From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
September 7 "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit."
Philemon 25 It is the regenerating breath of the Lord Jesus Christ
which makes the soul alive unto himself. This is manifest from his own
language--"It is the Spirit who quickens; the flesh profits nothing--the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life" (John 6:63).
Then for the first time "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with our
spirit." For you will observe that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is not
with our carnal mind--that ever remains the same, a body of sin and death,
flesh--corrupt flesh, "in which dwells no good thing," and therefore
not the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. His grace is with our spirit, that "new man" of
which we read that "it is after the image of God" created in righteousness
and true holiness." This is called our "spirit," because it is born of the
Spirit, as the Lord himself unfolded the solemn mystery to Nicodemus--"That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit." This is no subtle, thinly-drawn distinction, but a very important
truth; for unless we see the difference between the two natures, the spirit
and the flesh, the law in the members and the law of the mind, we shall
always be in bondage, as looking for holiness in the flesh. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ being thus with our
spirit, it breathes from time to time upon that spirit, moves and acts in it
and upon it; for there is what I may call a gracious or spiritual union
between the two. Thus we can no more live without the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ than the earth can live without the sun. He must shine, or we
have no light; he must revive, or we have no warmth; and he must fertilize,
or we bring forth no fruit. Thence time after time there is an outgoing of
the single desire of the soul to the Lord Jesus Christ that his grace would
be with our spirit; that this grace may be ever flowing forth into us, so as
to make us new creatures, dispel all doubt and fear, break to pieces all
bonds and fetters, fill us with love and humility, conform us to his
suffering image, produce in us every fruit that shall redound to his praise,
be with us in life and death, and land us safe in eternity.