Devotional Guide
For the week of November 16, 2003
GETTING THROUGH
How the law's demands are met
To Read: Obadiah
To Know:
"For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the
dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of
commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in
place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one
body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end." (Eph.
2:14-16)
Every night upon returning to the barracks I walked down the corridor to the
squad bay and passed a picture with the caption, "Through." This scene from
World War I showed a soldier who had crawled into no-man's land to
reestablish communications between the command post and the troops in the
trenches. An exploding shell had severed the wire leaving the soldiers on
the front without ears to hear from the leaders in the rear. The painting
depicted a doughboy dead on the ground with a wire in each hand. The title
"Through" spoke volumes.
It is 'through' the death of Jesus Christ that God gets through to us. Jesus
' crucifixion is the instrument of our eternal salvation. Communication
between God and sinners does not exist in nature. The explosion that severed
our communication with our maker happened in Eden. Sin is guilt and guilt
sent the human race into the imagined safety of darkness. By nature we
distrust God. We fear that our maker is our enemy. We are self-deceived.
Jeremiah wrote, "The heart is deceitful above all things." (17:9) Only when
Jesus Christ, whose hand is in the Father's hand, comes to offer a hand to
us do we get through.
To Do:
The gospel is the message that Christ extends a hand to us. Faith is the
hand by which we take the hand of Christ, which is his promise. When God
gets through to us we experience peace, pray with assurance, and know a new
power for holy living.
To Ask:
Father, You gave us your law to prove that it is not in us to get through to
you. By the law comes the knowledge of sin. Thank you for Jesus Christ who
met the law's demands and sets us free to be in fellowship with you.
11163$-11163
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