Tag: salvation

1 Timothy 1:12-20 – Grace for the Biggest Sinner

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
“This saying is reliable and deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I’m the biggest sinner of all.” (CEB)
 
            Toward the end of his life, the Apostle Paul reflected upon the grace given to him by God.  In writing to Timothy, his protégé, he distilled his reflections into one short succinct phrase: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 
 
            Before Christ got a hold of his life, Paul actively opposed Christians as much as he could.  He had the persecution of Christ’s followers down to a science.  But God had mercy on Paul and delivered him from his misguided and tortuous ways.
            Paul was forever grateful for the grace of God.  He knew he didn’t deserve anything from God.  Paul knew firsthand the words of the Lord Jesus: “I didn’t come to call righteous people, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)
 
            Once your heart has been captivated by God’s mercy, you are never the same.  Your life has a new and wondrous perspective.  Your soul is filled with love.  Your mind is changed and charged with the realization that God is not only good but has given you a status as his beloved – a privilege and a position which you neither earned nor deserve.  Gratitude erupts from your lips: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, to save me, the chief of sinners!”
 
            You don’t need a past like Paul’s to know God’s grace.  Whether you are now a follower of Jesus after having lived a life far from God; or, you can’t remember a time when you didn’t know God; or, you grew-up in faith, walked away from it all, then were captured by grace and came back to Christ; from whatever backgrounds we all come from, it is the saving grace, the delivering mercy, the infinite love, the abiding compassion, and the undeserved kindness of Jesus Christ which makes your world spin the opposite direction on its axis.
            Take time throughout the day to utter that simple phrase over and over: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  What does this mean for the world as it is right now? What does it mean for you?

 

Loving Lord Jesus, there are not words to express my gratitude for your salvation given to me.  I was once lost, but now am found by the endless mercy of God.  May sinners be saved, as was your servant Paul, so that the world will be undone and changed forever by grace.  Amen.

Romans 7:14-25

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            “I don’t understand why I act the way I do.  I don’t do what I know is right.  I do the things I hate.”  Paul’s existential angst is a timeless description of our common human condition.  We all can relate to the seeming inability to do what is right in so many situations.  It can really drive us nuts, even to a constant low-level discouragement that underlies almost everything we do.
 
            Paul’s prescription for dealing with this does not rely on law.  That’s right.  Paul understood that putting our willpower and effort into obeying commands gets us nowhere because we will eventually fail.  The law just shows us how bad off we really are in this world.  We are a bundle of contradictions, doing good, then bad, and flip-flopping back and forth with great frustration.
 
            “What a miserable person I am.  Who will rescue me from this body of that is doomed to die?  Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me.”  Sheer willpower and obedience will not work because what we really need is a Savior who will deliver us from ourselves.  Grace, then, is the operative power that changes lives, and not law.  Freedom from the tyranny of our misplaced desires comes from Christ’s forgiveness through the cross.  Like a lover enamored with his beloved, our desires become oriented toward Jesus for his indescribable gift to us.  That is the strength of grace.
 

 

            Saving God, I thank you for delivering me from sin, death, and hell through your Son, the Lord Jesus.  May your Holy Spirit apply the work of grace to my life every day so that I can realize practical freedom from all that is damaging and destructive in my soul.  Amen.

Hebrews 2:1-9

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            Here we are at the end of another Lenten season with Spring upon us and Holy Week’s near arrival.  For many people this is simply old hat.  The redemptive events of Jesus are so familiar to some of us that it runs the risk of being, well, boring.  After all, we know this stuff already – why keep doing this continual Church Calendar thing? 
 
            While some might cry out that lectionaries, the Christian Year, Holy Week, and liturgies are just vain repetition, I would argue otherwise:  we are in grave danger of not paying attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.  Like a beach-goer out on the lake drifting on her flotation device far out from shore, we are unaware of how far we have strayed from our spiritual moorings.  If the passion and death of Jesus can only get a shoulder shrug and a “meh” out of us, there is a real problem.  We have ignored Lent’s emphasis on repentance and want the destination without the time it takes to get there.
 
            “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” protests the author of Hebrews.  The events and services of Holy Week are designed to help us pay attention, to remember, to give thoughtful reflection and due diligence to the incredible work of salvation that Jesus has pioneered and achieved for us through the cross.  The sin which we must turn from is not the overt commission of having done something really bad, but the negligent omission of not doing anything, of treating Holy Week just like any other old week.  Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.
 

 

            Gracious Lord Jesus, you went to the greatest lengths possible to redeem us from sin’s terrible bondage.  As I contemplate your passion in this next week, lead me to fresh appreciation and a depth of gratitude that goes beyond comprehension.  Amen.

John 11:45-57

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            We are moving inexorably toward the cross and Good Friday.  The season of Lent marches on and within a few weeks we will be considering if we were there when they crucified my Lord.  Today’s Gospel lesson chronicles the forward progress to the ultimate suffering and death of Jesus.  Within the Apostle John’s account, two streams run parallel with one another.  There is a group of Jews who observed Jesus, listened to his teaching, saw his miraculous works, and believed in him.  Alongside them is another group of Jews who experienced all the same events and heard all of the same words of Jesus.  Yet, they respond in a very different manner by plotting how Jesus might be arrested and killed.
 
            Caiaphas, the high priest, spoke to his fellow Jewish leaders perhaps without even knowing the truth and deep import of his prophetic words:  “You know nothing at all.  Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”  Indeed, not only did Jesus die for the nation of Israel, but on behalf of all nations, and all people. 
 
            Now is the time to begin in earnest a consideration of the cross of Christ.  The implications of his death are magnanimous.  The extent of his atonement for the people includes redemption from the slavery of sin; reconciliation between us and God; satisfaction of God’s wrath against the sin of the world; and, victory over Satan, death, and hell.  March Madness for the Christian is setting aside some significant time for prayer, confession of sin, repentance, contemplation, spiritual conversation with other believers, and fasting as we anticipate the holiest week of the year.
 

 

            Precious Jesus, you endured the machinations of people and the plots of others so that you might face the cross in all of its foulness and degradation.  Enable me to walk with you along the road of suffering.  In doing so, may I know you better and better and know the life that is truly life.  Amen.