Daily Bread

Jesus Came as the Savior of All People.

The angel of the Lord addressed the shepherds thus: “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” As whose Savior, then, did the Son of God come? O joyful message, as the Savior of all people! The Gospel enters the world with the broad, universal look of daylight. “The Dayspring from on high hath visited us.” The sun rises every morning, shining for all and singling out none. There is a universality of kindness about it. The poorest man and the richest, all classes and all things, have the same access to its undivided radiance. So the Christ-story is as wide and open to all as is this earth. It singles out none, it excludes none, it wishes to blaze and bless a whole guilty world spiritually just as the sun does bodily. Its contents are glad tidings of God’s grace and love, “which shall be to all people,” “to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” O joy­ ful message “to all people” !— that is, to all that ever lived on the face of the earth and to the last man that shall be born before the coming of the Day of Judgment.

You, too, are included. You have a claim upon this Savior. Though your sins be as many as the sands on the seashore and as black as night, this Savior of all people extends His hands also to you and bids you rejoice in His full forgiveness and salvation. You have as much right to this Savior as the greatest saint, though your past deeds were ever so foul; for this Savior is He who came to seek and to save that which was lost. He is the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world.

Come, then, and say, It is true and certain, Thou art mine also, my Brother, my God, my Savior, for Thou hast come as the Savior of all.

Prayer.

I praise Thee, O Jesus, that Thou didst come upon this earth to deliver us from our enemies, from sin, death, hell, and the devil, with Thy holy blood to effect an eternal reconciliation be­ tween Thy heavenly Father and us, and by Thy precious merits to regain for us our lost righteousness. Thou didst descend to us poor mortals in this vale of tears from the throne of Thy  divine majesty in order to save us lost and condemned sinners, none excepted. For this unmerited love I praise Thee, O Jesus, Thou King of Glory, with all my strength and energy. Hosanna, O Lord, save now, O Lord, send now prosperity! Amen.

Israel’s Strength and Consolation, 

Hope of all the saints 

Thou art Dear Desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.