Tuesday April 14, 2020

Your Daily Dose of Inspiration:

We were, all of us, lost in our sins and had, by sin, made ourselves enemies of God. Yet, despite that, He loved us and sent His Son to die for us. Himself becoming the perfect sacrifice to remove the condemnation which hung over us. It is not that we were condemned by God, but rather that we were condemned by our own sinful nature. It was God’s mercy which, though we were condemned, withheld His just wrath, and His grace which, though we did not deserve it, bestowed His divine favor.

John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (18) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Condemnation was our default position, but Christ came to bring us out of that position and set us in heavenly places with Himself.

Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, (5) even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (6) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7) so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

The cross stands as the tombstone of our condemnation. It is the mark of our guilt being taken away. Yet, without the open tomb, it is an incomplete work. For though on the cross were our sins crucified, it was the resurrection which brought us life. In the cross there is death, but from the tomb comes life everlasting. That completed work was accomplished, not for His own sake, but for ours. Christ did not come to the Earth for His own benefit, He did not die for Himself, and likewise He did not rise again for His own interests. All of this was done for you and me, that the divide between the Lord and ourselves might be dissolved and we could enter back into that holy union with the Father. As His tomb stands open as a monument of new life, our old lives stand as open tombs reminding us that we are no longer bound within the sepulcher of our sin. He has removed the stone, dressed us in His own garments, and has called us up into His life.

-Jared Freeman, “Open Tombs”