The Thursday after the Second Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 3, 2025 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 42:5-8 (NKJV)
42:5 Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:
6 “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles,
7 “to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
8 “I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.”
Devotion
“I will… give You as a covenant to the people.” This promise is about the Lord Jesus Christ. You have heard the saying, “The proof is in the pudding,” meaning you do not know how the dish is until you eat it. The proof of God’s goodness, His love, and His desire to be reconciled with all men is in the Lord Jesus Christ. God is spirit and cannot be touched. But, when the Son of God became man, he gave us the opportunity to experience Him in flesh and blood. Men heard Him with their ears; they saw Him in the flesh; after His resurrection, the disciples touched His wounds (John 20:20, 27). All this was to prove to us sinners that God loves us and desires our salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The same shows that Christ is truly present in the Lord’s Supper, for when Jesus took the Cup He said, “This Cup is the new covenant in My blood” (1 Cor. 11:25). Isaiah says that the Christ Himself is the covenant. Likewise, if the Cup is “the new covenant in My blood,” then His blood is truly present in the wine of the Cup. For Christians the Lord’s Supper is the “proof ” of Christ’s love, which is truly received by the mouth. Hence, article 13 of the Augsburg Confession: “the sacraments… [are] signs and evidences of the Divine will towards us.”
Collect: O Lord, Who never failest to help and govern those whom Thou dost bring up in Thy steadfast fear and love: Make us to have a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
