Thursday Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:15
15 and He died for all, that the living ones may live no more to themselves, but to Him who died for them and having been raised.
Devotion:
We know that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We know that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). So knowing these two things, how can we ever hope to be able to be by Christ’s side? Te answer has already been given by Him and has been written down for us so that we may find out the truth and live by it. I’m not talking about living up to God’s standards because we can never hope to be able to do that but rather being able to live with Christ because of what He alone has done for us.
Christ did not die as a martyr for all humans or Christians or Jews. Christ did not die by way of example, but He did die for all of us. He did not have to die multiple times because the death of one perfect sacrifice was and is enough to everyone. So do we have a choice about this? Sadly or gladly we do. We have the choice as to whether we want to believe that that is exactly what He has done for us. If we do not believe that He has done this for us then we do not believe that He is God and that He is our Saviour – our death then becomes our end for we face an eternal death for our unbelief. If we choose to believe in Christ and what He has done then we are telling God that we know He has given us the opportunity to have eternal life instead of eternal death.
But it is not enough to know these facts and to simply sit back and wait for things to happen. Christ has given us this opportunity to get to know Him. As we get to know Him through His word and His love we find out that we need to confess to the things that we have done wrong, the things that placed Him on that cross. He died because of those things that we do wrong. He died so that we would not have to take the punishment for those things that we have done wrong. Whether we believe it or not, He still died for our sins. If we do not believe this then we make His death of no consequence...
Points to Ponder:
Do you expect people to acknowledge when you do things for them?
Have you admitted that Christ actually died for you?
