Daily Devotional 8/30/22

The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Isaiah 40:5

SPURGEON • We anticipate the happy day when the whole world shall know Christ; when the gods of the heathen shall be cast to the moles and the bats . . . and the crescent of Mohammed shall wane, never again to cast its baleful rays upon the nations; when kings shall bow down before the Prince of Peace, and all nations shall call their Redeemer blessed.

Some despair of this. We know that the world and all that is therein is one day to be burned up, and afterward we look for new heavens and for a New Earth. But we cannot read our Bibles without the conviction that

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun Does his successive journeys run. a

We are not discouraged by the length of his delays; we are not disheartened by the long period he allots to the church in which to struggle with little success and much defeat.

We believe that God will never allow this world, which has once seen Christ’s bloodshed upon it, to be always the devil’s stronghold. What a shout shall that be when men and angels shall unite to cry, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns” (Revelation 19:6).

What a satisfaction will it be in that day to have had a share in the fight, to have helped to break the arrows of the bow, and to have aided in winning the victory for our Lord!

Happy are they who trust themselves with this conquering Lord, and who fight side by side with him, doing their little in his name and by his strength! How unhappy are those on the side of evil! It is a losing side, and to lose is to lose and to be lost forever. Whose side are you on?

ALCORN • Our present purpose is inseparable from God’s eternal purpose for us to rule the Earth forever as his children and heirs. That truth is expressed in the Westminster Shorter Catechism’s defining statement: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” b  We will glorify God and find joy in him as we do what he has made us to do: serve him as resurrected beings and carry out his plan for developing a Christ-centered, resurrected culture in a resurrected universe.

The apostle Paul describes Christ’s reign—present and future—this way: “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:22-25, NIV).

Most scholars agree that the point of this passage is not that Christ will someday cease to reign but that his reign will continue after his enemies are conquered and judged. (According to royal tradition, when a prince handed over to his father a kingdom he had conquered, the king commonly entrusted rulership of that kingdom back to his son.)

When everything is put under his feet—when God rules all and mankind rules the Earth as kings under Christ, the King of kings—at last all will be as God intends. The period of rebellion will be over forever, and the universe, along with all who serve Christ, will participate in the Master’s joy!

Today, while the battle still rages, may we join Spurgeon in his call to fight on the right side, looking to that day when humans and angels unite to cry, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns” (Revelation 19:6).

a  From the hymn “Jesus Shall Reign,” by Isaac Watts, 1719.

b  â€œWestminster Shorter Catechism with Proof Texts,” Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics, http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/WSC_frames.html&wsc_text=WSC.html.