Good Friday devotion - On This Day

Romans 5:17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! (NIV)

Today is Good Friday, one of the most sacred days of the year on the Christian calendar. It’s the time that we remember the last agonizing hours of Jesus on the Cross at Calvary. His ministry was completed and all of God’s promises were fulfilled by His unjust and untimely death. As Christ painfully suffered and felt His unique life ebb away, He fully experienced the human conditions of loneliness and mortality. Despair tried to cheat Him of His faith and death attempted to claim Him forever, but even though He went through that dark tunnel of desolation, He still clung to His Heavenly Father’s love so that in the end, Jesus committed His spirit into God’s hands.

At that terrible moment when He died, it must have appeared to those few followers around Him as if the world was totally forsaken by God and that Christ’s life had been extinguished by forces must stronger than Himself. His enemies gloated over His death and felt that His teaching had been totally discredited. They believed that they were fully exonerated and completely justified in their collusion to kill Jesus. In their eyes, He deserved to suffer humiliation and painfully die because Christ had dared to challenge both the political and religious leaders of His time.

But in God’s eyes, a far more mysterious and dynamic event was taking place. Christ was reconciling the world back to God. All of Creation had been tainted by human sin; it was now time to set everything right and to restore humanity to the grace of God. One man had foolishly caused a sinful separation from God; one man now faithfully repaired that baneful breach. In the midst of death, life was restored; in the time of darkness, true light was revealed.

Whoever you are and wherever you go, please know that on this Day of all days, You are totally forgiven of the past, completed reconnected to Christ, and eternally reunited to God’s heart, both now and forever.

Point to ponder

What does Good Friday mean to me? How may I share its blessing with others?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You did not deserve to die, but You chose to sacrifice Yourself so that we could be offered eternal peace with God. We do not deserve this gift, but Your mercy and grace allow us to be embraced and accepted by our Heavenly Father. Thank You for our complete restoration. In Your Holy Name, we gratefully pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Come and join us for worship on Sundays at 11:00 AM. You will be made very welcome. 😊

Today’s image is John’s latest Good Friday drawing called ‘Sin Bearer.’ If you would like to view a larger version, please click this link: Sin Bearer.

Gospel devotion: In Christ Alone - Matthew 5:20

Today’s Bible readings: Isaiah 13:14-22  & Matthew 5:17-20

Matthew 5:20                         For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

It’s an essential tenet of the Reformation: justification by faith, not by our works. We cannot earn our way into heaven. We cannot complete a certain number of good deeds or accomplish a predetermined amount of perfect choices to get us through the pearly gates. Our good works are the fruits of our faith, but not one of them gets us into heaven.

That authority is given to Christ alone. Only He can decide whether or not we will be allowed into God’s everlasting presence. There is nothing that we can do on earth to ensure that we will be welcomed in God’s Kingdom. Only Christ can open the gates; only He can restore us to God.

This is why Christianity is a missionary faith. It’s not a private, personal spiritual lifestyle. We are all supposed to engage and confront the world, especially against those who lead people astray with their false ideas, incorrect opinions, and wayward theologies. We are all sinners, separated from God by our daily choices, imperfect ways, and wrong decisions. The gap between us and God is unbridgeable by anything that we could try to build. In Christ alone, we have a Savior. Only in Jesus, we have salvation, only he can bridge that gap. He died for our sins so that we might be offered the opportunity to be fully forgiven and completely restored to God.

His Crucifixion was no accident; it was predetermined. His sacrifice was no aberration; it was intended. His death was not unfortunate; it was providential. And His resurrection was no myth; it is the most profound reality in the history of the universe.

The gospel message is simple: Jesus died for our sins and if we believe in Him, we will be granted life beyond our own deaths. There is no other way; there is no other truth; there is no other life, save that of Christ, to bring us back to God.

Prayer:                       Lord Jesus, Your own words say it all: we cannot enter heaven unless our righteousness is perfect. We know that we are imperfect and unrighteous, therefore we have no hope of entering God’s Kingdom unless we pin that hope upon Your Cross. Forgive our pride, our indifference, our faithlessness, and our stubborn refusal to accept Who You are, What You have done, and All that You have promised. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message or ask a question, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Today’s image is John’s latest Fall drawing. It’s called ‘A Glimpse of Heaven,’ which depicts the famous Glade Creek Grist Mill in Babcock State Park, West Virginia. If you would like to see a larger version of the drawing, please click on the following link: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6119/6278216565_0e22a63fea_b.jpg