Captivating Grace: 365 Devotions for the Reformed Thinker

FOREWORD

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed" (Proverbs 15:22 ESV).

Thus says the ancient Proverb.

For anyone who thirsts to know God and to nourish a well-rooted, deeply anchored, resilient, and joyful faith, very few things could be truer than this.

Left to ourselves, none of us would be able to rightly know God, creation, our neighbor, or even ourselves. Perhaps this is why Jesus told Nicodemus, the Old Testament scholar and teacher of Israel, that not even he can receive even one thing unless it is first given him from heaven (see John 3:27). Perhaps this is also why Paul prayed earnestly for those under his spiritual care, that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of their hearts to help them hear, discern, experience, and conduct their lives according to the riches of God’s truth and grace (see Ephesians 1:18).

We who claim Christ as Lord and Savior ought to thank God every day that He has not left us without a witness. Because He loves us, He has given us the Bible to show us clearly what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.¹ In the Old and New Testaments, He has given us a sacred treasure. There we learn firsthand from the patriarchs, the prophets, the psalms and poetic writings, the wisdom books, the gospels, the epistles, and the apocalyptic writings.

God has also given us the Holy Spirit, whom Scripture calls the Wonderful Counselor. The Counselor helps us understand, believe, and walk according to the truth that was once for all delivered to the saints. Working by and with the Word of God, he also convicts us of our sin, covers our guilt and shame, comforts us in our sorrows, makes known to us the path of life, and leads us in the way everlasting.

Along the way, God has also given us some specially gifted teachers through whom the same Spirit speaks for our profit. These include our parents, mentors, pastors, peers, some authors, and even a few podcasts. Among these there are also some historic and uniquely anointed teachers—a great cloud of witnesses, as Hebrews calls them—who not only inspire us to persevere in a race that they have already finished but who also continue speaking to us today.

This book, compiled by Susan Hill, a very bright woman who calls me her pastor and who also teaches me much, is a collection of several such voices. Citing works written by the likes of Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Spurgeon, and others, Captivating Grace serves up a rich feast in what it means to think, breathe, live, love, and serve according to the five core salvation truths that sparked the Protestant Reformation: Through Scripture Alone, Through Faith Alone, By Grace Alone, In Christ Alone, and To the Glory of God Alone. As you’ll soon discover as you engage them, these great truths are as relevant for us today as they were for those who lived centuries ago.

Perhaps after journeying through this rich devotional, you will discover new heroes as well as reconnect with old ones. But even more than this, I pray that this fine and careful work will lead you into the riches of Christ and stir within you the same courage, fervor, and joy that gave birth to a movement that still shakes the world today.

SCOTT SAULS

Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church and author of Jesus Outside the Lines and Irresistible Faith

Note

1. Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 3.

SCRIPTURE ALONE

JANUARY 1

THE AUTHOR OF SCRIPTURE

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

2 TIMOTHY 3:16

First, then, concerning this book, who is the author? The text says that it is God. I have written to him the great things of my law. Here lies my Bible—who wrote it? I open it, and I find it consists of a series of tracts. The first five tracts were written by a man called Moses. I turn on and I find other. Sometimes I see David is the penman, at other times, Solomon. Here I read Micah, then Amos, then Hosea. As I turn further on, to the more luminous pages of the New Testament, I see Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Paul, Peter, James, and others, but when I shut up the book, I ask myself, Who is the author of it? Do these men jointly claim the authorship? Are they the compositors of this massive volume? Do they between themselves divide the honor? Our holy religion answers, No! This volume is the writing of the living God: each letter was penned with an almighty finger, each word in it dropped from the everlasting lips, each sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit.

CHARLES SPURGEON

JANUARY 2

ALL POWER RESTS ON THE WORD

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes; first the Jew, then to the Gentile.

ROMANS 1:16

This is the kingdom of Christ: it is thus that He reigns, so that all power stands and rests upon the Word of God. And those who hear and believe this Word belong to this kingdom: which Word becomes so powerful, that it affects all things that are necessary for man and brings all good things which might be desired: for it is the power of God which can and may save all who believe on it, as Paul saith.

