Short devotion: A Key Moment - Luke 7:50

 

A Key Moment

 Luke 7:50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (NIV)

 I’ve made many mistakes through the years, both foolish and sinful, so I often look to Jesus not just to accept and forgive me, but to fully understand my failures and to re-direct me onto the path that He hopes I will follow. Every day, when I talk to Christ in prayer, I ask for His grace because I know I don’t deserve it and I never want to take such a blessing for granted. It would be so easy just to let go of the past and convince myself that I’m not as bad as other people, but it bothers me because I recognize how much Jesus has sacrificed in order to forgive me.

 When Jesus forgave the woman in the story that is described in Luke 7:36-50, I see how much of an effort it took the woman to humble herself before Jesus and be humiliated by others around Him. She recognized that Christ was the only one who could cleanse her of the past, accept her in the present, and allow her a better future. He was the key that would unlock her from the past mistakes that imprisoned her mentally and spiritually; He was the one last opportunity that she had of being healed from her sins and restored to God’s favor; so she gave Him her painful tears and treasured perfume in the hope of receiving mercy and grace.

 I love how Jesus compassionately responds: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” He grants her the forgiveness she needs, but He also adds peace – the great shalom – to her mind, heart, body, and soul. No matter what she had done in the past, from that sacred moment she was fully restored as a child of God’s grace which is what we all want when we seek God’s mercy through Jesus.

 No matter who you are or what you’ve done, please know this: Christ forgives because He cares. Your faith can save you and you can know peace this day: just ask Jesus.

 Prayer: Lord Jesus, You know everything about us and how we are deeply affected by guilt and sorely troubled with regret. Allow us Your forgiveness and reset us on a path to peace. In Your Holy Name, we humbly ask and pray. Amen.

 John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Check out the church at its website: www.erinpres.org.

 Today’s image is one of John’s latest lectionary drawings called “Water into Wine.” If you would like to view a larger version, please click on this link: Waterwine.

Short Devotion: Definition - 1 John 4:10-11

 

1 John 4:10-11 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (ESV)

 This is one of those verses in the Bible where you have to look up the definition of a certain word. In this case, ‘propitiation’ is the word that needs to be defined and, if you do a Google search, this is what you discover:

 ‘Propitiation is the act of appeasing or making well-disposed a deity, thus incurring divine favor or avoiding divine retribution.’

 In recent years, I’ve heard and read a lot of people and pastors who reject the theory of atonement (which is another word for ‘propitiation’). Their idea is that it would be too mean for God to actually sacrifice His Son in order to acquit us of our sins. Jesus, then, came to show us Divine love and that we should peaceably get along with another. They also say that atonement is a theology that was only developed a couple of hundred years ago, and was never a part of the original Christian message. But that is so untrue – fake news or alternative facts, if you like. Re-read the verse again – what does it tell us?

 It tells us propitiation is real and that because it was written by the Apostle John, it was and has been ever since a crucial part of the Christian message since it was first proclaimed. I would rather believe the Apostle John, who knew Jesus personally, than any modern or post-modern commentators. I may not like the aspect that God willingly sacrificed His Son for my sins, but I am very thankful for it. I can only trust that if God felt it was necessary to do this, then it must have been the right thing. It makes me love God and people even more which I think is what John was expressing in this sentence.

 So, folks, please know this: no matter what you’ve done or how many regrets over past mistakes you carry in your heart and are constantly on your mind, God totally forgives you because Jesus has perfectly paid the price and taken away the eternal consequences.

 Prayer: Lord God, we are merely human and think in limited ways. The mystery of Your love astounds us and the mercy that Jesus obtained amazes us. We know we are not worthy of such sacrificial love, but we are thankful and will be for all of eternity. In Christ’s Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

 John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.

www.erinpres.org

Heart of a Teacher - 1 Peter 3:18

1 Peter 3:18    For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (NIV)

            At the heart of our faith is a cross on which Jesus was crucified. If we take away the cross, much of our faith does not make sense. Christ taught many things about how to be good, how to love one another, and how to share our lives with other people. The only thing that He couldn’t teach us was how to become sinless. No matter how hard we try to be good, we can never avoid making a mistake; this is what makes the cross absolutely necessary.

            Every week, we come before God in His sanctuary to confess our sins; every day, we ask for God’s forgiveness. This means that we regularly admit we have made mistakes and have allowed sin to contaminate our bodies, hearts, minds, and souls. We cannot become sinless, no matter how saintly, holy, or perfect our deeds might be. Jesus couldn’t teach us to become sinless, but He could enable us to become eternally forgiven. This is why the cross, Christ’s Cross, is at the heart of our faith. Our sins are placed upon Christ as He is pinned to the cross; our imperfection is laid upon Him, as He agonizingly suffers. Jesus becomes the ugliest part of all Creation as sin merges with Him on the cross.

            When Christ finally dies, the power of sin dies with Him. It can no longer separate us from God; it can no longer pull us away from His love. As Peter correctly wrote so long ago, ‘For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.’ Amen!

Questions for personal reflection

How many mistakes have I made this week? How many can Christ forgive with His Cross?

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, we do not fully understand how You defeated sin on the Cross, but we are totally grateful that You accomplished it for us. Thank You for dying for our mistakes, so that we may be allowed to come to God and be with Him forever. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to ask questions or make comments about this message, please send him an email to Traqair@aol.com.

Today’s image is one of John’s Holy Week drawings called “Outside a City Wall.” If you would like to view a larger version, please click this link: Outside.