Tuesday after Ad te levavi, The First Sunday in Advent
Posted on December 5, 2023 by under
Scripture: Colossians 1:12-23 (NKJV)
1:12 …giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Devotion
“The season of Advent is the beginning of the Church Year. And at the beginning of the Church Year we are reminded of the beginning of Creation, but not in Adam. Instead, the Apostle Paul teaches us about the beginning of the New Creation founded upon the work of Christ, the Second Adam. While Adam’s sin condemned this world to condemnation, the work of Jesus—the babe of Bethlehem and the eternal Son of God—reconciles all things back to God.
The light of the Nativity is the light of redemption, rebirth, and renewal. While He was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the virgin Mary, the Lord Jesus also pre-existed all things, created all things, and reconciled all things. The Church is His New Creation—His Kingdom, His Body, and His Temple. All the faithful who believe in the Son of God, who hold fast the Gospel of the Christ-child, are members of this kingdom.
What a glorious hope we have in Christ! What a joyful Adventide we enjoy, looking forward to the consummation of this kingdom when Christ comes again, not meek and humble in a manger, but on the throne of His glory with all His holy angels!
Collect: Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins, and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father 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.