Wherefore, if thou believe that Christ died to deliver thee from all misery, and if thou cleave to that Word, it is so sure and certain that no creature can overthrow it. And as no creature can subvert the Word, so no one can harm thee, since thou believest on it. And thou wilt with the Word conquer sin, death, the devil, and hell; and thus thou wilt come and be drawn into that state where the Word itself is; that is, into eternal peace, joy, and life. And, to be brief, thou wilt be made partaker of all the blessings that are contained in the Word: this kingdom, therefore, is wonderful.

MARTIN LUTHER

JANUARY 3

ALL WE HAVE IS FROM GOD

We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

2 CORINTHIANS 4:7

It is of God that the redeemed do receive all their true excellency, wisdom, and holiness; and that two ways, namely as the Holy Ghost, by whom these things are immediately wrought, is from God, proceeds from Him, and is sent by Him; and also as the Holy Ghost Himself is God, by whose operation and indwelling the knowledge of divine things, and a holy disposition, and all grace, are conferred and upheld.

And though means are made use of in conferring grace on men’s souls, yet ’tis of God that we have these means of grace, and ’tis God that makes them effectual. ’Tis of God that we have the Holy Scriptures; they are the Word of God. ’Tis of God that we have ordinances, and their efficacy depends on the immediate influence of the Spirit of God. The ministers of the Gospel are sent of God, and all their sufficiency is of Him.

JONATHAN EDWARDS

JANUARY 4

THE BOOK OF GOD

I wrote for them the many things of my law.

HOSEA 8:12

This Bible is God’s Bible; and when I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it, saying, I am the Book of God: man, read me. I am God’s writing: open my leaf, for I was penned by God; read it, for He is my Author, and you will see Him visible and manifest everywhere.

I have written to him the great things of my law. How do you know that God wrote the book? That is just what I shall not try to prove to you. I could, if I pleased, do a demonstration, for there are arguments enough, there are reasons enough, did I care to occupy your time in bringing them before you: but I shall do no such thing. I might tell you, if I pleased, that the grandeur of the style is above that of any mortal writing, and that all the poets who have ever existed, could not, with all their works united, give us such sublime poetry and such mighty language as is to be found in the Scriptures.

CHARLES SPURGEON

JANUARY 5

THE SCHOOL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The statutes you have laid down are righteous; they are fully trustworthy.

PSALM 119:138

In order to keep the legitimate course in this matter, we must return to the Word of God, in which we are furnished with the right rule of understanding. For Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which as nothing useful and necessary to be known has been omitted, so nothing is taught but what it is of importance to know. Everything therefore delivered in Scripture on the subject of predestination we must beware of keeping from the faithful, lest we seem either maliciously to deprive them of the blessing of God, or to accuse and scoff at the Spirit, as having divulged what ought on any account to be suppressed.

Let us, I say, allow the Christian to unlock his mind and ears to all the words of God which are addressed to him, provided he do it with this moderation—namely that whenever the Lord shuts His sacred mouth, He also desists from inquiry. The best rule of sobriety is not only in learning to follow wherever God leads, but also when He makes an end of teaching, to cease also from wishing to be wise.

JOHN CALVIN

JANUARY 6

THE SACRED WRIT

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

COLOSSIANS 4:2

It is interesting to remark how large a portion of Sacred Writ is occupied with the subject of prayer, either in furnishing examples, enforcing precepts, or pronouncing promises. We scarcely open the Bible before we read, Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord; and just as we are about to close the volume, the Amen of an earnest supplication meets our ear. Instances are plentiful. Here we find a wrestling Jacob—there a Daniel who prayed three times a day—and a David who with all his heart called upon his God. On the mountain we see Elias, in the dungeon Paul and Silas. We have multitudes of commands, and myriads of promises. What does this teach us but the sacred importance and necessity of prayer?

We may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If He has said much about prayer, it is because He knows we have much need of it. So deep are our necessities, that until we are in heaven we must not cease to pray.

