Day 23, Lent 2024: A clean kill
Eyewitnesses wrote and spoke about the death of Jesus. There was no doubt in their minds: they had seen his cruel killing by the Roman soldiers. They knew death - and that was it.
You could have asked anyone in the early church and they would have said the same thing. Jesus died, was buried, and shocked everyone when he rose from the dead in the power of the Holy Spirit.
"That same power is at work in you," Paul says.
He died for you. For me. For us. His death was purposeful and accomplished what God set out to do. "The punishment that brought us peace was on him (Isaiah 53:5)."
He died for each one of us: murderers, liars, slanderers, thieves, adulterers, gossips, gluttons, blasphemers, haters, the disobedient and indifferent.
"Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit ..." 1 Peter 3:18
Challenge: How aware are you of the cost of your forgiveness? In what ways can you express your gratitude and worship to God for doing what you could never have done for yourself?
