Saturday, February 24, 2018
2 Corinthians 5:15 And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again.
IT HAS BEEN DONE FOR YOU!
What an exciting new prospect this has opened to the world! That is why the apostles could not rest. They knew the miracle of love that put sin and death into its grave with Jesus, and as He arose again unto new life, so all humans are given title to a new life, to start a new way. People are spending their days as slaves to sin and regret and guilt and headed for a death that somebody else already died for them. How anxiously the apostles sought to make their fellowmen realize that. Should the love of the Savior go to waste? See the miracle of love that has come to pass! "And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again."
Christ lived your life for you, and He lived it perfectly and beautifully. He accepted your sins, imperfections, mistakes, and paid the bill.
That enables each of us to start with a clean slate. But not without Christ. For unless we are found in Christ, everything we do is still a patching of an old garment, a hopeless guilt-powered effort at building our own righteousness. If we are recreating our own lives by the black magic of our own resolve and good intentions, then we are acting as though we had not yet died, and then it is still the old life we are leading ever if we use Christ as our example or guide.
The love of Christ must bring us to the new starting place created by God for sinners. When we see ourselves as redeemed by Him, we see that only His work makes us children of God and heirs of heaven. We know that is where we belong, and that is how we want to live. We gladly surrender our mistakes, remorse, and guilt to Jesus, where all needs and our future are divinely cared for in His great redeeming love.
-- From the "Lutheran Spokesman"