CHARLES SPURGEON

JANUARY 7

GOD’S COUNSEL

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

PSALM 73:24

Be assured that thy God will be thy Counsellor and Friend; He shall guide thee; He will direct all thy ways. In His written Word thou hast this assurance in part fulfilled, for Holy Scripture is His counsel to thee. Happy are we to have God’s Word always to guide us! What were the mariner without his compass? And what were the Christian without the Bible? This is the unerring chart, the map in which every shoal is described, and all the channels from the quicksands of destruction to the haven of salvation mapped and marked by One who knows all the way.

Blessed be Thou, O God, that we may trust Thee to guide us now, and guide us even to the end! After this guidance through life, the psalmist anticipates a divine reception at last: and afterward receive me to glory. What a thought for thee, believer! God Himself will receive thee to glory—thee! Wandering, erring, straying, yet He will bring thee safe at last to glory! This is thy portion; live on it this day.

CHARLES SPURGEON

JANUARY 8

THE VOICE OF GOD

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

JOHN 10:27

We ministers can do nothing else than become the mouths and instruments of our Lord Christ, through which He sensibly preaches His Word. He permits the Word to be proclaimed openly, that all may hear it. But for the heart itself to digest it and feel it within, that is the operation of faith, and is the mystical work of Christ; which He works, according to His divine knowledge and good pleasure.

For who is a good shepherd? A good shepherd, says Christ, layeth down his life for his sheep; and I also lay down My life for My sheep. In this virtue He comprehends all things at once and sets before us a sweet parable of the sheep. You see that this animal is altogether foolish and is the simplest of all beasts, so that if one would speak of some simple person, he says, He is a sheep! Nevertheless the sheep has this characteristic more than any other animal, that it quickly hears the voice of its shepherd; nor will it follow any other than its own shepherd.

MARTIN LUTHER

JANUARY 9

WRITTEN ON YOUR HEART

All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.

JOHN 16:15

There are times when all the promises and doctrines of the Bible are of no avail, unless a gracious hand shall apply them to us. We are thirsty, but too faint to crawl to the water-brook. When a soldier is wounded in battle, it is of little use for him to know that there are those at the hospital who can bind up his wounds, and medicines there to ease all the pains which he now suffers: what he needs is to be carried thither, and to have the remedies applied.

It is thus with our souls, and to meet this need there is one, even the Spirit of truth, who takes of the things of Jesus and applies them to us. Think not that Christ hath placed His joys on heavenly shelves that we may climb up to them for ourselves, but He draws near and sheds His peace abroad in our hearts. O Christian, if thou art tonight labouring under deep distresses, the promises He has written in the Word He will write anew on your heart.

CHARLES SPURGEON

JANUARY 10

A DOCTRINE OF PIETY

All his precepts are trustworthy. They are established forever.

PSALM 111:7–8

The Word of God in the beginning, who is Himself God, must be our life, meat, light, and salvation. Therefore we cannot attribute to Christ’s human nature the power of making us alive, but the life is in the Word, which dwells in the flesh and makes us alive by the flesh. This interpretation is simple and helpful. Thus Saint Paul is wont to call the doctrine of the Gospel doctrina pietatis, a doctrine of piety—a doctrine that makes men rich in grace.

However, the other interpretation which the heathen also have, namely, that all creatures live in God, does indeed make subtle disputants and is obscure and difficult; but it teaches nothing about grace, nor does it make men rich in grace. Wherefore the Scriptures speak of it as idle. Just as we interpret the words of Christ when He says, I am the life, so also should we interpret these words, and say nothing philosophically of the life of the creatures in God. On the contrary, we should consider how God lives in us, and makes us partakers of His life, so that we live through Him, of Him, and in Him.

MARTIN LUTHER

JANUARY 11

MEDITATE ON THE WORD

I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.

PSALM 119:15

Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscle, and the nerve, and the sinew, and the bone, is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not nourished merely by listening a while to this, and then to that, and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning all require inwardly digesting to complete their usefulness, and the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it.

Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord, and be this our resolve this morning, I will meditate in thy precepts.

