February 13—Morning Devotion
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”—Galatians 3:13
Pause, my soul, and contemplate the unspeakable mercies contained in those precious words. However little thou hast regarded them, yet they contain in their bosom the whole blessings of the gospel. It is to Jesus in this one glorious act of his faith, should the sinner be continually looking. There, the believer should say, there hangs my hope, my joy, my confidence. “Christ hath redeemed me from the curse of the law, being made a curse for me.” Now, my soul, observe how Jesus accomplished this great mercy for thee. Whatever Christ redeemed the sinner from, he became that for him. In the act of redemption, by substituting himself in the sinner’s place and room, he redeemed him from that place and room, by standing there himself. Hence, as the sinner stood before God, accursed by reason of sin; so Christ, by taking the sinner’s sin upon himself, and standing in his stead to answer for it, was made a curse also. If, therefore, Christ will come under the law for sinners, that law will have as much to demand of him, as of sinners. If Jesus, from his boundless love and mercy, will take the sinner’s curse upon himself, the law will speak as harsh to him as the sinner that is under the curse: and not only speak, but exact from him all that could be demanded from the sinner. Pause, my soul! And did Jesus, thy Jesus, thus stand; thus be considered, and was he made a curse for thee? Did he really, truly, suffer the cursed sinner’s punishment, “and die, the just for the unjust, to bring sinners to God?” Look to it then, my soul; he hath bought thee out, paid the full ransom, and taken away both sin and the curse of sin, by the sacrifice of himself. Shout, my soul, shout salvation to God and the Lamb! Say, as Paul, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”
Robert Hawker (1753-1827) was an Anglican (High-Calvinist) preacher who served as Vicar of Charles Church, Plymouth. John Hazelton wrote of him:
“The prominent features…in Robert Hawker's testimony…was the Person of Christ….Dr. Hawker delighted to speak of his Lord as "My most glorious Christ.” What anxious heart but finds at times in the perusal of the doctor's writings a measure of relief, a softening, and a mellowing? an almost imperceptible yet secret and constraining power in leading out of self and off from the misery and bondage of the flesh into a contemplation of the Person and preciousness of Christ as "the chiefest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely." Christ and Him crucified was emphatically the burden of his song and the keynote of his ministry. He preached his last sermon in Charles Church on March 18th, 1827, and on April 6th he died, after being six years curate and forty-three years vicar of the parish. On the last day of his life he repeated a part of Ephesians 1, from the 6th to the 12th verses, and as he proceeded he enlarged on the verses, but dwelt more fully on these words: "To the praise of His glory Who first trusted in Christ." He paused and asked, "Who first trusted in Christ?" And then made this answer: "It was God the Father Who first trusted in Christ."
Robert Hawker on the Biblical Covenants (Complete)
Robert Hawker's Poor Man's Morning Portions
