Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, renew our whole life with Your love. Amen.
Text: Second Corinthians 5:14-21
For the love of Christ constrains us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Devotion
Saint Paul is completely beside himself because of God’s infinite love and all His abundant grace toward us. One died for all, and thereby all died; so God has willed it and done it. Christ, the Holy and Righteous One, is offered for us sinners, and God counts it as though we all died the death of the Righteous One for our sins. Just as Christ became sin and was treated as though He was nothing but sin, as He fully and completely died our death, the death of the doomed world; so in Him we are pure righteousness, and there is no sin left to die for, since Christ died for all sin. God has reconciled the world to Himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them, but counting them all against Him. Here the old things have all passed away; the old condition in sin and bondage and the old mind in fear and evil conscience have passed away. Paul begs and exhorts in Christ’s stead that we must believe in Christ, so that we enter into this glorious state of grace. Why do you want to enter the service of sin when you are free? Why do you want to sit in fear or devilish obstinacy when you are reconciled with God and have everything that is called for in a good conscience and a happy, pure, and blessed heart? See, the Apostle says, I am completely one with you, and I have died and risen again with Christ and live a new life in Him. His love pulsates through all my thoughts, words, and deeds. All that I do, I do with a new and different attitude. The new spirit shows itself in me and in every inch of my life. You have the same spirit and it burns within me to beg you to take and use it.
We want to follow the light of God’s Spirit and from now on live a life of faith, justified, born again, and sanctified in Christ. We poor fools who didn’t understand this before! It is all finished; we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son and we shall certainly live by His life.
Closing Prayer
In this love we will now continue and completely give ourselves to You, Lord Jesus. You are one with us and we with You; let it be so. Help us to remain in You, who became wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1Co 1:30). Amen.
Hymn
Thou art my Robe of righteousness,
My heart’s desired adornment.
I have, through Thy good righteousness,
A heav’nly bridal garment.
Away with my own ragged dress,
The blindness of my foolishness,
Old Adam’s tattered remnant.
Thou art my Shepherd, faithful, mild
And steadfast to deliver
My wretched soul, now still so wild,
With sins that from Thee sever.
O with Thy faithful few abide
That I may ne’er depart Thy side;
Thy heav’n awaits me ever.
Thou art my Hero in the strife,
My armor, shield, and weapon,
My refuge in the throes of life,
Who all my fears can lessen,
My ship in worry’s murky sea, –
In Thee I live, I die in Thee,
So nothing me can threaten.
Lange: Min Hjertens Jesus, søde Lyst L 538:8-10 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Allein Gott in der Höh (ELH 35); alternate hymn: Come, Thou Almighty King ELH 12:3