Expository Thoughts
merciful and compassionate Savior, who passes by and pardons much ignorance, when He sees "a heart right in the sight of God."
Some things indeed we must know, and without knowing them we cannot be saved. Our own sinfulness and guilt, the office of Christ as a Savior, the necessity of repentance and faith—such things as these are essential to salvation. But he that knows these things may, in other respects, be a very ignorant man. In fact, the extent to which one man may have grace together with much ignorance, and another may have much knowledge and yet no grace, is one of the greatest mysteries in religion, and one which the last day alone will unfold.
Let us then seek knowledge, and be ashamed of ignorance. But above all let us make sure that, like Peter and John, we have grace and right hearts.
Technical Notes:
1. The first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the sepulcher early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the sepulcher. 2. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we do not know where they have laid him. 3. Peter therefore went out, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulcher. 4. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the sepulcher first. 5. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying; yet he did not go in.