The Divine Standard

The Christian is one who is not only sheltered from judgment by the Blood of the Lamb, not only delivered from the power of all his enemies by the death of the Lord Jesus, but is also associated with Him where He now is, at the right hand of the Father; he is passed out of death in resurrection and ascension, and is blessed with all spiritual blessings, in the heavenlies, in Christ.

The believer is thus a heavenly man, and as such, is called to walk in this lost world in all the varied relationships and responsibilities in which the good hand of the Father has placed him. He is not a monk, or an ascetic, or a man who lives in the clouds, fit neither for earth or heaven. He is not one who lives in a dreamy, misty, impractical region; but, on the contrary, one whose happy privilege it is, from day to day, to reflect, amid the scenes and circumstance of earth, the grace and virtues of the Lord Jesus, with whom, through infinite grace, and on the solid ground of accomplished redemption, he is linked in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The believer is one whose sins are forgiven, who possesses eternal life, and knows it; in whom the Holy Spirit dwells; who is accepted in and associated with the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ. He has broken with the world, has died to sin and the law, and finds his object and delight, and his spiritual sustenance, in the One who loved him and gave Himself for him, and for whose coming he waits every day of his life.

This is the New Testament description of a Christian. How immensely it differs from the ordinary type of Christian profession around us we need not to say. But let the reader measure himself by the divine standard, and see wherein he comes short; for of this he may rest assured, that there is no reason whatsoever, so far as the love of the Father, or the work of the Son, or the testimony of the Spirit, are concerned, why he should not be in the full enjoyment of all the rich and rare spiritual blessings which appertain to the true Christian position. Dark unbelief, fed by legality, bad teaching, and spurious religiousness, rob many of the Father’s dear children of their proper place and portion. And not only so, but, from want of a thorough break with the world, many are sadly hindered from the clear perception and the full realization of their position and privileges as heavenly people.

We must learn what true Christianity is from the pages of the New Testament and having learned it there, judge ourselves by its heavenly light. In this way, while we shall ever have to confess and mourn our shortcomings, our hearts shall ever, more and more, be filled with praise to Him whose infinite grace has brought us into such a glorious position, in union and fellowship with His own Son – a position, blessed by God, in nowise dependent upon our personal state, but which, if really apprehended, must exert a powerful influence upon our entire course, conduct and character.


—Charles Henry Mackintosh (1820-1896)




MJS devotional excerpt for June 3

“It is true that there is the hunger to be devoted, and to be like the Lord Jesus, long before one’s acts and manner corroborate the hunger, and make it a fact; but the more the hungers which grace has generated in your heart are given a place, the sooner will they become experiential facts; and the more the Lord Jesus has His throne within you, the more you will ‘rejoice in Him, and have no confidence in the flesh’” (Phil. 3:3).

“‘I know so little of the Lord Jesus,’ one may say, and this may be true; but every grace that is in Him is in every saint, though not developed. If I am a babe in Christ, where there is true lowliness of heart, I display God, as a babe manifesting Him; but if, as a babe, I am attempting to manifest Him as a man, there will be frustration and failure.

“My wisdom will be, not to set myself up above that which I really am. If walking in true lowliness and manifesting that measure of the Lord Jesus in which we have grown, there will be certain progress.”

—Willian Kelly (1821-1906)
None But The Hungry Heart