December 24—Morning Devotion
“God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.”—Galatians 4:4
How little did Adam suppose, when he charged God foolishly, as by the way it may be observed all sinners do by this plan, in attempting to palm off his sin upon God, that the Lord in after ages would put distinguishing honour upon the woman, in which the man should bear no part. “The woman,” said Adam, “whom thou gavest to be with me, she tempted me, and I did eat.” Thus endeavouring to throw the whole blame of his transgression upon his gracious Benefactor. It is as if he had said, hadst thou not given me this woman, I should not have disobeyed thy command. Now observe, my soul, God’s benignity and grace upon this occasion. “The seed of the woman,” said God, “shall bruise the serpent’s head.” Not the seed of the man, but of the woman. And when the fulness of the time was come for this promise to be accomplished, “God sent forth his Son made of a woman,” without the intervention of an human father, but by the miraculous impregnation only of the Holy Ghost, as if to honour the weaker vessel, and to open a source of peculiar comfort in the female breast. As if God had said, in answer to Adam’s daring impiety, though all the redeemed among men shall partake in this great salvation, yet the woman shall have in it an eminent token of divine favour. And as the accursed enemy of God and man did first beguile the woman; from the woman shall arise him that shall destroy the devil. The blessings of redemption shall begin with the woman, to her peculiar honour, and to the serpent’s everlasting shame. For he that in after ages shall do away more than all the evil of sin and the fall, by the sacrifice of himself, shall be born of a woman. And thus the Lord manifested forth his grace in silencing Adam’s unbecoming expostulation. Oh the wonderful way and method of our wonder- working God!
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
