May 01, 2020 | Spiritual Disciplines | Word by Jason Hall
One of the best ways to cultivate Christlikeness is to commit the Bible to memory. And one of the best ways to particularly cultivate humility in our hearts is to memorize those passage which, in the space of a few verses, begin to encapsulate the incalculable riches of the Gospel.
[For a more full explanation and even more verse recommendations, click here to read the article, written by the executive editor of desiringGod.org, of which this is a short summary.]
My encouragement to you is to purpose in your heart to memorize these passages, find someone memorize alongside you, and walk together in the joy of meditating on the Gospel every day.
(All Scripture quotations below are from the English Standard Version. Feel free to memorize in your preferred translation.)
Isaiah 53:4–6
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Romans 3:23–25a
... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
1 Corinthians 15:3–4
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures...
Philippians 2:5–8
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Titus 3:4–7
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
