Tuesday after Cantate
Posted on May 17, 2022 by under
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (NKJV)
5:14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Devotion
The New Creation is built upon the foundation of Christ’s vicarious atonement for the sins of the world. In His great Passion, He died the death of us all. In the Resurrection, He brought us newness of life. For the sake of His suffering, death, and resurrection, the Lord forgives the sins of all those who are penitent. When God forgives sin, they are forgotten–He places them behind His back (Is. 38:17), He casts them into the depths of the sea (Mic. 7:19), and He removes them from us as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). In short, everything is as pristine as it was in the beginning, all because Christ, the Second Adam, has atoned for the sin which the first Adam brought into the world. In Christ, therefore, we are new creatures. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
We should not squander this amazing gift by living according to the flesh, but live by His Spirit according to His holy commandments. In order to grow this new creation, that it might spread throughout this fallen world, the Lord instituted the holy Ministry to preach the Word of Reconciliation. An extension of Christ’s own Ministry and the Ministry of the Apostles, pastors today preach repentance for the remission of sins, in Christ’s stead imploring sinners to be reconciled to God.
Prayer: O God, Who makest the minds of the faithful to be of one will: Grant unto Thy people that they may love what Thou commandest, and desire what Thou dost promise; that, among the manifold changes of this world, our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are to be found; 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.
