Read: Romans 5:6-11
Through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul writes we have now received reconciliation. Reconciliation involves a change in a relationship between God and man or man and man. A relationship once fragmented before reconciliation, now in harmony and fellowship. Before the cross of Christ, we were a powerless sinner separated from God, now justified and made right with God.
As I read this scripture, I was reminded of being told by my mother that my father, who died in his thirties, called his enemies to his bedside and asked for forgiveness and to settle any dispute. Over the years this story has helped me know the man my father was. The death of Christ gives each of us, who believe and live in relationship with him, the power to bring others into this fellowship, to break down barriers between us and to become more compassionate and loving.
In Christ we have unlimited access to God’s favor and hope for the future. We have hope for a better world and our relationship with Christ calls us to extend God’s grace through the cross to mend our differences with others, to give help when we can to the foreigner, the stranger and our neighbor.
Dear God, we have been made right by the blood of Christ, now, may we share your grace with others. Amen.
Nancy L. Randall
(from 2020 Lenten Devotion)
Through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul writes we have now received reconciliation. Reconciliation involves a change in a relationship between God and man or man and man. A relationship once fragmented before reconciliation, now in harmony and fellowship. Before the cross of Christ, we were a powerless sinner separated from God, now justified and made right with God.
As I read this scripture, I was reminded of being told by my mother that my father, who died in his thirties, called his enemies to his bedside and asked for forgiveness and to settle any dispute. Over the years this story has helped me know the man my father was. The death of Christ gives each of us, who believe and live in relationship with him, the power to bring others into this fellowship, to break down barriers between us and to become more compassionate and loving.
In Christ we have unlimited access to God’s favor and hope for the future. We have hope for a better world and our relationship with Christ calls us to extend God’s grace through the cross to mend our differences with others, to give help when we can to the foreigner, the stranger and our neighbor.
Dear God, we have been made right by the blood of Christ, now, may we share your grace with others. Amen.
Nancy L. Randall
(from 2020 Lenten Devotion)
