Dear Friends,
What’s the most difficult thing to overcome? The answer in today’s devotional will likely surprise you. God bless you.
Because of Calvary,
John Janney

• Ephesians 2:8-9

  Ephesians 2:8-9   English Standard Version (ESV)

  ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9

“…I would remind you of what the farming man said to Mr. Hervey. When Mr. Hervey had become the rector of the parish, he went round, and spoke to his parishioners, and he asked a ploughman, ‘What have we to overcome in order to get to heaven?’ ‘Well, sir,’ he replied, ‘you are a clergyman, and I think that you ought to tell me, and not ask me to tell you that.’ ‘Well,’ said Mr. Hervey, ‘I think that the most difficult thing to overcome is sinful self.’ ‘Excuse me,’ said the ploughman, ‘but I have found one thing harder than that.’ ‘What is that?’ enquired Mr. Hervey. ‘To overcome righteous self,’ answered the man; and that, I believe, is a most solemn truth. In the case of some of you, I am a deal more afraid of your self-righteousness than I am of your unrighteousness. One thing I know, Christ thinks more of our sins than he does of our righteousness, for he gave himself for our sins, but I never heard that he gave himself for our righteousness. By his most precious blood, he has put away the sins of all who trust him; but take care that your self-righteousness does not come in between you and the Savior…” [Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit XLIV, (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1898), p. 377]

August 2, 2016