2020 Daily Devotion - Day 142

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Last year in my Good Friday sermon, I read these words:

“Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is the proclamation of the end of religion, not of a new religion, or even of the best of all religions. If the cross is the sign of anything, it’s the sign that God has gone out of the religion business and solved all of the world’s problems without requiring a single human being to do a single religious thing. What the cross is actually a sign of is the fact that religion can’t do a thing about the world’s problems—that it never did work and it never will.”
- Robert F. Capon’s “The Mystery of Christ-and Why We Don’t Get It”

Religion tries to teach us we can earn our way, but we can’t. So, God became a man in Jesus, died on a cross and was raised from the dead that we might be forgiven and have new life. This is what the Apostle Paul was telling the church in these words:

Colossians 2:14 ESV
By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
 
Pray with me:
Heavenly Father, we thank You for through the cross, we can have forgiveness and new life. Help us live our lives to reflect the gratitude we feel. Remind us this good news means You are still in the business of redeeming Your lost creation. You have not “thrown in the towel,” but have provided the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church
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