Fri.-Sabbath, 4/13-15/18 Devotion

Wahoo—it is almost Sunday! We GET to go back to church! Here is Thomas Watson, from his "The Ten Commandments" book. . . .

"What comfort may be given to a regenerate person under the failures and imperfections of his obedience?

"That a believer is not under the covenant of works, but under the covenant of grace. The covenant of works requires perfect, personal, perpetual obedi-ence; but in the covenant of grace, God will make some abatements; He will accept less than He required in the covenant of works.

"1) In the covenant of works God required perfection of degrees; in the cove-nant of grace He accepts perfection of parts. There He required perfect working, here He accepts sincere believing. In the covenant of works, God required us to live without sin; in the covenant of grace He [acknowledges] our combat with sin.

"2) Though a Christian cannot, in his own person, perform all God's com-mandments; yet Christ, as his Surety, and in his stead, has fulfilled the law for him; and God accepts Christ's obedience, which is perfect, to satisfy for that obedience which is imperfect. Christ being made a curse for believers, all the curses of the law have their sting pulled out.

"3) Though a Christian cannot keep the commands of God to satisfaction, yet he may to approbation [acceptance of us by God, in Christ]."