Thursday after the Second Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on June 22, 2023 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
The same God who created you is the God who saves you. God wants to be your Savior because He is your Creator. He loves you because you are His handiwork. To create and to save go together.
When Jesus forgave the sins of a certain paralytic, the Pharisees accused Him of blasphemy: “Who,” they reasoned, “can forgive sins but God alone?” But Jesus countered, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’?” (Mark 2:5-12). It was a ‘trick question’. It is the same as asking, “Which is easier: to create or to save?” Both to heal and to forgive are acts of the true God. Likewise, Isaiah confesses that God is both Creator and Savior.
Through Baptism, God creates a new heart within the sinner, which is able to trust in the Christ. Before this, the sinner was not capable of faith, therefore God, by a divine act of creation, gives the sinner a new heart which can believe. This is why St. Paul writes, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). Creation and salvation go together; they are both divine works of God alone, so that all glory belongs to the Triune God, and to no other.
Prayer: 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.
