Daily Devotion, March 21, 2020

Devotion:

Read 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.

  This is part of a larger passage of Scripture that reminds us of the “big picture” of what God did for all of us and everybody else through Jesus Christ. We are all part of a sinful world that has and continues to make a mess out of things. The Psalmist says it well in Psalm 130:3-4: “If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness…” The writer here in this letter to the Corinthians also says that God does not count our sins against us, instead focusing on providing a way to be reconciled to us.

  God had (and has) every reason to seek revenge on the whole world for the ways we have messed up his Creation and especially for what we did to his Son. But knowing how his Son would be treated, he sent him anyway. And Jesus was most willing to come anyway, knowing how he would be treated. After this resurrection, he too had all kinds of reasons to seek revenge for what had been done to him. Yet he chose to be reconciled to the very disciples who had failed him at his most trying hour and again send them back out into the world to continue his mission.  

  It has been God’s mission from the very beginning: to redeem the whole creation. Rather than seeking revenge, God seeks reconciliation. And as verses 19-20 put it “...he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” Go share that message. Go represent this Christ.

Personal Worship Option:

Where might God be leading you to be involved in this “ministry of reconciliation”? Who do you know that needs to be reconciled to God, to know of God’s desire to be in relationship with them?