CHARLES SPURGEON

JANUARY 12

EXALT THE WORD

God is no respecter of persons.

ACTS 10:34

KJV

We are talking about the Word of God now, and the truth of the Gospel. That Gospel is more excellent than all apostles. God accepteth no man’s person. Paul is quoting Moses: Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty (Leviticus 19:15). This quotation from Moses ought to shut the mouths of the false apostles.

Don’t you know that God is no respecter of persons? cries Paul. The dignity or authority of men means nothing to God. The fact is that God often rejects just such who stand in the odor of sanctity and in the aura of importance. In doing so God seems unjust and harsh. But men need deterring examples. For it is a vice with us to esteem personality more highly than the Word of God. God wants us to exalt His Word and not men.

There must be people in high office, of course. But we are not to deify them. The governor, the mayor, the preacher, the teacher, the scholar, father, mother, are persons whom we are to love and revere, but not to the extent that we forget God.

MARTIN LUTHER

JANUARY 13

MIGHTY IN THE SCRIPTURES

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.

COLOSSIANS 3:16

Let us be thoroughly well acquainted with the great doctrines of the Word of God, and let us be mighty in expounding the Scriptures. I am sure that no preaching will last so long, or build up a church so well, as the expository. To renounce altogether the hortatory discourse for the expository would be running to a preposterous extreme; but I cannot too earnestly assure you that, if your ministries are to be lastingly useful, you must be expositors.

For this purpose, you must understand the Word yourselves, and be able so to comment upon it that the people may be built up by the Word. Be masters of your Bibles, brethren; whatever other works you have not searched, be at home with the writings of the prophets and apostles. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly.

Having given that the precedence, neglect no field of knowledge. The presence of Jesus on the earth has sanctified the whole realm of nature; and what He has cleansed, call not you common. All that your Father has made is yours, and you should learn from it.

CHARLES SPURGEON

JANUARY 14

LOVE FOR THE WORD

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.

PSALM 119:103

Only the acts of a Christian are truly good and acceptable to God, because they are done in faith, with a cheerful heart, out of gratitude to Christ. We ought to have no misgivings about whether the Holy Ghost dwells in us. We are the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 3:16).

When we have a love for the Word of God and gladly hear, talk, write, and think of Christ, we are to know that this inclination toward Christ is the gift and work of the Holy Ghost. Where you come across contempt for the Word of God, there is the devil.

We meet with such contempt for the Word of God mostly among the common people. They act as though the Word of God does not concern them. Wherever you find a love for the Word, thank God for the Holy Spirit who infuses this love into the hearts of men. We never come by this love naturally, neither can it be enforced by laws. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

MARTIN LUTHER

JANUARY 15

STUDENTS OF THE WORD

Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD.

EZRA 7:10

See to it that you have, in a sevenfold degree, light of a higher kind. You are to be, above all things, students of the Word of God; this, indeed, is a main point of your avocation. If we do not study Scripture, and those books that will help us to understand theology, we are but wasting time while we pursue other researches. We should judge him to be a foolish fellow who, while preparing to be a physician, spent all his time in studying astronomy. There is a connection of some kind between stars and human bones, but a man could not learn much of surgery from Arcturus or Orion.

So, there is a connection between every science and religion, and I would advise you to obtain much general knowledge; but universal information will be a poor substitute for a special and prayerful study of the Scriptures, and of the doctrines contained in the revelation of God.

CHARLES SPURGEON

JANUARY 16

THE FOUNDATION OF FAITH

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.

ISAIAH 40:8

True faith is ignorant of all division; for there is, saith the apostle, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. For there remaineth, from the beginning of the world even unto the end thereof, one and the same faith in all the elect of God. God is one and the same forever, the only Well of all goodness, that can never be drawn dry.

The truth of God, from the beginning of the world, is one and the same, set forth to men in the Word of God. Therefore the object and foundation of faith, that is, God and the Word of God, remain forever one and the selfsame. In one and the selfsame faith with us have all the elect ever since the creation of the world believed, that unto us through Christ all good things are freely given, and that all truth necessary to be believed is