sinful flesh."

Though He was equal with God He did not clutch at the prerogatives of His Godhead. He decided that while He was here on earth He would live as a man, though He was still God. And this was the result. He said, "I can do nothing of myself." It is the God-Man speaking. "I can do nothing of myself!"

He said also, "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works' (John 14:10). "I can do nothing, I am utterly dependent upon Him." That is it. And look at His prayer life. It is as you watch Him praying, and realize the hours He spent in prayer, that you see His poverty of spirit and His reliance upon God.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, p. 50

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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.”